How to spot a fake locksmith before you call
Stolen photographs, an address that is really a parking lot, and a price that doubles on the doorstep. The pattern is documented — here is how to check in under a minute.
LAK Locksmith Team5 min read
✳02 / 04 · Residential service
New hardware when a lock is damaged, worn, or no longer secure enough.
- Category
- Residential
- Availability
- 24/7
- Coverage
- 10 GTA cities
- The visit
- 4 steps
✳On this page
What this actually involves
We remove the existing hardware and fit a new lock sized correctly to your door and frame. Replacement is the right call when a cylinder is worn out, when a door has been forced, or when you are deliberately upgrading. We can key every new lock alike so the house still runs on one key.
When replacement is the right call — and when it is not
A lock earns replacement when the hardware itself is the problem: a cylinder worn to the point of sticking, a lock that has been forced or drilled, builder-grade hardware on a door that deserves better, or a mechanism that no longer meets how you use the door. If the hardware is sound and the real problem is who has a key, rekeying does the same security work for less — and we will say so rather than sell you hardware you do not need. That distinction, offered before the toolbox opens, is the fastest way to tell a locksmith from a salesman.
The lock is only half the door
Most forced doors fail at the frame, not the cylinder — a short strike plate held by half-inch screws gives up long before a decent deadbolt does. So a replacement visit looks at the whole assembly: strike plate, screw length into the stud, door fit, and the gap a pry bar would love. We also explain what the grade stamped on the new hardware actually tested, so “better lock” means something you can point at rather than a feeling.
How the visit goes
Start to finish, so nothing on the day is a surprise.
- Step 01
Assess the door and frame
The existing hardware, the door material, the frame and strike — because fitting a strong lock to a weak frame upgrades nothing.
- Step 02
Options, explained in plain terms
What grades are available, what each one buys you, and what we would fit on our own door. You choose with the trade-offs in front of you.
- Step 03
Fit, align, reinforce
The new lock sized and aligned to the door, strike and screws brought up to the same standard, keyed alike with your other doors if you want one key for the house.
- Step 04
Test it with you
Every key in the lock, the door swung and latched, and the old hardware taken away unless you want it.
What to expect
All exterior doors keyed alike, so better security does not mean carrying more keys
Strike plate, frame and screw length checked at the same time — most forced doors fail at the frame, not the lock
We explain the difference in grade between what you have and what we are fitting, before ordering anything
Asked before calling
The questions this job actually gets, answered the way they would be on the phone.
No. Replace what is worn or compromised, and if you want the house on a single key we can key the new hardware alike with what stays — or rekey the older locks to match the new key in the same visit.
Where we go
Residential work is mobile across the GTA — the technician and the equipment come to you, 24/7. Based at 470 N Rivermede Rd, Vaughan.
- Toronto
- Vaughan
- Markham
- Brampton
- Mississauga
- Richmond Hill
- Scarborough
- Pickering
- Ajax
- Oshawa
More residential work
Not the job you have? The rest of what we do on this side of the trade — every one of them its own page, written the same way.
Related reading
The journal covers this side of the trade in depth — how things fail, what they cost you when they do, and what to check before calling anyone at all.
Locked out of your house: what actually happens when a locksmith arrives
From the phone call to the door opening — what the technician checks, why picking beats drilling almost every time, and what you will be asked to show.
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Rekey or replace? How to decide after you move in
The previous owners' keys are still out there somewhere. Here is when changing the pins is enough, and when the hardware itself has to go.
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The other doors
Everything LAK does sits in one of these: your car, your bike, your home or your business.
- (01)Emergency4 services
- (02)Automotive7 services
- (03)Motorcycle4 services
- (04)Residential4 services
- (05)Commercial4 services