Commercial Locksmith
Business door hardware, where the real problem is usually the key plan rather than any individual lock.
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Commercial work differs from residential in one structural way: more than one person holds a key, and they should not all open the same doors. Once that is true, the interesting object stops being the lock and becomes the key system — who opens what, what happens when someone leaves, and how a change is made without recalling every key in the building.
The second difference is that commercial doors are used hundreds of times a day and are subject to egress requirements. Hardware that is merely adequate at home fails quickly on a storefront, and a door on an exit route has rules about how it must open from the inside.
What a commercial survey covers
- The key plan — which doors each holder needs, and whether a master, sub-master or restricted system fits the way the business actually runs.
- Egress — whether every door on an exit route opens from the inside in a single motion, without a key, thumbturn hunting, or a secondary latch.
- Closers and hinges — a door that slams, sticks or fails to latch will destroy good hardware and defeat a good lock.
- Grade of hardware — light residential cylinders and latches fail fast on a door used all day.
- Key control — whether keys can be casually copied at a kiosk, and whether that matters for this business.
Useful to have ready
- A rough count of doors, and which are exterior, interior, and on exit routes.
- How many people hold keys, and how many distinct access levels you actually need.
- Whether keys have gone missing or a departing employee never returned one.
- Whether the building is leased, since the landlord may control exterior hardware.
- Any door that already fails to latch, drags, or has been propped for convenience.
If this is an apartment building or a managed rental portfolio rather than a business premises, the turnover pattern is different enough to be its own job. see property management rekeying.
Common questions
What is the difference between a master key and a restricted key system?
Master keying is about hierarchy — one key opens many doors, others open fewer. Restricted keying is about control — the key blanks are not sold openly, so copies cannot be cut at a hardware counter. They solve different problems and are often used together.
An employee left without returning a key. What now?
Rekey the cylinders that key opened. In a master system that may be a handful of doors rather than the whole building, which is one of the practical arguments for planning the system properly before you need it.
Do I need access control or better locks?
Access control earns its cost when people join and leave often, when you need to know who opened what, or when access should change by time of day. If your holders are stable and few, a well-planned mechanical system is simpler, cheaper and has no batteries or network to fail.
Can you work on our exit doors?
Yes, and the constraint is that exit doors must open from the inside without a key or special knowledge. Any hardware fitted has to preserve that, which rules out some of the retrofit devices sold for securing a storefront.
Related locksmith services
Describe the lock or key problem
A short description of what happened gets the right tools on the vehicle.
Call (408) 418-0044