The Questions Newmarket Homeowners Ask a Locksmith Most
Answers to the eight things people ask us on the doorstep and on the phone, written out properly instead of in the thirty seconds we usually have while the drill is running.
Quick answer
The questions Newmarket homeowners ask most are whether a lock can be opened without damage, why a key has suddenly gone stiff, whether rekeying is as secure as replacing, how many keys should exist, whether smart locks are less secure, whether a deadbolt is still needed, and what actually stops a kicked door.
Almost every job ends the same way. The door is open or the new lock is in, the paperwork is done, and the homeowner asks one more thing on the way to the van. Those questions repeat. After enough years working doors around Newmarket you can predict which one is coming from how the person is standing.
This page is those questions, answered at the length they deserve rather than the length a doorstep conversation allows. Some of the answers will save you money. At least two of them are reasons not to buy something.
If your question is not here, phone it in. We answer 866-820-1331 around the clock and nobody is charged for a question. If you are outside your house right now, skip the reading and go to house lockout service.
Can you open it without damaging it?
Nearly always, yes. On a standard residential pin tumbler deadbolt, picking or bumping the cylinder open is the first thing tried and it works the large majority of the time. The lock is untouched afterwards and the same key still runs it. Nothing is drilled, nothing is replaced, and the bill is labour only.
The exceptions are worth knowing. A cylinder that has already been forced, one that has a broken key jammed in it, or a high-security lock with anti-pick pins, spool drivers and a hardened core can resist long enough that drilling becomes the faster and cheaper option overall. Drilling is not failure, it is a decision: at some point another forty minutes of picking costs more than the $80 cylinder it saves. A technician who is honest will tell you which side of that line you are on before starting, not after.
What should never happen is damage to the door or frame. A locksmith who cannot get through the lock and starts on the jamb has turned a $150 call into a $900 door repair. If you were locked out and someone has already levered the frame, we also handle the frame and hardware repair afterwards.
Why is my key suddenly hard to turn?
Suddenly is the important word. Locks wear gradually, so a change that happened over a weekend is almost never the cylinder giving up on its own.
Test it with the door open. Stand inside, swing the door clear of the frame, and turn the key. If the bolt throws smoothly with the door open and fights when the door is closed, the lock is fine and the door has moved. The bolt is catching on the edge of its hole because the slab has swollen, the hinges have sagged, or the frame has shifted with the ground. The fix is 75 mm hinge screws and a strike adjustment, usually well under an hour.
If the key is stiff even with the door open, then it is the cylinder or the key. A key that has been copied from a copy from a copy drifts a few thousandths of an inch off the original cuts each generation, and eventually the pins no longer sit at the shear line without help. Cutting a fresh key from the original, or from the lock itself by decoding it, fixes that for the price of a key. Only when a fresh key is still stiff is the cylinder genuinely worn, and then repair or rekeying is the answer.
Is rekeying as secure as replacing the lock?
Yes, in the sense that matters. Rekeying changes the pin stacks inside the cylinder so that every key cut to the old pattern stops working. Whoever holds an old key holds a piece of brass. From a key-control point of view the outcome is identical to fitting a brand new lock.
What rekeying does not change is the physical strength of the hardware. If your deadbolt is a builder-grade Grade 3 unit with a short bolt and a thin strike, rekeying leaves you with a securely keyed weak lock. That is the honest distinction: rekeying solves who has a key, replacement solves how strong the lock is. Most people who ask this question only have the first problem.
Cost decides the rest. A rekey runs roughly a third of what new hardware costs per door, and it keeps matching finishes across the house. We wrote a longer comparison on rekeying versus replacing, and the mechanics of the job are on the rekey service page.
How many keys should exist for my house?
Fewer than you have. That is true in almost every house we visit.
A sensible number is one per adult who lives there, one spare held off-site with someone you trust, and nothing else. Not a key at the office, not one taped inside the barbecue, not the three unmarked ones in the kitchen drawer that nobody can identify. If you cannot account for every key that opens your front door by name and location, you do not control your locks.
The drawer full of mystery keys is the real problem, because it means keys have left the house at some point and nobody knows where they went. Contractors, house sitters, dog walkers, an old roommate, the previous owners and their adult children. A single rekey that brings the whole house onto one fresh key and one clean list resets all of it for a couple of hundred dollars.
If you genuinely need many keys in circulation, that is when a master key system or a restricted keyway that cannot be copied at a hardware kiosk starts earning its cost.
Is a smart lock a downgrade in security?
Not in itself. The mechanical part of a good smart deadbolt is the same bolt, cylinder and strike used in a comparable mechanical lock from the same manufacturer, and it is rated by the same ANSI grade. Nobody in Newmarket is being burgled by someone hacking a Bluetooth lock. They are being burgled through a side door with a short strike screw.
There are two real weaknesses and they are both mundane. The first is batteries. A keypad lock with flat cells is a locked door you cannot open, and in a cold January that arrives faster than the app warns you. Use lithium AAs, keep a mechanical override key somewhere other than inside the house, and check the level in October.
The second is codes. A code shared with a cleaner in 2022 and never removed is exactly as bad as a key you never got back, with the difference that deleting a code takes ten seconds. Smart locks are a security upgrade only for people who actually manage the codes. If you want one fitted properly, including checking the door prep and bolt throw first, see smart lock installation or the broader keyless entry options.
Do I need a deadbolt if I already have a good handleset?
Yes. A handleset latch and a deadbolt are not doing the same job.
A latch bolt is spring-loaded and bevelled so the door can close against the strike. That bevel is what lets a card or a thin shim push it back. Even the heaviest, most expensive handleset in the catalogue has a latch that can be slipped if the door has any play in it, and the ones with a built-in deadlocking plunger only work when the door is snug enough for the plunger to sit against the strike plate.
A deadbolt has no bevel and no spring. It cannot be pushed back, only turned back. On an exterior door you want a single-cylinder deadbolt with a minimum 25 mm bolt throw, fitted with a box strike anchored by 75 mm screws into the framing stud. Cheaper handlesets are sometimes sold as a combination unit with a decorative deadbolt that throws barely 15 mm, which is close to decoration. Details of what we fit are on the deadbolt page.
What actually stops a kicked door?
The screws. Almost always the screws.
When a residential door is kicked in, the lock rarely breaks and the door rarely breaks. What breaks is the jamb, splitting along the grain where the strike plate is fastened. Factory strike plates ship with 19 mm screws that bite only into the thin jamb trim, which is typically 12 mm of pine tacked to the rough framing. That is what gives way.
Three things fix it, in order of value for money. Replace both the strike plate screws and the top hinge screws with 75 mm screws that reach the stud behind the jamb, which costs a few dollars. Fit a box strike with a reinforced cup around the bolt rather than a flat plate. Then, if the door has already been damaged or the frame is soft, add a full-length jamb reinforcement channel.
That is the whole list for most houses. Nobody needs a $600 lock on a door held shut by 19 mm screws. Where the door has already been forced, the repair itself is covered on our break-in damage repair page.
What these jobs typically cost in Newmarket
Realistic 2026 ranges for the work behind the answers above.
| Job | Typical on-site time | Typical price (CAD) |
|---|---|---|
| House lockout, non-destructive entry | 15 – 35 min | $95 – $180 |
| Rekey per cylinder, all keyed alike | 10 – 15 min each | $25 – $45 each |
| Full house rekey, four to six cylinders | 45 – 75 min | $150 – $270 |
| Grade 1 deadbolt supplied and fitted, per door | 30 – 45 min | $180 – $300 |
| Strike and hinge reinforcement, per door | 20 – 30 min | $70 – $130 |
| Smart deadbolt installed on an existing prep | 30 – 50 min | $140 – $240 plus lock |
| Key cut and decoded from the lock, no key present | 20 – 40 min | $90 – $170 |
| Door and frame repair after a forced entry | 1 – 3 hrs | $250 – $700 |
If the honest answer to your question is that you do not need to spend anything, that is the answer you will get. Telling a homeowner their lock is fine costs us one call and earns the next five.
These ranges are typical for a Newmarket address and include labour plus standard hardware where hardware is listed. Overnight, weekend and statutory holiday call-outs carry a premium. High-security and restricted-key hardware is priced separately. A firm price is always confirmed on the phone before a technician is dispatched.
On the job in Newmarket
Why homeowners here call us
Towns we answer these questions in
Our technicians work out of Newmarket and cover the surrounding towns of northern York Region and southern Simcoe on the same call-out. There is no shopfront in these towns, a technician drives to you, and the phone estimate accounts for that drive.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly can someone get to me?
Typical response to a Newmarket address is 20 to 30 minutes, and we run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Outlying addresses in Georgina, Bradford or Stouffville take longer and we will give you an honest arrival window on the phone rather than an optimistic one. Heavy snow adds time to everything.
Do you charge just to come out?
The quoted price covers the call-out and the work described. It is confirmed on the phone before anyone is dispatched, so there is no separate surprise trip charge discovered at the door. If the job turns out to be different from what was described on the phone, the technician stops and re-quotes before continuing.
Can you make a key if I have lost every single one?
Yes. The cylinder can be decoded and a key cut to match it, which leaves your existing locks working exactly as they did. If you have lost the only key and you do not know where it went, most people use the same visit to rekey so the missing key stops working. Both are quick.
Does a Do Not Duplicate stamp on my key actually stop copying?
No. It is a request, not a restriction, and plenty of counters and self-service kiosks will copy one anyway. If you genuinely need to control duplication you need a patented restricted keyway, where blanks are only supplied to authorised dealers against a signature. That is a real system with real key control, and it is what commercial clients use.
Can you make all my locks open with one key?
Usually yes. If the cylinders are the same keyway family, they can be rekeyed to a single new key so one key runs the front, back, side and garage doors. Where a lock is a different brand or keyway, that cylinder is swapped for a compatible one. Getting a house down to one key is one of the most common jobs we do.
Do you work on condos, townhouses and rental units?
Yes, on your own unit door and any lock you are responsible for. In a condo or a rental, common-area doors and anything the corporation or landlord owns need their authorisation before we touch it, and we will ask for it. Tenant turnover rekeys for landlords are routine work for us.
Is it cheaper to break a window than call a locksmith?
No, and it is not close. A residential lockout is usually in the $95 to $180 range. A double-glazed window unit plus fitting runs several hundred dollars, and a forced door costs more again once the jamb splits. Kicking your own door in almost always costs more than the call you were trying to avoid.
What is the single cheapest thing I can do to make my house harder to get into?
Buy a box of 75 mm screws and replace the short screws in every exterior strike plate and top hinge. It costs a few dollars, takes twenty minutes, and directly addresses the failure point in almost every kicked-in residential door. If that is all you ever do, you have done the highest-value item on the list.
Related locksmith services in Newmarket
Still have a question? Ask it.
We answer the phone 24 hours a day and questions cost nothing. Call 866-820-1331 and describe what your door is doing. Half the time we can tell you it is a twenty minute fix, and sometimes we can tell you it is nothing at all.
