Locksmith: What the Trade Actually Involves
A plain-English guide to the trade — the three divisions of the work, what a mobile van carries, how a call runs from the first phone call to the invoice, and what licensing means in Ontario.
Quick answer
A locksmith installs, repairs, opens and rekeys locks and door hardware, and cuts and programs keys. The trade splits into three divisions: residential, commercial and automotive. Most work in Ontario is done from a mobile van rather than a shop, and most of it is routine hardware work rather than the emergency lockouts people picture.
Ask most people what a locksmith does and they describe someone opening a car door with a coat hanger. That is a real part of the job and it is maybe five percent of it. The rest is hardware: fitting deadbolts into doors that were never drilled properly, repinning cylinders after a tenant moves out, rebuilding a mortise lock in a century home on Main Street South, adjusting a door closer that has been slamming a shop door shut for two years, and drawing up a key hierarchy for a building nobody has documented since 2004.
This page is the front door to the rest of this site. It explains what the trade covers, what is in the van, what actually happens between your phone call and the invoice, and what to check before you let anybody near your locks. If you already know what you need, the full service list will get you there faster.
We have worked out of Newmarket since 2000, across York Region and into South Simcoe. Everything below is how the job runs in practice here, not a general description of the trade somewhere else.
The three divisions of the trade
Residential, commercial and automotive. Different tools, different knowledge, and not every locksmith does all three.
Residential
Deadbolts, knob and lever sets, patio door hardware, rekeying after a move or a break-up, house lockouts, smart locks, mailbox and shed locks, and reinforcing the doors that came builder-grade. See residential locksmith work.
Commercial
Storefront and aluminium door hardware, mortise locks, panic bars, door closers, master key systems, restricted keys, access control and cameras. Higher grades of hardware, code requirements on exits, and buildings that cannot be shut for a day. See commercial locksmith work.
Automotive
Lockouts, key cutting from a VIN, transponder keys, proximity fobs, push-to-start smart keys, ignition repair and extraction of a key snapped in the barrel. This division has moved furthest towards software in the last fifteen years. See car key replacement.
Safes and secure storage
Opening safes when the combination is lost or the lock fails, changing combinations, moving and anchoring, and repairing the boltwork afterwards. A specialised corner of the trade that overlaps all three divisions.
A one-van operation usually leans towards one or two of these. A firm that covers all three is carrying a lot more equipment and a lot more training, which is why a shop that only cuts house keys will send you elsewhere for a proximity fob. There is nothing wrong with that — it is worth asking on the phone rather than finding out when the van arrives.
What a mobile locksmith van actually carries
Almost all locksmith work in Ontario now happens at your door rather than at a counter. That means the van has to be a workshop, and a properly stocked one lets a technician finish in one visit instead of booking a return trip for a part.
- Key machines. A duplicator for copying by tracing, and a code machine that cuts a key from a number rather than from another key — the machine that makes a lost-key job possible without removing the lock.
- A pinning kit. Trays of bottom pins, drivers, springs and master wafers in half-thousandth increments, plus plug followers so a cylinder can be repinned without spilling springs across the driveway.
- Picks, tension tools and bypass tools. Rakes, hooks, a pick gun, shims, latch slips and try-out keys. The point of these is a non-destructive opening — getting in without buying you a new door.
- Automotive gear. Air wedges and long-reach tools, a key programmer with a current software subscription, transponder blanks and proximity fobs, and a laptop for the vehicles that need one.
- Hardware stock. Grade 1 and Grade 2 deadbolts, lever sets, rim and mortise cylinders, key-in-knob cylinders, strike plates, reinforcement plates, closers, exit device parts and a box of 75 mm screws.
- Door tools. A 54 mm hole saw for the face bore and a 25 mm bit for the edge bore, mortise jigs, chisels, a router, cobalt drill bits, a borescope, and a drill rig for the openings that cannot be picked.
- Consumables. Dry PTFE and graphite lubricants — never oil or WD-40 in a cylinder, which is the single most common thing that turns a sticky lock into a dead one — plus hundreds of key blanks sorted by profile.
If a technician arrives and immediately reaches for a drill on a standard residential lock, ask why. Drilling is a legitimate last resort on a high-security cylinder, a dead safe lock or a seized mechanism. On an ordinary builder-grade deadbolt it usually means the person in front of you cannot pick it, and you are about to pay for a replacement cylinder you did not need.
How a call runs, from the phone call to the invoice
The phone call
You describe the problem; we ask what kind of door, what kind of lock, whether the key is broken, lost or simply inside, and where you are. Then you get a price range and an arrival window before you agree to anything. A firm that will not quote until the technician is standing in front of you is not a firm to book.
Dispatch and drive
A technician is assigned and drives from the Newmarket base. To a Newmarket address that is typically 20 to 30 minutes. To Bradford, Keswick or Stouffville it is longer, and we say the honest number rather than repeating the Newmarket figure back to you.
Arrival, identification and authority
The technician identifies himself and the company, and then asks you to prove you have the right to be let into the property or the vehicle. Photo ID with the address, a lease, a registration, a piece of addressed mail. This step protects you far more than it inconveniences you, and anyone who skips it should worry you.
Least destructive method first
The lock is assessed and the least damaging way in is tried first — picking, bypassing, shimming a latch, or slipping a car door. Only when that genuinely will not work does anything get drilled, and you are told before it does, with the replacement cost stated.
The work itself, and the honest conversation
Rekeying, replacing, repairing or programming. This is also where you get told what you do not need. A deadbolt that is merely misaligned needs a strike adjustment, not a new lock, and that is a fifteen-minute job rather than a two-hundred-dollar one.
Test, hand over, invoice
Every key is tested in every lock it should turn, the door is cycled open and closed, keys are counted out to you, and you get an itemised invoice with the parts listed. Work is guaranteed. Keep the invoice — it is what a warranty claim runs on.
The two places this goes wrong in the wider industry are both at the ends. A vague phone quote of nineteen dollars that becomes three hundred on the driveway, and an invoice with one line reading “labour”. Ask for the range on the phone and the breakdown on the invoice, and most of the trade’s bad stories never happen to you.
Training and licensing for locksmiths in Ontario
Ontario does not run a compulsory province-wide trade licence for locksmiths in the way it does for electricians or gas fitters. What exists instead is a combination of things: municipal business licensing, which varies from one town to the next; general liability insurance, which any serious firm carries and any customer can ask to see; criminal record checks, which reputable companies run on their own technicians as a condition of employment; and voluntary trade certification through industry associations, which is earned by examination rather than issued by government.
- Ask whether the company is insured, and ask to see the certificate. It takes one email and it tells you a great deal.
- Ask how long the business has been operating and where it is based. A local address and a landline are harder to walk away from than a call-centre number.
- Expect the technician to ask you for proof that you are entitled to access. A locksmith who does not ask is a locksmith who will not ask the next person either.
- Expect a marked vehicle, identification, and a written invoice with a business name on it.
- Be wary of a phone quote that seems impossible. It usually is, and the gap gets made up on the driveway.
Training itself is mostly done the old way. Manufacturer courses, association classes and examinations cover the theory, and everything else is learned on doors — years of them. Automotive work adds a continuing cost, because key programming equipment needs an active software subscription to keep up with new vehicles, and that subscription is the reason a dealership-alternative key is not free.
The work, the van and the doors behind it
Most of a locksmith’s week is not dramatic. It is hardware that has stopped doing its job, on doors that get opened forty times a day.
What locksmith work costs, in general terms
Every job is priced on the specific lock, door and vehicle, but these are the ranges most calls in Newmarket land inside. Each service page on this site carries a more detailed table for that job.
| Job | Typical range (CAD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Service call and attendance, business hours | $49 – $95 | Usually rolled into the job price |
| House lockout, non-destructive entry | $95 – $180 | Higher for a deadbolt-only entry or a high-security cylinder |
| Car lockout | $95 – $200 | Depends on the vehicle and the door design |
| Rekey a standard residential cylinder | $25 – $45 per cylinder | Plus the service call |
| Grade 1 deadbolt supplied and installed | $130 – $260 | Includes strike reinforcement |
| Commercial cylinder supplied and keyed | $60 – $130 each | |
| Transponder car key cut and programmed | $180 – $420 | Proximity and push-to-start keys sit at the top |
| Safe opening | $180 – $500+ | Depends on the safe and whether it must survive |
These ranges are typical rather than quotes. Overnight, weekend and statutory holiday call-outs carry a premium. A firm price is confirmed on the phone before a technician is dispatched.
What to expect when you call us
Where we work
The base is in Newmarket and the van radiates out from there. Response to a Newmarket address is typically 20 to 30 minutes. Everywhere else is Newmarket plus honest drive time, and we quote the real figure rather than the marketing one. There is more detail on every town we cover on the service area page.
Frequently asked questions
What does a locksmith actually do all day?
Mostly hardware. Rekeying cylinders after moves and tenant changes, fitting and aligning deadbolts, repairing latches and mortise locks, adjusting door closers, cutting and programming car keys, and installing commercial hardware. Emergency lockouts are the visible part of the job but a small share of the hours, and they cluster at night and on long weekends.
Is a locksmith licensed in Ontario?
There is no single compulsory province-wide locksmith trade licence in Ontario comparable to an electrician’s. Requirements come from municipal business licensing, insurance, and voluntary trade certification earned by examination through industry associations. The practical checks a customer can make are simple: ask whether the company is insured, ask how long it has been in business, and expect to be asked for proof that you are entitled to access.
Can a locksmith open any lock?
Almost any, given enough time and the right approach, but not always without damage. Standard residential and commercial cylinders are usually picked or bypassed non-destructively. High-security cylinders with anti-pick pins and sidebars, and most safe locks, are frequently drilled to a precise point and then repaired or replaced. A good technician tells you which category you are in before starting, and what the repair will cost.
Should I rekey or replace my locks?
If the hardware is sound and you simply want the old keys to stop working, rekeying is far cheaper — you keep the lock and change the pins inside it. Replace when the lock is worn, the finish is failing, the grade is too low for the door, or you want a different function such as a keypad. There is a fuller comparison on the rekey or replace page.
Do locksmiths keep a copy of my key?
No, and any firm that did would not last long. Keys are cut, tested, counted out to you and handed over. On a master key system we keep the keying schedule on file, because that is what allows the system to be extended or a lost cylinder rebuilt years later, but that is a chart of key symbols rather than a set of keys.
How fast can a locksmith get to me?
To a Newmarket address, typically 20 to 30 minutes, 24 hours a day including statutory holidays. Aurora, Holland Landing and East Gwillimbury are close behind. Keswick, Bradford, Stouffville and Richmond Hill add real drive time, and Georgina and Pefferlaw add more again. We give the honest figure for your address when you call rather than quoting the Newmarket number everywhere.
What is the difference between a locksmith and a hardware store key counter?
A key counter copies an existing key by tracing it. A locksmith can cut a key from a code or from the lock itself when no key exists, repin a cylinder to a new key, diagnose why a mechanism is failing, program vehicle transponders, and fit hardware into a door properly. The overlap is duplicate house keys; almost everything else is a different job.
Do you work on weekends and holidays?
Yes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, including nights, weekends and statutory holidays. Overnight and holiday call-outs carry a premium, which is quoted on the phone before anybody is dispatched, so the number on the invoice is the number you already heard.
Related locksmith services in Newmarket
Not sure which of these you need? Just ask.
Describe the door, the lock or the car and you will get a straight answer and a price range on the phone — including the times the answer is that you do not need us. Call 866-820-1331, 24 hours a day, in Newmarket since 2000.
