Keys, cylinders and the questions that come before the call.

Doors are built from wood, and wood reacts to the swing between a humid Ontario summer and a dry cold winter. As the slab and the frame move, the door falls out of alignment and the bolt stops meeting the strike plate cleanly. The repair is usually an adjustment rather than a new lock. Maple Locksmith will look at the door and tell you which of the two you actually need.

No. Forcing a stiff key is exactly how keys snap off inside a cylinder, and that turns a small job into a much bigger one. Re-keying the cylinder with the correct pin heights usually clears the problem. Call Maple Locksmith before the key breaks, not after.

In most cases the cylinder has seized, dried out or lost its lubrication. Sometimes the key itself has worn down and has to be cut to code, and sometimes the cylinder needs re-keying instead. We carry both the code machine and the pinning kit on the truck, so the diagnosis and the fix happen in one visit.

Please do not. It coats the moving parts, then attracts dust and grit, which brings the lock closer to failure rather than further from it. Use a Teflon or silicone based lubricant instead, and apply graphite carefully on residential and commercial cylinders.

A key cut to code usually solves it, because a worn copy of a copy no longer matches the pin heights inside. If the lock still misbehaves afterwards, the cylinder itself needs re-keying. Ask us about re-keying the whole house onto one key while we are already there.

Very often yes. If your key already slides into each lock, those cylinders can be keyed alike. Where the doors carry different brands, some cylinders have to be swapped first so they share a keyway. We set up keyed-alike houses in Maple, Kleinburg and Richmond Hill regularly.

Almost never. Re-keying changes the internal combination so the missing keys no longer open anything, at a fraction of the cost of replacing every lock in the house. We recommend replacement only when the hardware is worn out or too weak for the door it sits in.

Yes. We supply new locks and key them to your existing key, so nothing on your keyring has to change.

It is a second key that opens a defined group of locks, while each individual key still opens only its own door. Landlords, offices and warehouses across York Region use master keying so one person can reach every unit without carrying twenty keys.

No. The skeleton key belongs to the past. A master key works only inside the system it was built for, and it opens nothing outside that system.

Warranty terms come from the manufacturer, so each product carries its own coverage and its own period. We tell you what applies before you buy, and it is worth reading through the terms on any hardware you choose.