Business Lockout

Are You Locked Out of Your Business?

When Do We Need a Locksmith?

We think about hiring a service at the time of emergency when it is needed the most and we end up choosing the first emergency service that we can find. And it turns out to be expensive due to all the rush. The trick is to do the research ahead of time to locate the service provider and not wait until the emergency arrives. This can save money and give away all the panic and the confusion.

Almost everyone at some point of time has been through a tricky situation with the keys. Either we have been locked out of the front door of our home or our vehicle to notice the keys have been left inside and locked inside. It is one of the dreadful situations, one can come across in everyday life.

This is where our emergency locksmith at Pro Locksmith comes as the savior. Our trained locksmith has the absolute knowledge of tackling different situations with their specialized tools.

Why do we need emergency locksmith services?

There are quite a number of remarkable reasons why one should have an emergency locksmith like Pro Locksmith.

Let us look at a few of the very common situations, one can come across.

What to Tell Us When You Call

The more we know before we arrive, the more likely the technician shows up with the right cylinder, the right tools, and a realistic plan. A short description over the phone saves time at the door. Useful details include:

• The type of door: glass storefront, steel rear door, wood office door, or roll-up.
• What you see on the outside: a round key cylinder, a keypad, a card reader, a lever with a key in it, or a padlock.
• Whether the door has a push bar on the inside.
• Whether an alarm is armed and whether you have the code or the monitoring company’s number.
• Whether the key is lost, broken in the lock, or simply locked inside.
• A photo, if you can take one and text it. A photo of the lock face often tells us the brand and type before we leave.

When the Cylinder Spins or the Key Turns but Nothing Happens

A common storefront problem looks like a lockout but is really a loose cylinder. Mortise cylinders on aluminum doors are held in the lock body by a set screw. When that screw backs out from vibration and daily use, the cylinder can rotate in the door. The key turns, the cylinder turns with it, and the lock never moves. Sometimes the cam on the back of the cylinder has also worn or shifted. Either way, the fix is usually at the cylinder and set screw, not the lock body, and the door can often be opened without damage by someone who knows where to work.

If you notice the cylinder wobbling or rotating when you insert the key, call before it fails completely. Tightening and re-securing a loose cylinder is a small job. Opening a door after the cylinder has spun loose and the lock is still thrown takes more work.

Keypad and Electronic Lock Lockouts

Many small businesses use standalone keypad locks on office and back doors. When these fail, it is usually one of a few things: dead batteries, a forgotten or changed code, or a keypad damaged by weather or water. Most battery-powered keypad locks have a mechanical key override, and many have a way to jump the battery from outside. The trouble is that the override key is often lost or was never handed over by the previous tenant.

Before a lockout happens, find out whether your keypad lock has an override key and where it is. Change the batteries on a schedule instead of waiting for the low-battery warning, which staff tend to ignore. If the override key is missing, having the override cylinder rekeyed so you hold a working key is a simple job that prevents a difficult one.

Lockouts in Multi-Tenant and Managed Buildings

Office buildings, medical plazas, and shopping centers add another layer. Your suite may be yours, but the lobby, corridor, or rear service hall may be controlled by the property manager. If you are locked out of the building itself, the property manager or security desk may be able to let you in faster than anyone else. If you are locked out of your own suite, the landlord may hold a key under the lease, but many do not, and after hours they may be hard to reach.

It helps to know ahead of time which doors are yours and which are the building’s, and to have the property manager’s after-hours contact on file. If the lock on your suite is part of a building master key system, changing it yourself may break that system, so check your lease or ask the manager before replacing hardware.

When We Will Not Open the Door

We open commercial doors for people who are entitled to be inside. If there is a disagreement over who has the right to the space, such as a dispute between business partners, a landlord and tenant disagreement, or a lockout that the property owner put in place on purpose, we are not the ones to settle it. Those situations need to be resolved between the parties, often with an attorney, before any locksmith gets involved. We ask questions at the door for the same reason, and a legitimate business owner is usually glad that we do.

Roll-Up Doors and Padlocks

Warehouse bays and storage units are often secured with padlocks on roll-up doors. In humid, salty air, those padlocks corrode from the inside, and a key that worked last month may not turn today. Penetrating lubricant sometimes frees them. When it does not, the padlock has to be removed, and a hardened padlock takes the right tools. Plan for a replacement lock on the same visit. For bays that are used daily, a cylinder lock built into the roll-up door or a shrouded padlock hasp holds up better than an open shackle padlock exposed to rain.

If the Lockout Follows a Break-In

Sometimes the reason you cannot get in is that someone tried to get in first. A damaged cylinder, a pried frame, or a lock that has been drilled all point to an attempted break-in. If you see signs of forced entry, call the police before touching the door and let them document it. Take photos of the damage for your insurance claim and your landlord. Once the scene has been released, we can open the door, replace damaged hardware, and secure the opening, including temporary measures if a replacement part has to be ordered.

Keeping the Business Running While Parts Arrive

Some commercial hardware, especially exit devices and certain storefront locks, is not always stocked locally in the exact finish and size. When a lock fails beyond repair, the priority is to get the door secured tonight and working tomorrow. That can mean fitting a temporary cylinder, adjusting the existing lock to function in a limited way, or securing the door from inside while you use another entrance. We will tell you what the temporary arrangement is, what it does not do, and when the permanent hardware can go in.

Keep a Key Holder List

Most businesses have one person who knows where every key is, and lockouts happen when that person is on vacation. A one-page list kept off site, with who holds which keys, the alarm company’s number, the property manager’s number, and the location of any lock box, turns a stressful morning into a phone call. Update it every time a manager changes.

We handle commercial lockouts throughout Broward County, south to Aventura, North Miami, Coral Gables, and Coconut Grove, and north to Boca Raton and Delray Beach, with commercial calls extending up to West Palm Beach.

What to Do in the First Five Minutes

A business lockout is not the same problem as a house lockout, because a closed business is losing money every minute and often has staff and customers standing outside. Before you call anyone, three things are worth doing.

Check the obvious. A surprising number of commercial lockouts are not lockouts. The door is fine and the power to the electric strike is off, or the alarm panel has put the doors into a locked state, or a closer has pushed the door hard enough that the latch has overthrown. If other things in the building are also without power, start there.

Do not force it. Commercial doors are heavier and more expensive than residential ones, and a forced storefront door usually means replacing hardware, sometimes the whole door, and being unable to secure the premises until it arrives. What starts as a lockout becomes a lockout plus an unsecured building overnight.

Work out who has authority. We will need to establish that the person letting us in is entitled to. A lease, a business license, a utility bill in the business name, employee identification, or the landlord on the phone. Any locksmith who opens a commercial door without asking is one you do not want holding your keys.

The Doors We Get Called To

Aluminum storefront

Glass panel in an aluminum frame, usually with a mortise cylinder and a hook bolt or a deadlatch. These are the most common commercial lockout in South Florida and usually the most straightforward. The failure is often the cylinder itself rather than the lock body, and a worn mortise cylinder can be changed without touching the door.

Steel man-doors

The personnel door beside a loading bay or at the rear of a unit. Heavy, often with a rim cylinder or a mortise lock, and frequently with an exit device on the inside. These take the most abuse of any door in a commercial building because they are used constantly and rarely maintained.

Doors with exit devices

If the door has a push bar, the inside mechanism is what actually holds it shut, and opening it from outside without damage requires understanding which device it is. This is where the difference between a locksmith and someone with a drill becomes expensive.

Electric strikes and maglocks

Access-controlled doors fail in two directions. A fail-secure door stays locked when power is lost, which is what strands you outside. A fail-safe door releases when power is lost, which means a power cut leaves the building open. Knowing which yours is matters before there is a problem, not after.

Roll-up and overhead doors

Slide bolts, hasps and padlocks that corrode in this climate, plus cylinder locks built into the door itself. A seized padlock on a roll-up is a common Monday morning call.

Cabinets, tills and back-of-house

Cash drawers, filing cabinets, medicine and records storage, server cupboards and desk pedestals. These are lower drama than a front door and they still stop the day.

After the Door Is Open

Getting in solves today. The reason it happened is usually still there, and a lockout is the cheapest warning you will get.

If a key was lost or is unaccounted for

Rekey. A key you cannot account for is a key that still works, and on a commercial building it may open more than one door. Rekeying the affected cylinders is far cheaper than replacing hardware and it can usually be done the same visit.

If the lock failed rather than the key

Commercial cylinders wear on a schedule set by use. A door opened three hundred times a day is not comparable to a house door. When a cylinder starts binding it does not recover, and the second failure is rarely as convenient as the first.

If the door will not latch properly

This is the one to take seriously. A door that will not latch is not secured overnight regardless of what the lock does, and if it carries exit hardware it may also be failing its fire and egress function. Usually the cause is a dropped hinge, a shifted strike or a closer that no longer pulls the door fully home.

If it keeps happening

Repeat lockouts are a key control problem, not a lock problem. The usual pattern is too many keys, no record of who has them, and staff turnover. That is what a master key system is for.

Preventing the Next One

Master keying

One key for the owner or manager that opens everything. Individual keys for staff that open only the doors they need. When somebody leaves you rekey their doors, not the building. For a business with more than a handful of doors and more than a handful of people, this is the difference between a five minute change and a bad afternoon.

Restricted keys

Standard keys can be copied at any hardware counter. A restricted system means blanks are controlled and duplicates are only issued to people you have authorized. If you have ever wondered how many copies of your back door key exist, this is the answer to that question going forward.

Access control

Fobs and codes rather than keys, with a record of who opened what and when. The practical benefit is not the record, it is that revoking access takes seconds and costs nothing, which changes what happens when someone leaves badly.

A spare set held properly

A key safe fitted somewhere sensible, with a code known to two people, prevents most lockouts entirely. It is the cheapest item on this page. Fit it out of sight, not beside the door it opens.

Who We Work With

Storefronts and retail, restaurants and bars, offices and professional suites, medical and dental practices, warehouses and light industrial units, auto shops, salons, gyms, schools, places of worship, property managers and landlords across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

What It Costs

One price for the whole job, given before we start, not added to once the door is open. What it depends on is the door and the hardware, which is why we ask what you are standing in front of. The published breakdown is on the prices page.

24-Hour Emergency Commercial Lockouts

We answer around the clock, because a business locked out at six in the morning cannot wait for opening hours. Tell us the address, the door, and what the lock looks like. Call (954) 406-8266.