Marpole and Oakridge locksmith
Up the Cambie corridor in South Vancouver.
A 1954 bungalow with a side suite and a 2023 Cambie tower need different things from a locksmith. Tell us which one you are standing in front of, so we can bring the right parts.
Marpole and Oakridge are half post-war bungalows, half brand-new Cambie strata.
South Vancouver is changing fast, and you can read it off the doors.
1950s bungalows and suites on the Marpole side streets
The backbone of Marpole, added to over seventy years. Many now have a basement or side suite with its own entrance: two doors, two tenancies, and often one key doing both jobs.
New six-storey and tower strata along the Cambie corridor
Developer-specified hardware, fob entry on everything common, and a parkade underneath. The locks are predictable. Who held the keys before you is another matter, covered below.
Oakridge Park and the shops along Marine Drive
Retail and food premises on aluminum storefront doors, plus back and lane doors taking deliveries. Commercial hardware, commercial wear.
Warehouse and yard doors toward the Fraser River
The industrial strip south of Marine Drive, down to the river. Overhead door locks, side and back doors, padlocks and yard gates, often on sites where nothing was ever keyed to a plan.
What Marpole homeowners, Cambie strata and Marine Drive shops call a locksmith for.
Lockouts at Marpole bungalows where the suite door is round the side
Tell us which door when you call. Side and basement entrances often differ from the front: another lock, another age, sometimes another owner. Non-destructive entry first, wherever the lock allows.
Rekeys when a Marpole house sells to a builder or a new family
Either way, by possession day nobody can tell you who else holds a key.
Move-in rekeys at new Cambie corridor strata
Worth doing as soon as you get the keys, for the reason covered below. Rekeys start from $35, on top of the service call.
Storefront and warehouse locks along Marine Drive
Hook bolts, closers, mortise cylinders and overhead door locks, scheduled around your trading hours.
Car keys made in the Oakridge Park parkade or a Marpole driveway
Cut and programmed at your vehicle, and car lockouts are handled there too. Have the year, make and model ready. In a parkade, add the level, the stall and a way in for the van.
Marpole side streets have parking. Cambie corridor towers mostly do not.
This is the practical split, and it is worth a sentence when you call.
On Marpole's residential streets there is usually curbside space outside your house, often a lane, and frequently a driveway. That is the straightforward half of the neighbourhood.
Along Cambie it changes completely. Many newer buildings have no street-level visitor parking, loading bays that need booking through the concierge, and parkades with gates and fob-controlled elevators.
If you are in one of those, tell us the building name and arrange how the van gets in. That decides how long the visit takes, more than the lock itself.
Either way, we come to you. The shop at 929 Drake Street opens soon, and every job is mobile until then, anywhere in the Lower Mainland. Evenings, weekends and holidays are by appointment.
New Cambie corridor strata keep the builder's keys in play until someone rekeys.
Worth knowing if you have just moved into a new building, because it is easy to miss.
A new condo is finished by trades. During construction and handover, the suite runs on a construction key or a builder's master.
In the months before you got your keys, the door was likely opened by drywallers, painters, flooring crews, cleaners, inspectors, the developer's staff and the realtor.
Many systems are designed so the first use of your key retires the construction key automatically. Not all of them are, not all are set up correctly, and handover rarely includes documentation either way.
Rekeying your suite cylinder on move-in settles it, at modest cost. It changes nothing about your fob, which belongs to the building. If the strata keeps a master key to suites, ask the manager first.
Rekeys start from $35, on top of the $75 mobile service call, which is never the whole bill. The price guide sets out the rest, and you hear the total before any work begins.
Marpole and Oakridge questions, from bungalow to Cambie tower.
Should I rekey a brand-new Cambie corridor condo before I move in?
We would. The lock is new, but "new" and "only you have a key" are different claims, and the second one is the one that matters. It is a short job on a single cylinder.
The old owner's keys to my Marpole suite are still out there. Rekey or replace?
Rekey, almost always. If the hardware is sound, new pins retire every old key and your lock stays. Replacement earns its cost when the lock is worn, damaged or the wrong grade for the door.
Can you secure a vacant Marpole house that is waiting on a demolition permit?
Yes. Usually a rekey to one site key, plus padlocks or hasps on outbuildings and gates. You can let trades and inspectors in without a set of keys circulating indefinitely.
Can you rekey a Marine Drive shop after closing so the day's trade is not disrupted?
Yes, you can book a commercial rekey for after closing. Evening work is by appointment and charged at a higher rate, which usually beats closing your shop during trading hours. We quote both options.
In Marpole or Oakridge with a lock that will not cooperate? Send the cross street and the lock type.
The cross street, whether it is a house, a suite, a new strata or a shop, and a description of your lock. For a new building, add its name and how we get in.