Los Angeles locksmith for homes, businesses and cars

What does a locksmith in Los Angeles actually cover?

Los Angeles is not one kind of place, and the lock work changes with it. A student locked out of a Westwood apartment, a property manager with a failed entry door in a Wilshire Corridor high-rise, a shop owner in Downtown whose panic bar won't release, and a driver standing next to a car with the keys inside are four different jobs. We do all four, and this page is the overview of how we approach them.

We split the work into four broad groups: emergency and lockout calls, home and apartment lock work, business and commercial hardware, and automotive keys and locks. Each has its own page for Los Angeles with more detail, and the sections below explain what sits in each group and how to know which one you need.

We are one company, not a call center. When you phone (213) 577-1366, you reach our own operation, and the technician who comes to you works for us. David, the owner and lead technician, oversees the work.

• Emergency: lockouts, broken keys, damaged locks after a break-in attempt, lost keys that need immediate action
• Home: rekeying, lock replacement, deadbolts, smart locks, mailbox locks, gate locks, safes
• Business: storefront locks, panic hardware, door closers, master key systems, access control
• Automotive: car lockouts, lost keys, key fobs, transponder programming, ignition problems

Emergency and lockout help in Los Angeles

If you are locked out, or a door will not secure and you cannot leave it that way, start with our emergency locksmith service in Los Angeles. The phone is answered around the clock, every day of the year, including nights, weekends and holidays. We will not quote you an arrival time over the phone that we can't stand behind, because traffic across the city varies too much. What we can do is tell you honestly what we know once we hear where you are.

Apartment lockouts are among the most common calls in central and west Los Angeles, because renters outnumber owners across most of the central city. Our apartment lockout service is built for the details of those buildings: keyed entry doors behind an intercom or controlled-access gate, older mortise locks, and doors where the landlord or building manager has a say in what we change. When we can open a door without damaging it, that is what we do. When the lock is broken or the door has been forced, we explain what needs to be repaired or replaced before we touch anything.

Other emergency situations we handle in the city include a key snapped off in a lock, a deadbolt that turns but does not retract the bolt, a door that was kicked and no longer latches, and a lock that was tampered with. Each one begins with the same question: is the door secure right now? We deal with that first, then talk about the permanent fix.

Home and apartment lock work

Most of our residential calls are not emergencies. They are people who just moved in, ended a roommate arrangement, lost a key months ago and kept wondering, or finally decided the old hardware needs attention. Our residential locksmith work in Los Angeles covers repair, replacement, installation and key work for houses, condos and apartments.

The most useful service for a new tenant or new owner is usually a rekey. Rekeying changes the internal pin configuration so that the old keys stop working and a new key operates the lock, without replacing the hardware. Our lock rekey service is usually the more economical route when the existing locks are sound, and it is often the right answer in a building where you have no idea who kept copies. If the lock is worn, damaged or simply poor quality, replacement makes more sense, and we will say so plainly rather than rekey something that should not stay on the door.

Beyond rekeys, we install and service deadbolts, smart locks, high-security cylinders, mailbox locks and gate locks, and we copy keys. We also work with landlords and short-term rental hosts who need to turn units over cleanly, with clear key control between tenants or guests.

Business and commercial locksmith work

Commercial doors take more abuse than residential ones, and they carry more rules. A door might need to be locked from outside yet always open from inside for exit, or a suite might need keys that open some doors and not others. Our commercial locksmith service in Los Angeles covers those requirements, from simple lockouts to full hardware changes.

Storefront doors are a category of their own. Glass doors with narrow stiles, pivot hardware, panic bars and heavy daily use wear out in particular ways, and a failing storefront lock is both a security problem and a business problem. See our storefront lock repair page for what we look at on those doors.

We also work on door closers, commercial door hardware, panic bar installation, master key systems and access control. A master key system is worth planning properly before it is installed, because the way it is designed decides how many people can open which doors, and changing it later costs more than getting it right the first time.

Car keys, car lockouts and ignition problems

Automotive work is a different skill from door work. Our automotive locksmith service handles car lockouts, lost keys, broken keys, key fobs, transponder programming and ignition repair. If you have lost every key to a vehicle, our page on lost car key replacement explains what the process involves.

We are careful about what we promise on cars. Whether a key can be cut and programmed by a locksmith depends on the make, model, year and the type of key system. Information on some vehicles is unverified or conflicting, so we confirm by VIN and in person rather than guess over the phone. Some vehicles are dealer-only for certain key types, and when that is the case we tell you honestly instead of taking a job we cannot finish. You deserve to know that before anyone drives out to you.

How does a Los Angeles call work, start to finish?

The process is the same whether the call comes from Westwood or Downtown, but the details change with the building and the lock. Here is how it goes.

1. You call (213) 577-1366. A person answers, at any hour. Tell us where you are, what the door or vehicle is, and what happened.
2. We ask questions that help us prepare: the type of lock, whether it is a house, apartment, business or car, whether there is any damage, and whether you can show ID or proof that you live there or own the vehicle.
3. We send a mobile van from our operation. Our storefront is at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood, and our vans work across the city, so they do not all start from one spot.
4. On site, we confirm who you are and that you have the right to get in. We do this for every lockout, because opening a door for the wrong person is the worst mistake a locksmith can make.
5. We look at the lock before we do anything and tell you what the job involves, what the options are, and what drives the cost. You decide before work begins.
6. We do the work, test the lock or key several times, and hand over every key. If something else on the door looks unsafe, we point it out without pushing it.

What affects the cost of locksmith work in Los Angeles?

We don't post prices on a page like this, because a lockout on a plain apartment knob and a lockout on a damaged high-security deadbolt are not the same job. What we can do is be clear about what moves the cost, so a quote makes sense when you hear it.

Rekeying is usually the lighter-cost option compared to replacing hardware, as long as the existing locks are in decent shape. Replacement costs more because it involves new hardware, and the quality of that hardware matters.

• Type of job: opening a door, rekeying, repairing, replacing or installing new hardware are all different amounts of work
• Type of lock: a basic knob, an older mortise lockset, a high-security cylinder and a smart lock each need different skills and parts
• Condition of the door and frame: swollen, misaligned or damaged doors can add work beyond the lock itself
• Time of day: nights, weekends and holidays involve an after-hours call-out, which affects the price
• Number of locks: rekeying several locks to one key is more work than a single cylinder, though it often saves on keys
• Vehicles: make, model, year, key type and whether programming is possible without the dealer
• Parts: hardware brand and grade, and whether a part has to be ordered
• Access: a building with controlled entry, gates or a manager's approval can add time before we start

What does the Los Angeles locksmith picture look like?

Housing stock drives most of what we see. Central and west Los Angeles has 1920s and 1930s Spanish Colonial Revival and Tudor homes in Mid-Wilshire and the older flats, postwar single-family tracts in Mar Vista and Rancho Park, and a very large number of mid-century apartments and dingbats in Palms, Sawtelle and Koreatown. Many older buildings still carry original mortise locksets and mid-century hardware. Those locks can often be repaired, and a good mortise lock is worth keeping, but the parts are not like a modern deadbolt and the repair needs someone who has handled them before.

The Wilshire Corridor through Westwood is lined with HOA-managed condominium high-rises, and Downtown adds loft conversions in early-1900s commercial buildings. Renters outnumber owners across most of the central city, so controlled-access entries, intercoms and mailbox banks are common. That shapes the work: more rekeys at move-in, more building-access questions, and more calls where the person who needs the lock changed is not the person who controls the building.

Climate has a modest effect here. Most of the central city has a mild Mediterranean climate. The Westside gets regular morning marine layer, which can leave exterior hardware damp, while neighborhoods further inland run warmer and drier. The effect on doors and locks is small, mostly seasonal swelling of older wood doors on the foggier Westside, which can make a door stick or a latch bind. If a door gets harder to lock in certain months, that is often the reason, and an adjustment can fix it before it turns into a lockout.

We work across the city's neighborhoods, including Westwood, Century City, Brentwood, West Los Angeles, Sawtelle, Rancho Park, Cheviot Hills, Palms, Mar Vista, Bel Air, Beverly Glen, Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire, Koreatown and Downtown Los Angeles. The ZIP codes we cover in the city include 90024, 90025, 90049, 90064, 90067, 90035, 90036, 90046, 90028, 90038, 90010, 90005, 90020, 90017, 90014 and 90012.

Some scenarios come up often enough to name:

• Apartment lockouts around UCLA and Westwood Village student housing
• Condo and building-access lock service in Wilshire Corridor high-rises
• Storefront lock and panic-hardware repair in Downtown's Historic Core and Fashion District
• Move-in rekeys in renter-heavy Palms, Sawtelle and Koreatown apartment buildings
• Office suite rekeying in Century City towers
• Older mortise lock repair in 1920s Mid-Wilshire homes

Why do people in Los Angeles call Wilshire Lock & Key?

We are not going to claim things we cannot prove. Here is what is true, and it is the reason we think we are worth calling.

We have been in business since 1987. Our storefront is at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood, which is within Los Angeles, and the base sits about 1 mile from the city's reference point in our service data. We also run mobile service vans, so the shop and the vans work together. If you need a key cut, or you want to bring in a lock for a look, you can come to the storefront. If you cannot leave the building, we come to you. For work in the wider area, our mobile locksmith service explains how the vans operate.

We are one company, with no dispatch middlemen. Many locksmith listings online route calls through a third party who then hands the job to whoever is available. When you call (213) 577-1366, you are calling us. The phone is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year-round. David oversees the work as owner and lead technician.

We serve 140 cities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and you can see them on our locations page. Los Angeles is home base, not just another entry on a list.

How do you check that a locksmith is legitimate in California?

California requires locksmith companies to hold a license from the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS), called a Locksmith Company license, or LCO. You should ask any locksmith you call for their license number, and you are entitled to check it with the state before they start work. Ask for it on the phone, not after the van has arrived.

Other signs worth watching for: a business name that is vague or changes depending on who answers, a very low number quoted on the phone that grows once the technician is at your door, and a refusal to verify who you are before opening a door. A real locksmith asks for ID because it protects you. If a company sounds evasive about its name or address, treat that as a reason to hang up and call someone else.

Neighborhoods and ZIP codes we cover

Los Angeles areas we serve include Westwood, Century City, Brentwood, West Los Angeles, Sawtelle, Rancho Park, Cheviot Hills, Palms, Mar Vista, Bel Air. ZIP codes: 90024, 90025, 90049, 90064, 90067, 90035, 90036, 90046, 90028, 90038, 90010, 90005, 90020, 90017, 90014, 90012.

Nearby service areas

• Beverly Hills
• West Hollywood
• Culver City
• Santa Monica
• Marina del Rey
• Inglewood