Most keys we copy are strata keys: a suite deadbolt, a lobby mailbox, a locker down on P2. We bring the machine to your building, duplicate suite, house, mailbox, locker and padlock keys while you wait, and turn every copy in the lock it belongs to. Fobs stay with your building manager.
A copy is only as good as the key it was traced from, and plenty of Burnaby originals came out of a handover envelope years ago. We cut to the bitting, gauge the result, and try it in your lock before it goes on your ring.
Key cutting here is mostly apartment work. The Expo Line towers around Metrotown, the newer concrete on Willingdon Avenue and Beta Avenue in Brentwood, and the buildings on the Burnaby side of the Lougheed hub produce the same call over and over: one suite key came with the unit, a second person now lives there, and nobody wants to be the one without a key. Calls from the detached streets in Burnaby Heights, Capitol Hill, Deer Lake and along Government Road look nothing like that, and the van carries blanks for both.
On a key cutting call the strata line falls in one place: we cut metal, and we do not clone fobs. That makes a full spare set for a condo two errands rather than one. The suite deadbolt, the patio hardware, the mailbox and the storage locker key are all cut while you wait; the building credential has to be issued by your manager, who logs it against your unit. Bring the original rather than a copy of a copy, because every generation of duplicate drifts a little further from the cuts the factory made, and the third one is usually where the sticking starts.
| Key type | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Suite or house deadbolt key (per copy) | $5–$15 |
| Mailbox, storage locker or padlock key | $8–$20 |
| Five or more copies (price per key) | $4–$10 |
| Dimple key (Mul-T-Lock, Kaba and similar) | $20–$45 |
| Restricted or high-security key, with authorization | $30–$70 |
| Cut by code or from the lock, no original | $40–$90 |
Those figures cover the blank and the cutting. Controlled profiles sit at the top of their range because the blank costs more and the cuts are tighter. The call out is quoted on the phone once you give us the address and the number of keys.
Photograph the head of the key or read us what is stamped on it. That tells us whether you have a Kwikset KW1, a Schlage SC1, an older Weiser, or a restricted profile that needs paperwork first.
Brentwood and Metrotown buildings put visitors underground almost without exception, so we want the street address, the suite number and the visitor stall level. If your strata controls the elevator, say so and we will arrange a building contact.
Every copy is cut to the bitting, checked on a gauge, and turned in your own lock. If it drags, we cut another. Mailbox and locker keys cost nothing extra in travel while the van is already there.
Build era is the quickest way to guess and it is usually right. Buildings that went up before roughly 2005, which covers much of Metrotown, Highgate and the older rental stock toward the Central Park side, are heavily pinned to the Kwikset KW1 keyway: cheap to copy, easy to source, and among the least pick resistant things on the market. Construction from 2010 onward in the Brentwood and Lougheed corridors leans to Schlage C, the SC1 blank, or to a proprietary restricted profile the developer specified. Both SC1 and KW1 ride in the van. A restricted profile is a different errand. Only the registered keyholder can authorise a copy, so ask the strata for its key authorization card before you book.
Two situations turn a five dollar job into a different conversation. The first shows up in condos pushing twenty years, the early 2000s stock around Highgate and the older Metrotown buildings: the key turns only at one exact lift angle, the pins drag, the plug has a little play. A copy of that key copies the workaround and performs worse, because fresh pins do nothing for worn spring seating. That cylinder wants replacing. The second is the pre-1950s housing in Burnaby Heights and the oldest blocks at the Edmonds end near the New Westminster line, where mortise bodies and lever hardware predate standardised cylinder prep. Some of those copy fine from period stock. Some have to be cut from the lock.
One key is a condo answer. A townhome in the Lougheed clusters, behind Kingsway at Highgate, along the corridor in Cariboo or on the South Slope usually runs two or three cylinders: front entry, a patio slider or rear deadbolt, often a garage side door. Hand us all of them on one visit and you leave with a matched set. Detached houses in Buckingham Heights, off Government Road and around Deer Lake go further, with five or more exterior entries that piecemeal replacement has left on different keys. There, more copies is the wrong fix. Ask about a rekey so one key opens the lot.
The transponder chip in a modern car key head has to be married to your vehicle's immobiliser, so a blade cut on our machine will slot in and turn nothing. If you want a spare for the car sitting in your Metrotown or Brentwood parkade, go to car key replacement instead. Same van, programming done where the car is parked.
Pick your area for local detail on access, parking and the hardware we see most.
The rest of the work travels on the same truck.