Van Nuys locksmith: home, business, car and emergency service

What does a full-service locksmith do in Van Nuys?

Van Nuys keeps a locksmith busy in more ways than most neighborhoods do. On a single day the same part of town can produce a renter locked out of a garden apartment, a shop owner whose front-door latch has started to stick, a traveler who has lost a car key near the airport, and a government-area office that needs a sensible keying plan. We handle all of it, as one company, through one phone number: (213) 577-1366.

This page is the overview. Below you will find how each kind of work is handled in Van Nuys, how a call goes from the first ring to a finished job, what moves the cost up or down, and what the local housing and summer heat mean for your locks. Each section points to a deeper page if you want the details on one specific service.

• Emergency lockouts and after-hours calls, any day of the year
• Home and apartment work: rekeying, repair, replacement, new deadbolts
• Business work: storefront hardware, commercial keying, office access
• Car work: lockouts, lost keys, key replacement, ignition trouble

Who do you call for an emergency lockout in Van Nuys?

If you are standing outside a door you cannot open, call us first and read later. Our line is answered around the clock, every day, and the person on the phone will ask a few plain questions: where you are, what you are locked out of, and whether anyone inside needs help getting out. Our emergency locksmith service in Van Nuys covers houses, apartments, cars, and businesses at any hour, including nights, weekends, and holidays.

Apartment lockouts are the call we expect most along the Sepulveda Boulevard corridor, where multifamily buildings are packed close together and a locked unit door is often the only thing between you and your keys, phone, and wallet. An apartment lockout call starts with us confirming that the unit is yours, because we open doors only for the people who live there or the people who manage the building. Most openings are done without damaging the door or the lock.

Broken keys, a deadbolt that will not turn at night, or a door that was forced and no longer closes are emergencies too. We secure the door first so you can sleep or leave the property safely, and the permanent repair can wait for daylight if you would rather handle it then.

What home and apartment lock work do we do in Van Nuys?

Most of the housing here is older, and older housing means older hardware. The postwar bungalows and ranch houses on the flats often carry locksets that are decades old, and many of the older apartment buildings still have the original knob-and-deadbolt combination on unit doors. Our residential locksmith work is mostly about bringing that hardware up to something you can trust without replacing more than needed.

Tenant turnover is a large part of the picture in an area with a high renter share. When a unit changes hands, the more economical route is usually to rekey the existing locks rather than replace them: every old key stops working, and the hardware stays on the door. That is the sensible approach for garden apartments like the ones around Kester Avenue. Property managers with several units can also look at our locksmith services for landlords, which keeps a whole building on one consistent keying plan instead of a drawer full of mystery keys.

• Rekeying so old keys stop working without buying new hardware
• Adding or replacing deadbolts on doors that only have a knob lock
• Fixing latches that bind, strike plates that have drifted, and keys that stick
• Smart lock and keypad installation where an owner or a renter, with the landlord's approval, wants one
• Locks on security screen doors, which are common on the denser blocks and often neglected

What do we do for Van Nuys businesses?

Van Nuys Boulevard is lined with small businesses whose doors work hard. A front door gets opened all day, aluminum storefront hardware loosens over time, and the problem usually shows up at closing, when the door will not lock. Our storefront lock repair work is often about catching that looseness before it becomes a lockout or an unsecured building overnight. We also handle push bars, door closers, replacement cylinders, and business lockouts.

Around the Van Nuys Civic Center and the government complex, the need tends to be different. Offices want a keying plan with levels of access, so the key that opens the front desk does not also open the records room. That is the job of a commercial locksmith, and it starts with a conversation about who needs to go where, not with a catalog.

Businesses in the Raymer Street industrial district near Van Nuys Airport usually care about other things: after-hours access, keys that have spread to too many hands, and rekeying after staffing changes. Where it makes sense we also install access control and master key systems, so one change in a policy does not mean changing every lock by hand.

What about car keys and car lockouts in Van Nuys?

Van Nuys Airport, the FlyAway bus terminal, and the Amtrak/Metrolink station bring a steady flow of people who do not live nearby, and who discover at a bad moment that a car key is missing or locked inside a parked car. Our automotive locksmith service comes to the car, wherever it is parked. If you are in a lot or on a street, give us the cross street or lot name and where in the lot the car sits, and we will find you.

For car key replacement, what we can do depends on the vehicle, and we confirm it by VIN and in person rather than assuming. We ask for the make, model, and year, and we need proof that the car is yours. Some vehicles turn out to be dealer-only for certain keys, and if yours is one of them we say so plainly instead of sending a van to find out.

The same visit can cover a broken key stuck in a door or ignition, a key fob that has stopped working, or an ignition that no longer turns. Tell us the symptoms on the phone and we will sort out what is likely and what is not.

How does a call to us from Van Nuys work?

Here is what happens when you call (213) 577-1366 from anywhere in Van Nuys.

David, the owner and lead technician, oversees the work, so a question that the technician on site cannot settle has someone to go to.

1. The call is answered, any hour of any day.
2. We ask where you are, what is locked or broken, and what kind of door or vehicle it is. For a car we also ask for make, model, and year.
3. We tell you honestly how soon a van can reach you from where it is working, and what will affect the cost of your particular job.
4. A technician arrives and confirms that the door, car, or business is yours, or that you are authorized to be there, before touching the lock.
5. We open, repair, rekey, or replace using the least invasive method that will work. Drilling is a last resort, not the first move.
6. We test every lock and key with you, hand over the keys, and explain what was done and what to watch for.

What affects the cost of locksmith work in Van Nuys?

We do not put numbers on a web page, because an honest number depends on the job in front of us. What we can do is explain what moves the cost, so nothing on the phone feels like a surprise.

The lighter-cost option is often repair or rekeying instead of replacement. We tell you when that is the case, even when replacement would be a bigger job for us.

• The kind of work: opening a door, rekeying, replacing hardware, and cutting a car key are very different amounts of labor.
• The hardware: a standard builder-grade deadbolt and a high-security cylinder are different products with different price points.
• The time of day: nights, weekends, and holidays take more of a technician's time and availability than a scheduled daytime visit.
• The condition of the lock: a latch that binds in summer heat may need only an adjustment, while a worn-out lock may need replacing.
• The number of locks: rekeying one door is not the same as rekeying a building, and larger batches are usually more economical per lock.
• For vehicles: make, model, year, key type, and whether we can program the key or the dealer must.
• Where the van is coming from when you call, which can play a part in some situations.

What should Van Nuys residents know about their locks?

The housing here tells you what to expect. Postwar 1940s and 50s bungalow and ranch tracts dominate the flats, and 1960s through 80s garden apartments and dingbat-style multifamily buildings fill in along corridors like Sepulveda, Kester, and Victory. With so many renters, keys pass through many hands, and many older apartment buildings still have their original knob-and-deadbolt hardware. In practice that means rekeying is worth doing at every move-in. On the denser blocks near the civic center, security screen doors are a common sight, and their locks stick and wear without anyone noticing until they fail.

The weather matters too. The interior San Fernando Valley runs well hotter than the Westside in summer, and heat can swell wood doors and frames until latches bind. A door that fights you in August may close easily in winter. Often the fix is an adjustment, not a new lock, and forcing a swollen door can snap a key in the cylinder, so call before you lean on it. Corrosion risk is low this far from the coast, so locks here tend to fail from wear and age, not rust.

We work across the Van Nuys Civic Center, the Van Nuys Airport district, the Van Nuys Boulevard, Sepulveda Boulevard, Victory Boulevard, and Sherman Way corridors, the Kester Avenue area, and the Raymer Street industrial district, in ZIP codes 91401, 91405, 91406, and 91411. These are the calls that come up most:

• Apartment lockouts in multifamily buildings along the Sepulveda Boulevard corridor
• Storefront lock repair for small businesses on Van Nuys Boulevard
• Car key replacement for travelers near Van Nuys Airport and the FlyAway terminal
• Rekeying after tenant turnover in Kester-area garden apartments
• Commercial keying for offices around the Van Nuys Civic Center government complex

Why do people in Van Nuys call Wilshire Lock & Key?

We are not around the corner, and we would rather say so. Our storefront is at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood, about 12 miles from Van Nuys, and our mobile vans work from there across 140 cities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. You can see all of them on our locations page. Here is what you get in exchange for the distance:

California requires locksmith companies to hold a BSIS LCO license. Ask any locksmith, including us, for the license number before work starts, and check it with the state. A company that dodges the question is telling you something.

• We have been in business since 1987.
• A real storefront plus mobile vans, so there is a physical shop behind the phone number.
• One company, no dispatch middlemen: the people who answer the phone and the technician who arrives are working for the same business.
• David, the owner and lead technician, oversees the work.
• The phone is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year.

Neighborhoods and ZIP codes we cover

Van Nuys areas we serve include Van Nuys Civic Center, Van Nuys Airport district, Van Nuys Boulevard corridor, Sepulveda Boulevard corridor, Victory Boulevard corridor, Kester Avenue area, Sherman Way corridor, Raymer Street industrial district (near Van Nuys Airport). ZIP codes: 91401, 91405, 91406, 91411.

Nearby service areas

• Lake Balboa
• Valley Glen
• Panorama City
• Sherman Oaks
• North Hills
• Encino