You just picked up the keys to a resale home in Burlington and you have no idea how many copies are floating around. The previous owners. The contractor who did the kitchen reno. The neighbour who watered the plants. Rekeying the locks is the single fastest way to start clean, and it is the first call most of our new-homeowner customers make.
Treco Locksmith & Security is a 24/7 mobile service covering Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville, Stoney Creek, Brantford, Grimsby, and Caledonia. We carry a 5.0 rating from 204 Google reviews. No storefront, no waiting room, we come to you.
Core Residential Services
Rekeying
Rekeying changes the internal pin tumblers inside your existing lock cylinder. Old keys stop working. Your current hardware stays in place. It is the most cost-effective way to control who has access to your home after a move, a tenant change, a lost key, or a relationship breakdown.
Most standard pin-tumbler locks, the kind found on the vast majority of Burlington and Hamilton homes, can be rekeyed quickly on-site. We can also key multiple locks alike so one key opens every exterior door on the property. Front door, back door, garage entry, all on the same key.
Lock Changes and Installations
When the hardware itself is the problem, worn mechanisms, a lock that sticks in winter, a knob-set on an exterior door with no deadbolt, replacement is the right move. We supply and install deadbolts and locksets in a range of grades to suit your door and your budget.
Builder-grade locks (ANSI/BHMA Grade 3) ship on most new construction and cost the least. They offer basic protection and are fine as a starting point for interior doors.
Residential-grade locks (Grade 2) are the right minimum for any exterior door. Better pick resistance, better durability.
Commercial-grade / high-security locks (Grade 1) are the strongest off-the-shelf option for residential use. Worth considering on a main entry door.
Deadbolt Installation
A knob or lever alone on an exterior door is not enough. A deadbolt adds a solid bolt that cannot be retracted without the key, it cannot be pushed or shimmed open the way a spring latch can. If your home has any exterior door with only a knob or lever, adding a deadbolt is the highest-return security investment you can make.
We install single-cylinder deadbolts (key outside, thumbturn inside) and can advise on double-cylinder options for doors with adjacent glass panels, where a thumbturn would be reachable through a broken pane.
Smart Lock Installation
Smart locks fall into a few categories:
- Keypad deadbolts, standalone, battery-powered, no app or Wi-Fi required. Highly reliable. Good for garages and secondary entries.
- Connected smart locks, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth with an app, remote locking/unlocking, access logs, and temporary codes for tradespeople or guests.
- Retrofit units, mount on the interior side of your existing single-cylinder deadbolt. Preserve your current exterior hardware and key backup. August is the best-known example.
We verify door thickness, backset measurement, and deadbolt compatibility before recommending a unit. Every install includes confirming that the physical key backup works before we leave.
High-Security Upgrades
High-security locks use restricted keyways (copies require proof of ownership at an authorised dealer), hardened anti-drill plates, and internal anti-pick and anti-bump engineering. If someone has a key bump tool and ten minutes, a standard Grade 2 lock is a manageable obstacle. A Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, or Abloy is not.
They are not for every door in the house. But for a front entry on a high-traffic street, or any door a previous occupant had keyed access to, the upgrade cost is modest compared to the difference in resistance.
Broken Key Extraction
Keys break in locks most often in winter, when a worn key and a stiff lock meet a hard turn. We extract the broken portion without damaging the cylinder, then rekey or cut a replacement key on-site.
Residential Lockouts
Locked out? Call (905) 977-8476. We dispatch directly to your address, 24 hours a day. No service call made after 5 pm gets treated differently than a daytime call, same technician, same process. See our emergency locksmith page for more on after-hours response.
Rekey or Replace: How We Decide
We ask three questions on arrival:
- Is the lock in good mechanical condition? If the cylinder turns smoothly, the bolt throws cleanly, and the hardware is not visibly worn, rekeying is the right call.
- Is the grade appropriate for this door? A Grade 3 knob-set on a back door facing a laneway deserves an upgrade. A Grade 2 deadbolt in good shape does not need to be replaced just because you moved in.
- Do you want smart lock capability or a restricted keyway? Rekeying cannot add those features. Replacement can.
If the answer to all three points to keeping the hardware, we rekey and you save money. If one or more suggests replacement, we tell you what the upgrade costs before we do anything.
Burlington and Hamilton: What the Housing Stock Means for Your Locks
Burlington and Hamilton sit roughly 50 kilometres apart on Lake Ontario but carry very different housing eras, and that matters for lock work.
Burlington built out in waves. Aldershot and downtown Burlington have homes dating to the 1940s and 1950s, some with older knob-set hardware or non-standard bore holes from an era before modern deadbolt sizing was standardised. The core suburban ring, Appleby, Brant Hills, Palmer, is 1960s through 1980s, mostly standard bore, but with hardware that is now 40-60 years old and often due for replacement. The newer subdivisions in Millcroft and the east end (Longmoor, Tansley, corporate-built streets off the Appleby GO corridor) carried builder-grade Grade 3 locks out of the box. They work fine but are worth upgrading, especially on a resale where five families may have had copies made over the years.
Hamilton is older, denser, and more varied. Kirkendall, Durand, Strathcona, Stipley, and the North End have large concentrations of Victorian and Edwardian brick homes, genuinely century-old housing stock. Lock hardware in those homes can be anything: original mortise locks from the early 1900s, a mix of retrofit deadbolts added by different owners across decades, or worn pin-tumbler cylinders with keyways that are no longer well-supported. We carry a range of parts and cylinders precisely because we see that variety every week. Gibson-Stipley also draws a lot of first-time buyers and investors who need a fast security refresh before or after a tenancy change, rekeying is the most common first call.
Whatever your home’s age or neighbourhood, the approach is the same: assess what is there, tell you honestly what it needs, and get it done in one visit.
What Drives the Cost
We do not publish flat rates because the variables are real:
- Number of locks, more doors, more time and hardware.
- Lock grade, Grade 1 hardware costs more than Grade 3. It also lasts longer and performs better.
- Smart lock vs. standard, the device cost is the main variable; labour for a smart lock install is similar to a standard deadbolt.
- Door condition, a misaligned strike plate or a door that has shifted in its frame adds time. We fix what needs fixing.
We quote before we start. No surprises on the invoice.
Also from Treco
If you need access control for a rental suite, a small office, or a commercial property, see our commercial locksmith services. For vehicle lockouts and automotive key work, see our automotive locksmith page.
Ready to rekey, upgrade, or sort out a lockout? Call us any time at (905) 977-8476, 24/7, no after-hours surcharge disclaimer required. We are mobile across Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville, and the surrounding area. Or contact us online and we will get back to you fast.