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BloordaleGardens Lock & Key Co.Open 24/7 (289) 804-4797
Two people holding lock components at an open glazed door, with a tool bag beside the entrance. — Business Lockout Service, Princess Margaret

Lockouts · Princess Margaret

Business Lockout Service

The manager who holds the only set of office keys is on a plane. The team is gathered in the corridor outside the suite, the landlord's office does not open for another hour, and the client meeting is at nine-thirty.

In plain words

The end of a business lockout is a paper trail as well as an open door. You receive a plain written account of which door was opened, how, what condition the hardware was in, what was replaced, how many keys were cut and who took them. Landlords, insurers, franchisors and head offices routinely ask for exactly this, and it saves an awkward conversation later. Where a door sits on an exit route, the record also notes that it still releases from inside with a single motion and without a key, so everyone can leave the building without hunting for anything.

Sound familiar?Princess Margaret

The call
Minus eighteen with a wind, and the exterior cylinder on the shop door has frozen solid overnight after yesterday's slush. The key goes in halfway and stops. The delivery driver is due, the phone is ringing inside, and nobody can reach it.

NextHow the visit goes

Business Lockout Service · Princess Margaret

How the visit goes

Technician holding a steel deadbolt to the round bore in a white door, with an open tool bag on a dark mat. — Princess Margaret
  1. Scene 1

    Which door and what is fitted to it

    Commercial hardware is identified before it is touched. On a glass storefront door the locksmith looks at the narrow stile for a mortise cylinder, a paddle or thumb-turn inside, and the shape of the bolt in the edge: a hookbolt, a swing bolt or a spring latch with a deadlocking plunger. On a wood or steel door the tell is a lever with a small cylinder in its face, a full mortise lock with a separate deadbolt, or the outside trim of an exit device. A figure-eight core face means an interchangeable core system. Each of these points to a different opening method and a different set of spares from the van.

  2. Scene 2

    Extracting a snapped key and finding out why

    A key that broke off in a commercial cylinder is drawn out with extractor tools that grip the blade and pull it toward the face, never pushing it deeper. With the fragment out, the cylinder is picked or decoded and the door opened. The two halves of the key are then compared with a fresh blank, because a key rarely breaks in a healthy lock: a bent or thin copy, a cylinder full of grit, or a stiff cam behind it is usually the cause. The cylinder is cleaned and lubricated with a dry product, the cam checked for wear, and a new key cut from the code or from the pieces rather than from another tired copy.

  3. Scene 3

    Exit doors that still let everyone out

    Whatever was replaced, a door on the way out of the building still opens from inside with a single motion and no key while people are in it. That standard is why a storefront gets a thumb-turn or paddle inside, a rear door keeps its push bar, and a double-cylinder deadbolt does not go on an exit route. The locksmith checks each door for this before leaving and points out any older hardware, such as a chain or a keyed-inside bolt on a back door, that the business may want to bring into line.

In the van

  • Cylinder decoder and plug spinner
  • Replacement mortise and rim cylinders
  • Control keys and core-removal tools
  • Broken key extractors
  • Exit device trim cylinders and dogging keys

What shapes the quoteBloordale Gardens Lock & Key Co.

Standard or high-security cylinder
Restricted keyways, security pins and patented cylinders take longer to open and cost more to replace, and their keys are cut from system records rather than copied at a counter.
Master key system changes
Where the door belongs to a building-wide master key system, changing it means planning with the property manager and pinning cylinders so both your key and the building key still work, which is more careful work than a single rekey.
Upgrades you choose while the locksmith is there
Some businesses use the visit to move to a heavier storefront deadlock, a restricted keyway, interchangeable cores, a lockbox for keyholders or a reinforced strike. None of it is needed to get you open; each is priced as its own option.

FeesSame any hour

Have it ready

Before you call · 0 / 3

(289) 804-4797

Questions people ask us

What is a restricted keyway and is it worth having for a business?

A restricted or patented keyway is one whose blanks are supplied only through the manufacturer's authorised channels, so duplication is controlled rather than available at an ordinary counter, though the exact authorisation step varies by program and is not always a signed letter. For a company with staff turnover, cleaners and contractors, it means the keys in circulation are far easier to track. It can be introduced during a rekey, on the exterior doors only or across the whole premises, and works alongside a key register.

Can we put a keyed deadbolt on both sides of the back door for extra security?

On a door people leave through while the building is occupied, the door needs to open from inside with one motion and no key, so a key-both-sides bolt is not the right tool there. Security is added instead with a heavy-duty exit device and a reinforced strike, a keyed trim outside, an alarm contact, or a door position sensor on the access system, all of which keep the way out clear.

An employee left and never returned their keys. Should we rekey?

It is the sensible step, and a lockout visit is a convenient moment for it. Rekeying keeps your existing cylinders and changes the pins so a new key operates them and the unreturned one does nothing. If your doors use interchangeable cores, swapping the core takes minutes. Bring every door that shared the old key onto the new one, count the fresh keys into named hands and start a register so the next departure is a line in a book rather than a call.

Princess Margaretinformation

TorontoOntario

Town
Princess Margaret, Toronto
In business
13 years
Hours
Open 24/7
Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
Visits
On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.

2021 census: what it means at the door

Every square is one home in a hundred.

  • 58 in 100 homes · older homes
  • About 58% of homes in Toronto were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Established homes often have non-standard bores and backsets from an earlier generation of hardware. A locksmith working in such an area carries adapter plates and cylinders in the older sizes, so an upgrade fits the existing door instead of forcing a new one.
  • Single-detached houses make up about 23% of homes in Toronto (2021 Census).Where most people live in townhouses, apartments or condos, doors come in two kinds: the suite door you control and the shared entrances the building manages. A locksmith works on your door freely and coordinates with management on the rest.

Source: Statistics Canada, Census Profile

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On-site assessment

Request a visit.

The manager who holds the only set of office keys is on a plane.

(289) 804-4797, open 24/7.