Commercial locksmith in Raleigh

When should a business rekey?

Whenever a key is unaccounted for. The common triggers are an employee with keys leaving, a lost key ring, a change of tenant, or taking over a space from a previous business. If your locks use interchangeable cores, the small figure-eight cylinders found on many commercial doors, the cores can be swapped in seconds per door with a control key, which keeps a rekey quick even across a large building.

What is a master key system?

A master key system gives each person a key for only the doors they need, while a manager's key opens all of them. A cleaner's key might open the front door and the supply closet. A department key opens that department. The owner carries one key instead of a ring.

The value is in the planning: who needs which doors, with room left for future changes, and a written key record so the system stays under control as people come and go.

Exit devices, closers and storefront doors

• Panic bars and exit devices. Required on many commercial exits so people can get out with one push. We repair, replace and install them, and add exterior trim or alarms where needed.
• Door closers. A door that slams or will not latch is usually a closer that needs adjusting or replacing. A door that does not latch is not locked.
• Aluminum storefront doors. The narrow-stile locks, pivots and thumb-turns on glass storefronts are their own category of hardware, and we service them.
• Lever handles. Accessibility rules generally call for hardware that works without tight grasping or twisting, which means levers in place of knobs on public doors.

Keys, keypads or cards?

Keys are cheap and reliable but cannot be switched off when one goes missing. A stand-alone keypad lock on the door staff use most lets you change a code in a minute and is often the best-value upgrade for a small business. Card or phone-based access control adds schedules and an audit trail and makes sense once you have many users or doors. We will give you a plain recommendation for your building and not sell you more system than you need.