The former City of York covers some of Toronto's most varied neighbourhoods: Weston along the Humber, Mount Dennis, Oakwood Village, Humewood and the Eglinton West corridor known as Little Jamaica. It is a place of older detached houses and semis, low-rise walk-up apartments, and long commercial strips with independent shops above which people live.
For a locksmith, that means a lot of small-business work alongside home security, and a lot of doors that have been painted, patched and re-hung many times over the decades.
We come west along St. Clair or Eglinton, or across on Davenport depending on the address. Eglinton traffic has been shaped by years of Crosstown work, so the dispatcher checks the current route before quoting an arrival window.
York is part of our core Toronto coverage. We operate 24/7, and the dispatcher gives you an arrival window based on where the nearest technician is when you call.
Detached and semi-detached houses from the early and middle twentieth century make up much of York, often with multiple entrances because of basement apartments. Walk-up apartment buildings along the main streets have shared front doors with intercoms and individual unit locks. The commercial strips on Eglinton West, Weston Road and Oakwood Avenue are full of storefronts with roll-down security grilles, rear steel doors onto laneways, and owners who live nearby and want their shop and home keyed sensibly.
Houses with a basement apartment benefit from a simple key plan: one key for the landlord that opens everything, one for each unit that opens only its own door and the shared entrance. That is easy to set up with a rekey and avoids handing out duplicates of the owner's key. Shop owners should tell us whether the grille, the front door and the rear door need to be on the same key or kept separate.
Give each unit its own key for its own door, and key the shared entrance so both households can use it. The owner can have a key that opens every door. A rekey usually achieves this without replacing hardware.
We service the locking side of folding grilles, padlocks and hasps, and can advise when the grille itself needs a metal fabricator. Describe the problem and send a photo if possible.
Yes. Both are within the former City of York and part of our regular Toronto coverage from the Yonge Street base.
It can, but it is often better not to. If a staff member needs the shop key, you probably do not want it to open your home. We can key them separately and give you a convenient key ring instead.
We can usually make it secure the same day, with a temporary or permanent repair depending on the damage. Photograph the damage first if you plan to report it to police or your insurer.
Call Better Call Locksmith Toronto on (416) 240-0593. We operate 24/7; the dispatcher will explain the service call and give you an honest arrival window for York before anyone is sent.
