Technician holding a steel deadbolt to the round bore in a white door, with an open tool bag on a dark mat. — Thorncrest Village

High security · Thorncrest Village

High Security Locks

Open 24/7

The pharmacy stockroom, the server closet or the cash office is protected by the same ordinary cylinder as the staff washroom. One lost key on a lanyard would open all of them.

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In plain words

High security locks are cylinders and deadbolts designed to defeat the methods used against ordinary doors. Inside the cylinder a second locking mechanism, usually a sidebar released by finger pins or rotating pins, has to be satisfied at the same time as the normal pin stack, which is what stops picking and bumping. Hardened steel inserts stop drill bits. The bolt is thicker and carries a hardened pin against sawing, and a reinforced strike ties the lock into the wall framing. Just as important, the key is cut on a patented blank that only an authorised person can have copied, so your key count stays known.

Sound familiar?Thorncrest Village

The call: A colleague showed you a video of a lock being opened with a bump key in a few seconds. Then you went home and noticed your own deadbolt is the same style, bought at a hardware store a decade ago.

NextHow the visit goes

High Security Locks · Thorncrest Village

How the visit goes

Hands using a yellow-handled screwdriver at a steel deadbolt plate on a dark door, with a steel knob below. — Thorncrest Village

Scene 1
Door, hinges and what surrounds them
The door itself is inspected as part of the lock. Hollow-core doors, thin panels beside the lock, and hinge screws that barely bite into the frame all undo the value of a strong cylinder. The locksmith checks how the door hangs, whether it drags or needs a shoulder to close, and whether the hinges are on the secure side. Glass close to the lock is noted, because a hand through a broken sidelight can reach an inside thumb-turn. None of this rules out an upgrade; it shows which supporting pieces belong in the plan so the whole opening is brought up together.
Scene 2
Reinforcing the strike and frame
The strike is where a forced door actually fails, so it gets serious attention. The stamped plate comes off and the pocket is deepened to accept a box strike or a long reinforced strike, fastened with three-inch screws that pass through the jamb into the wall framing. Stripped or split wood is filled and doweled first so the screws have something to hold. Where the frame is thin, a wrap-around reinforcer around the door edge and a full-length jamb plate are options. The result is a bolt that ties the door into the house rather than into a strip of trim.
Scene 3
Looking after a precision cylinder
High-security cylinders are finer mechanisms than the pin tumblers they replace, and a little care keeps them turning sweetly. Use only the dry lubricant the locksmith recommends, once or twice a year and sparingly, and never household oil, which gathers grit around the finger pins and sidebar. In cold weather, if the key resists, warm it in your hand or use a de-icer rather than forcing it. Insert the key fully before turning. Keep a spare key indoors so a bent or worn key is retired rather than pushed on. Treated this way, the cylinder outlasts the door around it.

In the van

Code key cutting machine
Box strike
Commercial mortise lock body
Wrap-around door reinforcer
Patented key blanks

What shapes the quoteBloordale Gardens Lock & Key Co.

Cylinder rating and format: A patented residential cylinder, a laboratory-rated commercial cylinder and an interchangeable core sit at different points on the scale, and the format that fits your present hardware decides which lines are available.
Number of doors: Each door gets its own cylinder or lock, strike work and testing. Several doors on one keyway share the setup cost of the key system but add hardware and time per opening.
Hinge and door edge work: Long hinge screws, a hinge-side security stud or repair to a chewed door edge are small items that add up on a door that has been forced before.

FeesSame any hour

Have it ready

Before you call · 0 / 3

Is the door wood, steel-clad, fibreglass or aluminium with glass?
Does the door drag, stick in cold weather or need lifting to lock?
For a business, who should be allowed to authorise new keys?

(289) 804-4797

Questions people ask us

How long does the installation take?

A cylinder swap with new keys on one door is a short visit. A new deadbolt, reinforced strike and frame repair takes longer, and several doors keyed to a plan take longer again, mostly in bench time pinning cylinders. The locksmith gives you a realistic estimate once the doors have been looked at, because the frame condition and the door preparation matter more than the count of locks alone.

Do I need to replace my whole deadbolt or just the cylinder?

It depends on what you have. If the deadbolt is a good heavy unit that throws a full inch into a proper strike, a high security cylinder can replace the ordinary one and the rest stays. If the deadbolt is light, worn or throws a short bolt, a new graded deadbolt with a hardened bolt is the sensible base and the high security cylinder goes into that. The assessment tells you which, door by door.

What proof do I need to show before locks are changed?

The locksmith confirms that the person ordering the work is entitled to change the locks: the owner, a tenant with the landlord's agreement, or a property or facilities manager for a business. Photo identification and something linking you to the address usually settle it, and for a company a letter or a call to the named contact does the same. It protects you as much as anyone, since the same check stops someone else from changing your locks.