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Two people exchanging a key at an open front door, with a disassembled lock cylinder and small parts arranged on a cloth nearby. — Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey, Mississauga

Emergency Lockouts · Mississauga

Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey

Your purse was taken from the back of a chair at a restaurant. The cards can be cancelled by phone tonight, but the house keys were in the side pocket beside a driver's licence that shows exactly where those keys fit.

Call now · open 24/7(289) 805-2659

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In plain words

When a key disappears, cutting yourself another copy solves the wrong half of the problem. You can get in again, but so can whoever finds the original. A same-visit rekey turns that around: the locksmith works through each cylinder the missing key operated, fitting new bottom pins on a conventional lock or resetting a homeowner-rekeyable one through its own procedure, and refits the lock to the door. The lost key still slides into the keyway but no longer lifts the pins to the right height, so it turns nothing. You leave with fresh keys cut on site and the same locks you already had.

Sound familiar?

You were shovelling the driveway after dark and the ring must have slid out of your coat pocket somewhere under a metre of snow. You have raked the whole bank with a flashlight. It will turn up in April, and you would rather not wait.

How the visit goes

Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey · Mississauga

How the visit goes

Person in a cap and glasses holding an old mortise lock plate against a bare slot in a wooden door edge.
  1. 1

    Which cylinders the key actually opened

    The locksmith walks the property with you and tries to think like the key. Front door deadbolt and handle, the back door, a side door, the door between the garage and the house, the shed, a gate padlock, a basement walkout, the door to a storage room or workshop. Each cylinder the missing key fitted goes on a list. Anything it fitted that is not yours to change goes on a second list: a shared lobby door, a parking gate, a community mailbox compartment, a workplace. The first list becomes the scope of the visit; the second becomes a set of calls you can make with the locksmith's help while the work goes on.

  2. 2

    Resetting a homeowner-rekeyable cylinder without its key

    Some newer residential locks carry a small slot beside the keyway that lets a homeowner change the key with a learn tool, but only while a working key is in hand. When that key is the one that was lost, the locksmith uses the manufacturer's reset tool instead: the cylinder is pulled from the lock, seated in the reset fixture, and its internal sidebar and wafers are returned to a blank state. A new key of the right blank is then inserted, the learn tool sets the cylinder to it, and the lock goes back on the door taking the new key and rejecting the old one.

  3. 3

    Spares that live outside the house

    A rekey is the natural moment to decide where the spare goes, because the one under the planter is the reason many of these calls happen. A key with a trusted neighbour or nearby relative is the simplest answer. A small combination lockbox fixed in a discreet spot, with the code shared only with the people on your list, is a step up and can be fitted before the locksmith leaves. For families with a keypad lock, a personal code for each member does the same job without a key at all. Whichever you pick, the spare is now a planned thing with a known home rather than a habit.

In the van

  • Top pins and cylinder springs
  • Rekeyable-cylinder reset tool
  • Code key machine
  • Replacement cylinders
  • Key gauge and decoder

What affects the quote

  1. 1

    Paperwork for a landlord or building

    Where a landlord, condominium or lease requires a written record of the lock change and key count, preparing that note and any key register update is a small named item.

  2. 2

    Master-keyed building cylinders

    A condominium or apartment suite cylinder on a building master system is pinned so the master still works, which takes coordination with management and a little more time than a stand-alone house door.

  3. 3

    Travel to the property

    Every call-out includes the drive. A house across town and a rural property at the end of a concession road involve different time on the road, and the quote reflects the trip.

Same fees day, night or weekend.

Have it ready

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Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey: questions

Advice · (289) 805-2659

Can a rekey be done in winter, and will the locks freeze afterwards?

Winter is a normal time for this work. Cylinders come off the door and are pinned in the van, out of the wind, and go back on with a dry graphite or PTFE lubricant that sheds moisture rather than holding it the way oil does. A cleaned, dry-lubricated cylinder is less likely to freeze than the gritty one it replaced. Keeping a storm door closed over the main lock helps through freeze-thaw weeks.

I live in a condominium. Which locks are mine to rekey?

Your suite door is generally the one you can act on, and it may sit on a building master system, so the locksmith plans the rekey so the master still operates while the old change key stops working. Lobby doors, the parking gate, amenity rooms and the mailroom belong to the corporation; report a lost fob or key for those to the property manager, who deactivates or reissues it. The locksmith can help sort which is which.

Can I just have another key cut instead?

You can, and it solves being without a key. It leaves the lost one working, though, which is the half of the problem that keeps people awake. Rekeying takes about as much effort as a trip to a hardware store counter and ends with a new key in your hand and the old one retired. If the key was mislaid somewhere it will never be found and named nothing, a plain copy is a fair choice.

Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey near you

Peel, Ontario

Mississauga information

Town
Mississauga, Peel, Ontario
In business
31 years
Hours
Open 24/7 · nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
Visits
On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.

What the census means at the door

38%

Homes of every age. About 38% of homes in Mississauga were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.

In neighbourhoods with a mix of older and newer homes, the finishes on the doors vary widely: aged brass, satin nickel, matte black. A locksmith serving such an area keeps a range of finishes so replacement hardware suits each house.

37%

Single-detached houses make up about 37% of homes in Mississauga (2021 Census).

Where housing is mostly apartments and condos, mailbox locks are a regular call. A worn or lost mailbox key is a small job that a locksmith handles alongside the suite door, and the new lock comes with fresh keys cut on the spot.

Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population

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Your purse was taken from the back of a chair at a restaurant.

Call now · open 24/7(289) 805-2659
  • On-site assessment preferred
  • Same fees day, night or weekend
  • 31 years in business