High-Security Locks Vancouver (Mul-T-Lock, Medeco, Abloy)

Three things, and a lock has to do all three before the label means anything.

• Pick and bump resistance. Sidebars, telescoping pins, rotating pins and finger pins add a second axis a pick has to satisfy at the same time as the shear line.
• Drill and attack resistance. Hardened inserts at the shear line and the sidebar, anti-pull and anti-snap construction, and a body that does not give up to a cordless drill.
• Copy control. A patented keyway, so a copy is legally possible only through an authorized dealer against a signed key card. Without this the other two are decoration: a perfect lock opens for a key somebody cut at a kiosk.

A Grade 3 builder deadbolt does none of them. That is the gap this page exists to close.

We are an authorized dealer, which is what lets us hold the key registry rather than send you back to a distributor for every copy.

Mul-T-Lock

Telescoping pin-within-a-pin construction plus a sidebar, on the Interactive+ and MT5+ platforms, with scalable master keying. The platform detail is on our Mul-T-Lock dealer page.

Medeco

Rotating pins on a sidebar, UL 437 listed, ANSI Grade 1. The traditional North American choice where an insurer or a spec writer names a standard.

Abloy

Rotating disc detainers rather than pins, so there is no spring to bump and nothing for a standard pick to set. The usual answer for exposed padlocks, gates and marine environments.

Schlage Primus

A sidebar cylinder that retrofits directly into existing Schlage hardware, which makes it the cheapest route to key control in a building already standardized on Schlage.

A high-security cylinder in a soft pine jamb is an expensive way to keep a door that still opens on the first kick. Almost every forced entry we repair went through the frame, not the lock, so hardening the door is part of the same job.

What reinforcement covers

• Reinforced strike plate. A four-screw reinforcer with 3-inch screws into the framing stud. The single highest-value upgrade on any exterior door, and it costs a fraction of the cylinder above it.
• Strike-side frame reinforcement. A steel bar spanning the strike side of the jamb, spreading the impact of a kick across a foot and a half of frame instead of one screw line.
• Hinge-side reinforcement. Long screws and hinge plates, plus security pins on outward-opening doors, because a reinforced strike simply moves the failure across the door.
• Glazing. Safety film on the sidelight or the panel next to the lock, so reaching the thumbturn stops being the easy route past everything else.
• Sliding and patio doors. A track lock or a bar plus film on the glass, assessed on the walkthrough.

Existing forced-entry damage is repaired first: see door repair in Vancouver. Reinforcement is quoted per door after a walkthrough, because the honest number depends on whether the jamb is solid or has to be rebuilt.

European profile and UK oval cylinders turn up in Vancouver more often than people expect: heritage properties fitted with imported British hardware, commercial installations on European systems, and modern smart locks that adopted the Euro format for compatibility.

Sizing is the whole job

Both formats are specified by overall length and by the split either side of the cam: 60, 70, 80 and 90 mm are the common lengths, and a 70 mm 30/40 cylinder is 30 mm outside and 40 mm inside. Measure the door thickness plus about 5 mm each side, or bring the old cylinder to the shop and we will match it. A cylinder that stands proud of the escutcheon is a cylinder waiting to be snapped.

Anti-snap is not optional

The lock-snapping attack works only on unrated cylinders. Look for the BS EN 1303 kitemark and a TS007 three-star rating: those cylinders have sacrificial sections that break away without exposing the cam. We do not fit unrated Euro or oval cylinders on an exterior door.

Restricted options in these formats

Mul-T-Lock, Abloy and several UK makers produce Euro and oval cylinders on restricted keyways, so a heritage or European door gets the same key control as the rest of the property. Euro and oval are not interchangeable: the lock body decides which one fits, and swapping formats means changing the lock case rather than the cylinder.

Rekeying an existing Euro or oval cylinder is $25-$45 on a standard profile and $60-$120 on a restricted one.

Where the whole door is the weak point rather than the lock or the frame, the answer is a multi-point steel door: one key turn throwing bolts into the head, the jamb and the threshold at the same time, with a high-security cylinder at the centre of it. We supply, fit and service those: see Superlock steel security doors.

A restricted system is only as good as its paperwork. Every cylinder we register is logged with its serial, its keyway, the number of keys issued and the person who signed for them, and no copy is cut without that signature. A property manager can authorize in writing; nobody else can, including whoever is holding the key.

Copies are cut to registered code for $30-$80 at the shop: see key cutting in Vancouver. If a key card is lost, we reissue only after verifying ownership against the original install record, which is slower on purpose.

Cylinders are quoted with the model, because a Medeco M3 and an Abloy Protec2 are not the same purchase. What is published and fixed is the labour and the key work, on the same sheet as prices.

• Rekey a high-security cylinder: $60-$120 per cylinder.
• Rekey a standard cylinder: $25-$45 per cylinder.
• Restricted key cut to registered code: $30-$80.
• Master key system: from $300 setup plus $30-$80 per door cylinder, or $60-$200 per cylinder on a restricted keyway.
• Fitting, per door: $80-$160 residential, $80-$380 commercial by hardware type.
• Service call, standard hours: $75.

Door and frame reinforcement is quoted per door after a walkthrough. Buildings on a hierarchy are covered at commercial locksmith.