Commercial Locksmith

Commercial locks get used far harder than residential ones. A front door on a busy office cycles more in a month than a house door does in a year, and the hardware on it is built differently because of that. Aluminum storefront doors, mortise locks, panic bars and door closers are all their own trade.

We work on all of it, at your building, for businesses and property managers across the Columbus area.

Rekeying and lockouts

Commercial rekeying

The most common commercial call, and usually the most urgent one that is not an emergency. An employee leaves and does not return a key. A tenant moves out. A contractor had access during a fit-out. Rekeying stops the old keys working without replacing the hardware.

If you have a lot of doors, this is also the moment to fix a key system that has grown messy over the years.

Commercial lockout

Locked out of an office, storefront, warehouse or interior room. Tell us the door type when you call, because a glass storefront door, a hollow metal fire door and a desk drawer are three different jobs.

Key systems

Master key systems

A master key system lets one key open every door while each door still has its own key that opens only that door. A manager carries one key instead of fifteen, and staff carry keys that work where they need to work and nowhere else.

These are worth planning properly rather than adding to piecemeal. We will map out who needs access to what before cutting anything, so the system still makes sense in three years.

Interchangeable core locks are worth considering at the same time. IC cores pull out with a control key, so a door can be rekeyed in seconds rather than having the lock taken apart. Where a building already has them, we normally swap in new cores and issue new keys instead of reworking the old ones, which gives you a clean set with a known history. In practice, most buildings with IC cores no longer have the control key, which is another reason a fresh set of cores is usually the cleaner route.

Door hardware

Panic bar installation and repair

Panic bars, crash bars, push bars and exit devices are all the same thing under different names. They let people out of a building in an emergency without needing a key, which is why fire codes require them on many commercial exits.

We install new ones, repair ones that have stopped latching properly, and replace units that are past saving. A panic bar that has to be shoved is a problem waiting for the wrong moment.

Storefront and mortise locks

Aluminum storefront doors use narrow-stile hardware that is not interchangeable with residential locks. Older buildings often have mortise locks, where the lock body sits in a pocket cut into the door. Both are repairable and both are replaceable, and neither is something to attempt with parts from a hardware store.

Most commercial work in this area runs on a handful of keyways, and we stock and cut for the common ones including Schlage and Yale. If you are running Primus or another restricted system, mention it when you call so we can confirm before coming out.

Door closers

A door that slams, or one that does not close far enough to latch, is usually a closer that needs adjusting rather than replacing. A door left standing open because the closer failed is an unlocked building.

Property managers and landlords

Tenant turnover means rekeying, and doing it one panicked call at a time is expensive. If you manage several units or buildings, it is worth setting up a key system that makes turnover routine: units keyed individually, a master for management, and cores that can be swapped quickly.

Tell us what you are managing when you call and we will work out what fits.

Common questions