✳Homes & Condos
Ten things to do with the keys, the doors and the garage in the first week at a new address. Most of them are free.
✳On this page
This moving day lock checklist is written for the week after the boxes arrive, when nobody has energy for a project. Most of it is free, and the two items that are not are the two worth doing first.
1. Count the openings before you decide anything
Walk the property and list every door that locks. Front, back, side, patio, garage service door, basement entry, gate — and the door between the garage and the house, which is missed almost every time and is frequently the weakest lock on the property.
2. Rekey the exterior locks
Assume copies exist. Not out of suspicion of the sellers, but because ten years of agents, relatives, cleaners, contractors and previous tenants leaves no register behind. Rekeying changes which key works without changing the hardware, so it is cheaper than replacement and just as final — the reasoning is in rekey or replace.
3. Have everything keyed alike
Front, back and garage on one key. Do it during the rekey and it costs nothing extra. It is the change people notice every day for years.
4. Change the strike and hinge screws
The screws holding most strike plates reach the door casing and stop. Three-inch screws reach the stud behind it. A box of them costs less than a coffee and it changes how the whole doorway fails under force.
5. Reset the garage opener
Every opener has an erase procedure that clears all paired remotes and keypad codes at once. Run it, then pair only your own remotes and set a new keypad code. Otherwise a remote clipped to a visor in a car sold three years ago still opens your garage.
6. Find the outdoor spare
Under the mat, in the fake rock, on top of the frame, in the barbecue. There is usually one and the sellers usually forgot it. Remove it and give the new spare to a neighbour or a relative — a person, not a location.
7. Check the patio door
Sliding doors are often the least secure opening in a house. Confirm the latch actually engages, add a bar or a pin in the track, and check the panel cannot be lifted out of the frame.
8. Look at the windows on the ground floor
Not a full project — just confirm that every one of them locks and that the locks are not painted open. It is a fifteen-minute walk and it usually finds one.
9. Sort out condo fobs and mailbox keys
Fobs and mail keys are administered by management. Ask them to deactivate anything not accounted for at handover, and get written confirmation of how many are registered to your unit.
10. Make one more key than you need
Two per adult, one spare that lives away from the property. The reason is unglamorous: a lockout with a spare fifteen minutes away is an inconvenience, and a lockout with no spare anywhere is a callout.
The moving day lock checklist, condensed
Rekey the exterior doors, and change the strike screws. Everything else on this list can wait until the weekend after next.
(01)Step by step
How to do it
- Time needed
- P7D
Tools
- A screwdriver
- 3-inch wood screws
- 01
Count every exterior opening
Walk the property and list every door and window that locks, including the garage service door, any basement entry, and the gate. People consistently miss the door between the garage and the house.
- 02
Rekey or replace the exterior locks
Assume copies of the old keys exist, because they do. Rekey the hardware that is sound and replace what is worn or missing a deadbolt, and have the exterior doors keyed alike while it is being done.
- 03
Upgrade the strike and hinge screws
Replace the short screws in every exterior strike plate and hinge with three-inch screws that reach the framing behind the jamb. It is the cheapest meaningful security change available to you.
- 04
Reset the garage door opener and clear old remotes
Follow the opener's erase procedure to clear every previously paired remote and keypad code, then pair only your own. A remote left in a car sold years ago still opens that door otherwise.
- 05
Deal with the spare key that lives outside
Find and remove whatever was hidden under the mat, in the fake rock or on the door frame. Give the new spare to a person instead of a location.
(02)Objections
Frequently asked
- Do I really need to change the locks if the sellers gave me all the keys?
- All the keys they knew about. Nobody keeps a register of every copy cut over a decade — agents, relatives, cleaners, contractors and a previous tenant may all have had one. Rekeying costs far less than replacing hardware and ends the question permanently.
- What about the condo fob?
- Building fobs are administered by management, not by you. Ask them to deactivate any fob not accounted for at handover, and confirm in writing how many are registered to your unit.
(03)Ask
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(04)Written by
LAK Locksmith Team
Locksmiths and key technicians
LAK Locksmith has been working across the Greater Toronto Area since 2021, from 470 N Rivermede Rd in Vaughan. These guides are written by the technicians who do the work — residential, commercial and automotive — and are kept to what can be demonstrated on a doorstep rather than what sells.
All articles by LAK Locksmith Team
