Author: Bjørn Madsen

What if I told you that you can get a padlock for your toolshed or gate that used the same key as your front door?  I know, I know: “Get out of town, you weaver of tales!” you will say.  And yet, it is true!  The Abus 83 series is rekeyable.  I can sell you one and key it to y our house for $40.  You won’t ever have the problem of losing that key or forgetting that combo ever again.  And when it comes time to change the locks, you change the padlock’s too.  It is a lifetime investment for a quality piece of hardware.

When you move into a new house, you may consider rekeying it.  If you want to have it rekeyed, call me.  If you don’t, please consider the following reasons why you should have it rekeyed:

1.  You don’t think your house needs to be rekeyed because the house was just built/is new.  This boils down to whether or not you trust each and every contractor that had access to the keys to your house.  Remember, the contractors need to come and go as they please to get the house built properly.  They have plenty of time to copy the keys.  If even one of the many contractors helping to build your house decides that they want keys to a new house which some affluent person is going to buy and fill full of expensive stuff that he wants, you are going to want his key not to work!

2.  When you bought the house, the realtor assured you that the old owner had no keys.  This assumes that the old owner isn’t lying, didn’t lend multiple keys out to friends, relatives, workers, hide keys around the house under rocks or in brick walls or behind lights, etc.  When I move into some place, I want absolute assurance that I and my most trusted family and friends am the only ones with the keys.  Promises won’t cut it.  I have too much on the line for a promise.  I can rekey my place for free.  You can pay me to rekey your place for what I argue is a paltry sum, compared to the amount of money you have invested in all of your belongings and your family’s safety.

What this argument boils down to is, unless you bought your house from somebody who you absolutely trust (and you trust everybody that they may have given a key to), you really can’t afford not to rekey your space.  Security is the basis upon which our lives are built.  You have to be assured that you can come home to a safe place that nobody else has broken into.  When somebody does break into your place, you will feel violated and unsafe.  You can’t repair that damage easily, and with no sum of money.

Most deadbolts allow you to swap out the cylinder so you don’t have to buy a new lock to change the keyway.  Did I lose you there?  Ok, imagine you want all of your locks to work with one key but some of the locks work with a different kind of key.  Any quality deadbolt will give you the ability to swap out the cylinder.

You can buy just about any kind of cylinder from me for less than $35, and I will rekey it for $20.  If you want a special cylinder with a restricted keyway that only a locksmith can provide keys for, I can also provide those to you for a tad more money.  These cylinders are great because bump keys are far more difficult to procure and use on them.  If you want a cylinder with a side bar, I can provide you with these as well.  This makes lockpicking far more difficult and bumpkeying almost impossible.  It also makes drilling far more involved, requiring twice the number of holes.

Additionally, a restricted keyway gives you the satisfaction of knowing that people will have a very difficult time copying your keys.  They will have to go to a locksmith and that locksmith is required to ask for proof that you have permission to copy the key, or own the key.

So, you would like to increase your home’s security?  Most people don’t think deeply about this problem and put a band-aid on it: they buy a more expensive lock.  Unfortunately, that will rarely make your home more secure.

To figure out what you need to do to increase your home’s security, first we must identify who it is that we are trying to keep out.  For most people, we don’t need to keep international diamond thieves out.  Here in Seattle, we residentials only need to keep unsophisticated men in the pitiful throes of desperation at bay.  They are probably not educated, nor do they have any abilities related to lockpicking.  They probably don’t know how to use a bumpkey, either.  Most likely they will attempt to kick your door open, open an unlocked door or window, or possibly pry your door open with some kind of prying tool.

To keep such men honest, we must identify the weakest links in our chain of security.  We must put on the glasses of the common criminal and identify what means he would use to enter our home.  This may include as was mentioned before forcing the door or lock, gaining entry through an unlocked door or window, or perhaps using a key either found or entrusted to him or an acquaintance of his.

Key control is important.  Don’t lend your keys to people unless you not only trust them, but everybody who has access to their keys.  Children with loose lips may give out your garage door code to their friends who may be shady.  If you must lend out keys to people, consider lending keys that are stamped “Do Not Duplicate” or even better, lend keys that only operate a doorknob, and won’t open the door when the deadbolt is locked.

Your ground level entry doors need to have deadbolts. If you don’t have a deadbolt and are only relying on a doorknob, your door is probably really vulnerable unless you live inside some building with external locks.  I can install deadbolts for you if your door doesn’t have one, or replace the deadbolt with a better one.

Even the best lock won’t keep people out of your house if your door is hollow core and your door frame is thin and not anchored well.  If you really care about security, make sure that your lock’s strike plate is anchored to a stud with some long screws (at least two, hopefully three) and that the door is somewhat sturdy.  A good inexpensive way to increase your home’s security is to put long strike plates on all of your ground level entry doors.  I can install these for you.  I can also install a deep strike pocket with 3.5″ screws for your existing deadbolt.  Even the cheapest Defiant deadbolt from Home Depot will fare better with a strike pocket installed.

If you are also concerned that people may try to defeat your locks, you can also elect to replace the cylinder inside your lock housing with a lock cylinder that has a side bar and steel rods and ball bearings to prevent drilling through the lock’s keyway.  Of course, this is a little bit more expensive than replacing the strike plate.  It is still a reasonable and less expensive option than replacing the locks outright, however.

There is a great deal of paranoia right now concerning the use of bump keys.  I will retrofit your lock cylinders with anti-bump springs and anti-pick pins.  They will work the same with your keys, it will just make it incredibly hard for somebody to manipulate your lock open.

Another great way to prevent unauthorized entry is to make your property look more difficult to break into.  Get motion-activated lights, get alarm signs in your yard, get alarm stickers, get signs warning of a large mean dog, leave a pair of size 13 boots outside every door, spent shell casings near your back door, etc.  This way nobody will even think of breaking into your property.  Also clear away large shrubs or trees that are near your windows and doors.  This gives criminals cover under which they may be more comfortable working on opening your door, knowing they are less likely to be observed.

Also don’t leave expensive looking objects in window view, especially laptops and iphones and the like.  Remove temptation, and make yourself a hard target.

If you have a car made in the last twenty years and sold in North America or Europe, your keys probably have transponder chips in them.  That is why everybody wants so much money to copy them!  It isn’t cutting the key, it is programming the chip inside that requires very expensive equipment that is the reason for the high cost.

If you have a DIY mindset and some time, you can avoid paying lots of money though.  All you have to do is crack open your key blank, take out the transponder, and put it in some other key blank that is identical.  Then you have a locksmith copy that key.  It is easy, and will save you $90 or so.  Of course, it won’t give you two copies from one but if you messed up one of your keys or maybe even your only key, this could be the answer for you.

The other option open to you is to take the broken key, copy it onto a new key, and cut the transponder out and tape or glue it near your ignition.  Then any key with the correct cuts will operate your car, unless the transponder falls off.  The benefit to this trick is that it makes it a lot harder to lose your only transponder.  If you lose your only key containing a transponder, it costs a lot more money to program your car to accept a key with a new transponder.  Could be over $300, and the dealership will probably ask for more than that!

I have always wondered about the feasibility of setting up my own security system using off the shelf parts.  Wireless security cameras are everywhere and they are cheap!  I have plenty of experience setting up hardware and software systems.  There are drawbacks to doing this, though.  Apparently insurance companies essentially enforce ADP’s market dominance by requiring a third party company to do your security system.  Some slashdot users have found ways to circumvent this requirement, however, and in the comments are the thoughts of many brilliant nerds on DIY security systems.  My favorite so far were

1. Blue Iris Security Software

2. A big caveat to using cheap cameras on your network

3. Slick Willy points out that you can get a better system than ADP will give you with their “free” system and it will be cheaper after a few years of not paying $50 a month.

4. Also the Elk M1 appears to be highly thought of amongst people who have taken the plunge and rolled their own security system.  They will supply you with all of the training manuals and stuff necessary to install.

In Washington State you have to be a licensed electrician to run electrical cables, so beware!

What will 2014 bring?  For me, it will be lots of locks, keys and lube to make them work with each other.  Along with these hopefully will be many laughs.  What is in your year’s future?  I hope that everybody has a good year in 2014.  Also, let nobody have to carry more than one house key on their key ring!  Call me to consolidate keys and make your life simpler.

It costs a bit of money to get a broken key out of a lock.  If you don’t know how to take your lock apart or don’t fancy the idea of procuring an old hacksaw blade and sticking it in your keyway to get junk out of there, consider inspecting your keys for hairline fractures and replacing the ones that look like they might break soon.  You are also well advised to not use keys to pull doors open.  They are only for unlocking doors, not pulling them open.  If you abuse your keys, you may be looking at a $65 charge sooner rather than later!

I can copy keys for you, but you can copy your keys inexpensively at many places including your local hardware store or even Fred Meyer’s, where it is about $2/key.  Be advised, they don’t always work very well.  Test them to be sure when you get home.  Better yet, keep an original code cut key in your desk and always make copies of that key.