North Hollywood locksmith: home, business, car and emergency service

What does a locksmith in North Hollywood do for you?

Most calls from North Hollywood fall into four groups: you are locked out and need in now, you want your home locks changed or repaired, a business needs its doors secured, or a car key has gone missing or stopped working. We handle all four as one company, and the people who answer the phone are the same people who stand behind the work.

This page is the overview. Below you will find what each kind of job looks like here, what drives the cost, and what is specific to the neighborhood: the mix of older bungalows and apartment buildings, the newer mid-rise buildings near the Metro station, the commercial streets, and the summer heat. North Hollywood is majority renter, so the work often involves apartments, shared entries, mailbox banks and landlords as much as single-family front doors.

Locked out in North Hollywood: what emergency service looks like

Our phone is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year, at (213) 577-1366. A real person picks up, and that person can tell you what we can do and what information we need. Our emergency locksmith service covers the situations that cannot wait until morning.

Apartment lockouts are a good example of how a North Hollywood call differs from a house call. In the newer mid-rise buildings in the NoHo Arts District, getting into your unit may involve a keyed deadbolt, a fob-controlled entry, or a mix of the two. If the building has an on-site manager or a key box, calling them first is sometimes the lighter-cost route, and we will tell you so. If you cannot reach anyone, or the problem is the lock itself, we can help with apartment lockouts directly, after we confirm that you live there.

• Locked out of a house, apartment, business or car
• Key snapped off inside a lock or ignition
• Lock damaged after a break-in attempt, or a door that will not latch
• Keys lost or stolen and you need the locks secured tonight
• A deadbolt that jams and traps you inside or outside

Home and apartment locks, from bungalows to mid-rises

Interior streets in North Hollywood have 1920s to 1940s bungalows. Those doors have often been repainted, re-hung and re-keyed over many decades, so the hardware can be worn and the fit imperfect. Sometimes the right fix is new cylinders; sometimes it is adjusting the strike plate and tightening the hinges. Our residential locksmith work starts with looking at the door, not with selling a new lock.

Because so many people here rent, one of the most common requests is a change of keys after a move-in or move-out. Rekeying the locks changes the key that works without replacing the hardware, which is usually the more economical route when the existing locks are in decent shape. Landlords and tenants both ask us about this, and we are happy to explain who should arrange what under your own lease.

Older multifamily buildings add their own hardware: shared-entry doors, intercom-linked strikes, and aging mailbox banks. A tired entry door that does not latch properly puts every resident at risk, and a mailbox lock that no longer secures mail is a common complaint. We service shared-entry hardware and handle mailbox lock replacement when the existing locks are worn or the keys have been lost.

Beyond that, we install and repair deadbolts, replace worn locksets, duplicate keys, fit smart locks, and look after gate locks and safes. If you are not sure which of these you need, describe the problem on the phone and we will point you the right way.

Business and storefront locks along Lankershim and Magnolia

Lankershim Boulevard and Magnolia Boulevard are working commercial streets, and storefront rekeys are one of the ordinary jobs there. A shop changes hands, an employee leaves with a key, or a lock has been sticking for months and finally fails. Our commercial locksmith service covers rekeying, replacing and installing locks, plus exit hardware, door closers and access control where a business needs them.

Glass storefront doors deserve special mention. They often use narrow-stile hardware and a pivot or hinge setup that wears with heavy daily use. When the latch no longer catches or the door drags, storefront lock repair may solve it without replacing the whole door. We will look at the frame, closer and latch together, because fixing only one of them often means the problem returns.

The Arts District also has theaters and small venues, and their doors work differently from a typical office. Audiences come and go, back-of-house doors see constant staff traffic, and exit doors must open easily from the inside. We can service panic hardware, rekey doors when production crews or staff change, and set up master key systems so one person can open what they need and nothing more. If a business is locked out after hours, we handle that too.

Car keys and lockouts near the Metro station

Our automotive locksmith service covers car lockouts, broken keys, ignition problems and car key replacement. A situation that comes up around the North Hollywood Metro B/G Line Station is a driver who has lost the only key to a car left nearby, or locked it with the key inside before heading for a train.

What it takes to replace a car key depends heavily on the make, model and year. Some keys are simple cut metal, some contain a transponder chip that has to be programmed, and some smart or proximity keys need extra equipment. We do not guess. We confirm the details by VIN and in person before we promise anything. For a few vehicles the key type is dealer-only, and when that is the case we will say so plainly instead of letting you wait for something we cannot deliver.

If you have a spare key, tell us. Making a copy is usually simpler than starting from nothing, and it is worth doing before the spare is also lost.

How does a North Hollywood locksmith call work?

Here is the usual path, whether you call at noon or at three in the morning. Because our vans are mobile, we come to wherever you are, whether that is a driveway, an apartment hallway, a theater back door or a parking lot. See how our mobile locksmith service works if you want more detail.

1. You call (213) 577-1366 and tell us where you are, what happened and what you are trying to open or fix. Mentioning the ZIP code and the nearest cross streets helps.
2. We ask a few questions: the type of door or lock, the car year, make and model if it is a vehicle, and whether anyone else holds a key.
3. We tell you honestly what to expect for arrival. Our base is in Westwood, so we do not pretend to be around the corner, and traffic across the hills affects the trip.
4. On arrival we verify that you live in the home, own the car or have authority over the business. This protects you and everyone else.
5. We look at the problem and explain the options, including the less invasive route where one exists, and what the work involves.
6. You approve the plan before we start, then we do the work and test every key, latch and lock before we leave.

What affects the cost of locksmith service in North Hollywood?

We do not publish prices on a web page, because the same phrase, such as locked out, can describe very different jobs. What we can do is tell you what moves the total, and we will talk it through before any work begins.

• Time of day: nights, weekends and holidays call for different staffing than a weekday afternoon.
• Travel: our Westwood base is about 14 miles from North Hollywood, and the distance and traffic are part of the equation.
• The kind of job: opening a standard door is a different task from drilling a seized lock or extracting a broken key.
• Hardware: a basic cylinder, a high-security lock, a smart lock and commercial exit hardware all vary widely in cost.
• Rekey or replace: if the existing hardware is sound, rekeying is usually the more economical route than new locks.
• Vehicles: the key type, whether it needs programming, and whether the car is dealer-only for certain keys.
• Quantity and condition: the number of locks, and whether a door that has swollen or shifted needs adjusting as well.

What is different about doors and locks in North Hollywood?

Housing here ranges from small bungalows to a large stock of postwar apartment buildings, and in the last few years newer transit-oriented mid-rise apartments have gone up around the North Hollywood Metro station. That mix means three different security problems on one street grid: old single-family hardware, aging shared entries and mailbox banks, and modern buildings with fob and smart-entry systems. We adapt to whichever one you have.

North Hollywood sits on the flat valley floor, with hot, dry summers. For exterior doors, the main seasonal issue is heat-related expansion of the door and its frame. A door that closed cleanly in spring may rub, bind or refuse to throw the deadbolt in July. People often assume the lock has failed when the real issue is alignment. Please do not force a sticking bolt or keep turning a key that resists. You can snap the key or damage the cylinder. Call us, and we will check the fit before suggesting new hardware.

Where we work in North Hollywood

We serve the whole neighborhood and the ZIP codes 91601, 91602, 91605 and 91606. That includes the NoHo Arts District, West Toluca Lake, Toluca Woods and Toluca Terrace, as well as Valley Plaza, the NoHo West area at the former Laurel Plaza site, and the Lankershim Boulevard and Magnolia Boulevard corridors.

If you are near the Television Academy, the El Portal Theatre, North Hollywood Park, the Amelia Earhart Regional Library or Valley Plaza Park, tell us when you call, because a recognizable landmark helps us find you. For a venue, shop or building with a less obvious entrance, give us the street, the door and a contact number.

Why do people in North Hollywood call Wilshire Lock & Key?

We have been in business since 1987, with a real storefront at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood and mobile service vans. We are one company. Your call is not passed to a dispatch middleman who then finds someone to send. The person who gives you the options is part of the team that does the work, and David, our owner and lead technician, oversees how we operate.

We are honest about distance. We are not based in North Hollywood. The base is 14 miles away, and we say so up front, so you can plan around it. What you get in return is a long-established company with a physical shop, a phone that is answered at all hours, and straightforward explanations.

We serve 140 cities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, so you will not find us confused by a lock that is unusual. If you are comparing us with other companies, you may find our home page helpful for the rest of our services.

Neighborhoods and ZIP codes we cover

North Hollywood areas we serve include NoHo Arts District, West Toluca Lake, Toluca Woods, Toluca Terrace, NoHo West area (former Laurel Plaza site), Valley Plaza, Lankershim Boulevard corridor, Magnolia Boulevard corridor. ZIP codes: 91601, 91605, 91606, 91602.

Nearby service areas

• Valley Village
• Toluca Lake
• Studio City
• Valley Glen
• Sun Valley
• Burbank