Key Cutting in Kitsilano

Blank: $4.75. Standard house or office key cut: $5-$15. Specialty and commercial blanks: $8-$30. Restricted high-security key: $30-$80, cut to the registered code.

Counter hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 5 pm, at 4105 Macdonald St, Vancouver, on Macdonald between West 25th and King Edward. Standard keys are cut and tested while you wait, usually in the time it takes to have the conversation. If you cannot get to the counter, a mobile technician reaches Kitsilano addresses inside the 20 to 30 minute band we quote for the west side, carrying the same machines. Blanks are listed under key blanks.

A standard residential key is a two minute job on a properly set up machine. What takes the extra minute is the part a kiosk skips: we test the new key, either against the original or in the lock itself if you have brought it, before you leave with it.

That matters because most bad copies are not bad blanks, they are inherited wear. A ten-year-old key has lost material at the peaks, and a machine that traces it faithfully produces a copy of a worn key rather than a copy of the lock. When a key has clearly been worn down we cut to code or decode the cylinder instead, which produces a key that fits the lock as it was built. If a key we cut does not turn, bring it back and we cut another.

House and suite keys

Schlage SC1, Kwikset KW1, Weiser WR3, Yale and the common commercial mortise keyways are all in stock. The Kitsilano staple is a landlord or a tenant needing a suite set after a turnover, and the honest advice there is often a rekey rather than another copy: rekeying at $25-$45 per cylinder kills every old key and includes two fresh ones. See lock rekeying.

Heritage and obsolete keyways

The 1910s and 1920s houses around Cornwall, Point Grey Road and Vine carry bit keys and old mortise profiles that a supermarket rack does not stock. We hold a wider range and, where the keyway is genuinely obsolete, cut to the lock.

Padlock, cabinet, mailbox and bike locker keys

Wafer blanks for mailboxes and cabinets, plus padlock keys cut from the original or to code.

Restricted keys

Mul-T-Lock, Medeco and Schlage Primus, $30-$80 each, cut to the registered code against written authorisation from the keyholder. That control is the reason a strata or a West 4th business puts a restricted keyway in. See high-security locks and the Mul-T-Lock interactive system.

Car keys

Cut and programmed at the kerb or at your vehicle rather than over the counter, because the chip has to be written to the car. See car key replacement.