Valley Glen locksmith: homes, businesses, cars and emergencies

What locksmith work do we do in Valley Glen?

Almost everything a lock can need, we do in Valley Glen. That covers four broad areas: emergencies when you are locked out or a door will not secure, home and apartment lock work, commercial door and access hardware, and automotive keys and lockouts. This page is the overview. Each area has its own page with more detail, and I link to them below so you can go straight to the one that matches your situation.

We are one company. The person who answers the phone at (213) 577-1366 works for Wilshire Lock & Key, not a call center that sells your job to whoever is closest. The work is done by our own technicians, and David, the owner and lead technician, oversees how we do it. That matters most on the jobs where a wrong call costs you a door, a key or a car.

If you are standing outside a locked door right now, skip to the section on how a call works, or just phone us. If you are planning ahead, such as rekeying after buying a house or tightening up a rental, keep reading, because the Valley Glen details change what we recommend.

Emergency lockouts and urgent lock problems

Lockouts do not keep office hours, and neither does our phone. Our line is answered around the clock, every day of the year, including holidays and the middle of the night. For anything urgent, such as a lockout, a broken key in a lock, a door that will not latch after a break-in attempt, or a lock that has seized, start with our emergency locksmith service in Valley Glen.

Most lockouts are solved without damaging anything. A good technician reads the lock and the door first, then picks the least destructive method that works. Drilling is a last resort, not a first move. If a lock is already damaged, or the key has snapped off inside, the approach changes, and we will tell you what we are seeing before we cut or drill anything.

Lockouts at a house and at an apartment are different problems. A house usually means a single entry with a deadbolt and a knob or handle set, and sometimes a second door. An apartment can involve a building-controlled lock, a management key, or a lease that limits what you may change. If you are locked out of a single-family home, our house lockout service page explains the process. For multi-unit buildings, see apartment lockout help in Valley Glen.

Home and residential lock work

Most of our non-emergency calls in Valley Glen are about the house. People buy a home and want to know who else holds a key. Tenants move out and the landlord wants the locks reset. A deadbolt has gotten stiff, or a front door has started to drag. Each of these has a different fix, and the right one is not always the most expensive one.

Rekeying is the usual answer after a move. It changes the internal pins so old keys no longer work, while keeping the existing hardware. It is often the more economical route compared with replacing every lock, provided the hardware is in decent shape. Our lock rekey service covers how that works. If the hardware is worn, loose or mismatched, replacement or an upgrade makes more sense, and we will say so rather than rekey a lock that will fail next year.

• Rekeying and changing locks after a purchase, move-out or lost key
• Deadbolt installation and repair on front, back and side doors
• Lock repair for sticking, loose or worn hardware
• Key duplication and high-security key systems
• Smart lock installation, where it suits the door and the household
• Mailbox lock replacement and safe work

Business and commercial locksmith work

Valley Glen has working commercial strips along Victory Boulevard, Burbank Boulevard and Oxnard Street, and commercial hardware has its own demands. Doors open and close hundreds of times a day, so closers wear, latches loosen and storefront locks take a beating. Our commercial locksmith work covers lockouts, rekeying, door hardware, panic bars, door closers, master key systems and access control.

Business jobs often carry safety and liability issues that home jobs do not. An exit door has to open from inside without a key. A master key system has to be planned so that one lost key does not force you to replace every cylinder. When we quote a commercial job, we explain what the hardware is meant to do and what the building needs, not just what is quickest to install.

If you lock up the shop at night and a key breaks, or a former employee still has a key, call. Rekeying or reconfiguring a system quickly is often the practical fix, and it can usually be done without replacing the doors.

Car keys, car lockouts and ignition problems

Our automotive locksmith service covers car lockouts, lost keys, key fob replacement, transponder key programming and ignition repair. Cars vary a great deal, so I will be plain about how we handle them: we do not promise what a key will take until we know the vehicle.

What a replacement involves depends on the make, model, year and key type. Some vehicles can be handled at the curb. Some need specific programming equipment. A few are dealer-only cases, and when that is true we will tell you honestly instead of starting a job we cannot finish. We confirm by VIN and in person before we commit to a plan, since guessing wastes your time.

Have your registration or proof of ownership ready, since we need to be sure the car is yours before we make a key for it. If you have a spare key, say so on the call, because that often changes the approach.

How does a call to us in Valley Glen work?

The process is simple, and it stays about the same whether it is 2 p.m. or 2 a.m.

1. Call (213) 577-1366. A person answers, any hour, any day.
2. Tell us where you are, what happened and what kind of lock, door or vehicle is involved. A cross street or a nearby corridor helps us find you.
3. We explain what the job is likely to involve and what will affect the cost, so there are no surprises when we arrive.
4. A mobile technician comes to you from our fleet. Our base is in Westwood, 13 miles from Valley Glen, so we will be straight about timing when you call instead of giving you a made-up number.
5. On site, the technician confirms who you are and that you have the right to access the property or vehicle, looks at the lock, and chooses the least damaging method.
6. You get the work done, working keys in hand, and an explanation of anything that should be repaired or upgraded later. You decide what happens next.

What affects the cost of locksmith work in Valley Glen?

I will not quote numbers on a web page, because a job is not priced until someone knows the lock, the door and the situation. What I can tell you is exactly what moves the cost, so you can judge any quote you get from us or anyone else.

• The type of job. A simple lockout is a different task than a broken-key extraction, a rekey of several locks or a full hardware replacement.
• The lock itself. Standard residential hardware is quick to work with. High-security cylinders, older or worn hardware and commercial grades take more time and skill.
• The time of day. After-hours and holiday calls involve pulling a technician off rest, which is reflected in the price.
• Parts and keys. Rekeying uses the existing hardware, while replacement adds the cost of new locks. Vehicle keys and fobs vary widely by make and model.
• The number of locks or doors. Rekeying five locks costs more than rekeying one, though the per-lock effort often drops when they are done together.
• Condition and access. A lock damaged by a failed pick attempt or a swollen door can add work.
• Distance. Valley Glen is 13 miles from our Westwood base, and travel is part of any mobile service.

What is the Valley Glen locksmith picture like?

Valley Glen sits on the central valley floor and was carved out of Van Nuys and North Hollywood in the late 1990s. The housing is older than the neighborhood's name suggests. Postwar 1940s and 1950s single-family tracts make up most of it, with apartment buildings concentrated along Victory and Vanowen. The hardware in many of those homes is original or has been replaced piecemeal over decades, so we often find mismatched locks, worn cylinders and keys nobody can account for.

Heat is the main seasonal factor. Summers are hot and dry, and heat-driven expansion of doors and weatherstripping is the most common seasonal problem. A door that fit in winter can bind in July, and a deadbolt that used to throw smoothly starts to catch against the strike plate. Before replacing a lock, we check whether the door has shifted or the weatherstripping has swollen, because sometimes the lock is fine and the alignment is the problem.

We work across the whole neighborhood, including the Los Angeles Valley College district, the Tujunga Wash Greenway corridor, and the Victory Boulevard, Burbank Boulevard and Oxnard Street corridors, plus the Fulton Avenue area. We cover ZIP codes 91401, 91405 and 91606. Landmarks like Los Angeles Valley College, Ulysses S. Grant High School, Valley Glen Community Park and the Tujunga Wash Greenway are useful reference points when you are giving us directions.

A few situations come up in Valley Glen more than others:

• Lockouts at student rentals near Los Angeles Valley College, where keys get lost, roommates change and nobody is sure who has a copy
• Rekeying postwar tract homes after a purchase, so the previous owners, contractors and neighbors with spare keys no longer have access
• Apartment building lock service along Victory Boulevard, from tenant lockouts to entry hardware and mailbox locks
• Gate and padlock work for properties backing the Tujunga Wash Greenway, where gates see weather and constant use

Landlords, student rentals and properties near the wash

With so many rentals near the college and apartment buildings along the main boulevards, property owners call us often. Turnover is the key issue: every time a tenant leaves, you cannot be certain how many copies of the key exist. Rekeying between tenants is the standard, practical answer, and we can set up a schedule or key system that keeps it manageable. Our page for landlords in Valley Glen goes into that in more depth.

For properties that back onto the Tujunga Wash Greenway, the side and rear gates are often the weak point. Padlocks corrode, latches sag and gates get forced. We repair and replace gate hardware and recommend something that will hold up to sun and use, which sometimes means a better latch rather than just a better lock. Our gate lock repair page covers what we do.

Why do people in Valley Glen call Wilshire Lock & Key?

I will be honest about what we are and are not. Our storefront is at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood, 13 miles from Valley Glen, so we are not around the corner. What we offer is a real company with a real location, mobile vans that come to you, and the experience of a business that has been working in this trade since 1987. You can see our service areas across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, 140 cities in all.

Here is what that means in practice. There is no dispatch middleman between you and the technician. The person you talk to works for us, the van that arrives is ours, and David oversees the standards we work to. If something goes wrong, there is a company with a street address to answer for it, not an app.

One more thing worth knowing: California requires locksmith companies to hold a BSIS LCO license, which is issued by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services. Ask any locksmith you call, including us, for their license number before they start work. A legitimate company will give it to you without hesitation. If someone dodges the question, that tells you what you need to know.

Neighborhoods and ZIP codes we cover

Valley Glen areas we serve include Los Angeles Valley College district, Tujunga Wash Greenway corridor, Victory Boulevard corridor, Burbank Boulevard corridor, Oxnard Street corridor, Fulton Avenue area. ZIP codes: 91401, 91405, 91606.

Nearby service areas

• Van Nuys
• Valley Village
• North Hollywood
• Panorama City
• Sherman Oaks
• Lake Balboa