I’m currently in a rental apartment that I moved into a few weeks ago. I got the only copy of the key from the landlord. I lost it and had Pop-A-Lock come over and open it for me.
Because I recently was locked out of the apartment and getting back in was a hassle for both me and my new landlord who lives a bit far, I don’t want to have to tell him this happened (already). So I’m pretty clueless on what I can do, as I am clueless as to the terminology. I thought having another key made was “re-keying”, but that’s not right. Basically, can I just take the door’s lock (it was pretty easy to take apart) to Home Depot and have a key made for it, or is it a more complicated process that requires a locksmith?
if the lock has removable pins then a locksmith can create a key based on the current lock. I doubt a box store employs someone with this skillset. It would probably be cheaper to buy a new lock and make a duplicate key for the landlord.
Tell the landlord the lock was falling apart and you wanted to spring for a new one.
Sorry, forgot to say that the door knob itself also uses the same key, so I would have to replace that too. Also, the locks match those throughout the rest of the building.
And the fun starts if the locksmith guesses wrong. You’ll get a working key regardless, but you might find yourself with a master key that fits other locks at your complex.
Ask the landlord if he has other keys… Are you really sure it is the only key? As soon as you have that, go to Home Depot, Wal-Mart, some place that will make keys for you and make extra copies. As long as you return them all when you leave the rent unit, the landlord won’t care (and may be grateful for extras).
You need to tell the landlord. He has to be an idiot if he doesn’t have a key he can make a copy from. Telling the tenants he has no copy would help avoid being called in the night. You don’t change the locks on a rental without the landlords OK.
Depends on the Home Depot. I have had a couple of locks rekeyed at my local HD. In fact, the young lady that did it last time attended a locksmith school, she took the job at HD because it paid more than she could make working in a locksmith shop.
In order to pull apart your typical lock to rekey it you need a working key for that lock(ie the original key) if your skilled or have the right tools you can ‘pick’ the lock during the dis assembly process.
That said your looking at 30-50 bucks to get a new lock set vs 100+ to have a locksmith rekey the lock for you.
You could also put your tail between your legs and call the landlord. Which is what I’d recommend.
I reread the op. You aren’t looking for a rekey. You want a new key made. No Home Depot can’t do that even if they had an expert. Taking apart the lock will get a professional the key sequence. With that they can use a grinder to cut the new key. Home Depots grinders are only good for duplicates due to their automatic functioning.
Call a locksmith. Tell them what brand the lock is and that you can bring the lockset to them. Ask what the cost would be. You may be pleasantly surprised.
I would not make a change that required a different key without at least notifying the landlord, much better securing his permission.
I imagine that it wouldn’t be total guesswork if the lock is master keyed.
Typically, a master key setup consists of having multiple pins in each hole, so that there is more than one valid “shear line” for each pin. In other words, for a given pin, there are two (or more) cut depths that can work.
It is standard practice to use the shallowest cuts for the master key and the deeper cuts for the change key. This makes it so that a humble change key owner cannot file his or her key down to make it into a master key.
That’s why master keys usually have very shallow cuts, often bearing a striking resemblance to an uncut key blank.
It’s too late now, but there are mobile locksmiths who will open the door and make a new key on the spot. This is what I did when I locked myself out of a rental townhouse. Cost me about $80 for the whole service which was mostly the price just to get anyone out there at that time of night. (This was 12 years ago; not sure of the going rates now).
In a proper key system the bottom row is not for the change key and the top row for the master. In a proper master key system every key is based off the master and can be cut at each location higher or lower. The utiliity at my building uses the method that you describe and he ends up in trouble when a tennant wants to master key the suite. With his method the suitte has two master keys rather than a building master and a suite submaster. Then he cmoes to me wanting me to fix the problems with keys jamming.
