24/7 · Ajax & Durham Region
Locksmith Ajax
Mobile locksmith service for Ajax — 24 hour lockouts, move-in rekeys, smart locks, car keys and commercial hardware, with an honest price before we drive.
Local knowledge
Ajax Is A Commuter Town, And Its Locks Show It
Ajax turns over housing faster than almost anywhere else in Durham Region, and that drives most of what we do there.
Ajax grew in distinct waves — the post-war core near the lake, the 1980s and 1990s belt through the middle, and the very large newer subdivisions north of the 401 and around Salem. Each wave has its own hardware generation and its own failure pattern.
What ties them together is turnover. Ajax is a commuter town, which means houses change hands often and rentals change tenants often. Every one of those changes leaves keys in circulation that nobody has counted — previous owners, their families, cleaners, trades, agents, and a lockbox that a dozen people opened.
That is why the single most common job we do in Ajax is a move-in rekey. It costs a fraction of new hardware, keeps the finish already on the door, and takes under an hour for a typical house.
The newer subdivisions add smart locks and keypads, and with them the two calls we get most in winter: batteries that died in a cold snap, and a lock whose administrator account still belongs to the seller.
What we get called for
The Six Calls We Get Most From Ajax
Move-In Rekey
The most common job we do in Ajax. Every exterior door in one visit, keyed alike, so every old key stops working.
House And Condo Lockouts
Opened without damage wherever the hardware allows, twenty-four hours a day including holidays.
Smart Lock Rescue
Flat batteries in January and previous owners still holding the app. Both are quick when somebody knows the platform.
Car Keys At The Curb
Transponder keys, remotes and proximity fobs cut and programmed at your vehicle, including with no key present.
Deadbolt Upgrades
Graded deadbolts and three-inch strike screws on the doors that never got them — side, garage and basement entries.
Commercial Hardware
Exit devices, closers, storefront cylinders and master key systems for Ajax businesses, done to fire code.
How fast, honestly
Getting To Ajax
Ajax is fifteen to twenty-five minutes from central Whitby along the 401 or Bayly, depending on the hour and which side of town you are on.
We quote the realistic range for your actual address rather than one number for the whole town, and we call when we are close instead of leaving you watching the door.
Non-urgent work booked in daylight is cheaper than the same job at midnight, and we will say so rather than let you pay the overnight rate for a spare key.
When you call
What Happens When An Ajax Address Calls Us
The call opens with three questions: where are you, what is locked, and is anybody shut inside. If a person or an animal is closed in a vehicle and there is heat or cold involved, that is a 911 call first — we will say so and come anyway.
Then you get a real number. Ajax is a familiar drive and familiar housing, so we can price the job on the phone with enough accuracy that the invoice matches. No callout fee arriving as a separate line, no minimum revealed once the van is in your driveway.
If the situation on site is genuinely different from what was described, work stops and you approve the new price first. That happens most often with locks somebody has already tried to force, and with vehicles where the owner believed a spare existed and none does.
We ask for proof that the property or vehicle is yours before anything opens. Everyone finds it mildly irritating right up until the day somebody tries it on their own house and it is the reason it did not work.
Opening is non-destructive wherever the lock permits, which on ordinary Ajax residential hardware is nearly always. Drilling is reserved for high-security cylinders and locks already destroyed, and it never happens without you hearing what replacement costs.
When we finish, the door latches, locks and closes properly. If the reason you were locked out was the door rather than the key, you get told that too.
Local detail
The Ajax Rekey Nobody Regrets
Do the arithmetic on a house that has just changed hands. The previous owners had at least two keys. Their adult children had one each. A cleaner had one. A dog walker had one. The trades who prepared the house for market were given one. The listing agent ran a lockbox that a dozen buyer agents opened.
None of those people are criminals, and that is exactly the point. You do not need bad intent for this to matter — you need one key in a drawer in a house you have never visited, held by somebody who has forgotten they have it.
Rekeying changes the pins inside the cylinders you already own, so every one of those keys stops working permanently. The lock body, the finish and the handle all stay as they are. It takes ten to fifteen minutes per lock, which is why the price falls sharply as the count rises.
Ask for keyed alike while we are there. Front, back, side and garage all running on one key costs very little extra at the time and removes the daily friction of sorting keys at the door in the dark. It is also what makes the rest of your security actually get used — a back door with its own awkward key is a back door that gets left unlocked.
Replacing hardware instead of rekeying is the right call in a narrower set of cases: the lock is mechanically worn, the grade is wrong, there is no deadbolt at all, or the lock has clearly been forced or drilled before. Look for filled screw holes, a scarred faceplate, or a strike plate that has obviously been moved.
And while we are there, the four screws in every exterior strike plate get replaced with three-inch ones that reach the stud. It costs almost nothing and it changes what happens when somebody puts a shoulder to the door.
Before you call anyone
Four Things To Check Before You Call
Is another door open?
Back, side, garage, basement walkout. Walking the house first resolves a surprising share of lockouts at no cost at all.
Does someone nearby hold a key?
A neighbour, a relative, a cleaner. If a key is fifteen minutes away that beats any callout, and we will tell you so on the phone.
Has the key broken in the cylinder?
Do not push the fragment in further and do not glue anything to it. Extraction is fast while the piece is intact, slow once it is not.
Is anyone or any animal shut inside?
If there is heat, cold or a medical concern, call 911 first. Say so when you call us and we treat it as the emergency it is.
Straight answers
What You Pay In Ajax, And Why
An Ajax lockout is quoted before we leave and the quote holds at your door. Daytime, overnight and holiday rates are different from each other and you hear which one applies before agreeing to anything.
Rekeying is per cylinder with the rate falling as the count rises. Four exterior doors keyed alike is a normal single visit of under an hour, and it is far better value than doing two doors now and two later.
Smart lock work is quoted by what the lock needs — batteries and a reset are a small job, a failed motor is a replacement, and we tell you which one you have before fitting anything.
Car keys are priced by what the vehicle actually requires. Cutting a spare from an existing key and generating keys from a VIN with none present are different jobs, and we sort out which applies on the phone.
Questions
Locksmith Ajax — Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take you to reach Ajax?
Fifteen to twenty-five minutes from central Whitby depending on traffic and which side of town you are on.
Should I rekey or replace the locks on a house I just bought?
Rekey, in almost every case. It stops every old key working for a fraction of the cost, and new hardware solves nothing that rekeying does not.
What does keyed alike mean?
Every exterior door runs on the same key. It costs very little extra at the time of the rekey and it is the change people notice every day afterwards.
My smart lock died in the cold. Can you help?
Yes. Cold shortens battery life sharply. We get you in, replace the batteries and tell you whether the lock itself is on its way out.
Can you cut a car key in Ajax?
Yes, at your vehicle — transponder keys, remotes and proximity fobs, including all-keys-lost from the VIN.
Do you cover Ajax overnight?
Yes, twenty-four hours including weekends and holidays, with the after-hours rate quoted before dispatch.
Service area
We Come To You
We are a mobile service — there is no shop counter to drive to. Whitby is our home base, and we cover Durham Region and the eastern GTA, day and night.
Not on the list? If you are anywhere in Durham Region, call and ask.
▸ Pringle Creek
▸ Lynde Creek
▸ Blue Grass Meadows
▸ Ashburn
▸ Myrtle Station
▸ Columbus
Locked Out? We Answer The Phone.
24/7 mobile locksmith service across Whitby, Brooklin and Durham Region. Real prices on the phone, a marked vehicle at your door, and a written invoice when we are done.