Washington DC Locksmith | Home, Business and Car Lock Services

Three kinds of work

Start with the category, then narrow it down

Almost everything we do sits in one of three groups. Each one has its own page explaining the hardware involved, what tends to go wrong with it and what a visit normally covers.

01 Residential locksmith work Row house front doors, English basement entrances, apartment and condo units. Rekeying after a move, replacing worn hardware, sorting out a door that has stopped latching. Home lock and key work
02 Commercial locksmith work Storefronts, offices, restaurants and multi-tenant buildings. Master keying, hardware that has to survive hundreds of cycles a day, and exit devices that have to keep working. Business door hardware
03 Automotive locksmith work Getting back into a car, cutting a replacement blade, programming a transponder key or fob, and dealing with a key that has snapped in the door or ignition. Car locks and keys

Looking for something specific? The full list of services breaks these down further.

How we approach it

A lock that will not turn does not always need replacing

A key that binds halfway is often a worn key rather than a failing cylinder. A door that needs a shove before the bolt will throw is usually a hinge or a strike plate problem, and the lock on it is fine. A deadbolt that turns but leaves the door loose may only be short on throw.

None of that is obvious from the outside, which is why the first thing we ask for is a description rather than a decision. If the answer turns out to be rekeying the cylinder you already have rather than buying new hardware, that is a better outcome for everyone.

Where a repair genuinely will not hold — a cracked housing, a bolt that has been forced, hardware that has outlived its parts supply — we will say so and explain what replacing it involves.

Questions worth asking any locksmith

What will this cost before you start?: Ask on the phone, and ask again before work begins. A description over the phone is usually enough for a realistic range.
Is the business address a real one?: Ours is 1 Kennedy St NW. A locksmith who cannot name a fixed address is worth a second question.
Will you need to drill the lock?: Most residential lockouts do not require it. If someone leads with drilling, ask what they tried first.
What identification do you need from me?: Any locksmith should ask you to show that the property or vehicle is yours. If nobody asks, that is a warning rather than a convenience.

More about how the shop works

What happens next

From the first call to a working key

Four stages, and you can stop after any of them. Nothing is ordered or drilled or replaced before you have agreed to it.

Send the details in writing if it is easier than talking it through.

Describe the problem

What the lock or key does, what it used to do, and what you need to end up with. For a vehicle, the year, make and model. For a business door, a photo of the hardware saves a lot of guessing.
Agree the approach and the cost

We tell you what the likely work is and what it will cost, including anything that could change once the hardware is off the door.
Check who we are working for

Identification and something showing the address or vehicle is yours to enter. This is not a formality we skip.
Do the work and hand over the keys

You get the keys that operate the lock, and a plain explanation of what was changed and what was left alone.

Where we work

Across the District, with the shop in upper Northwest

Kennedy Street sits between Petworth and Brightwood, so most of the District is a short run. Four parts of the city have pages of their own describing the buildings and the hardware we see there.

Northwest DC

Petworth, Brightwood, Columbia Heights and the streets around the shop, where brick row houses and English basement entrances dominate.

Northwest coverage

Northeast DC

Brookland, Edgewood, NoMa and Trinidad, mixing pre-war bungalows with newer buildings running fobs and package rooms.

Northeast coverage

Capitol Hill

Historic row houses, original mortise hardware and a lot of doors that have moved with the seasons for a century.

Capitol Hill coverage

Georgetown

Federal-period houses, heavy timber doors and hardware that is often worth restoring rather than replacing.

Georgetown coverage

Addresses in Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Hyattsville, Arlington and Alexandria are reachable too, depending on the day and the work involved. The service area page explains how we decide.

Before you decide

Reading that saves a call, or makes the call shorter

Four write-ups covering the questions we answer on the phone most often. None of them ends with a sales pitch.

Guide

Rekey or replace?

The difference between changing what a lock accepts and changing the lock, and the handful of situations where only one of them works.

Troubleshooting

When a door stops latching

Six checks you can make yourself, in the order a locksmith would make them, before anyone touches the hardware.

Guide

Which car key do you have?

Mechanical, transponder and proximity keys look similar in a pocket and cost very different amounts to replace.

All guides and articles

Questions and answers

Questions we are asked before the first visit

A few more are answered on the questions page.

What does Washington DC Locksmith actually do?

Lock and key work on homes, businesses and vehicles: rekeying, repairs, replacing worn or damaged hardware, lockouts, cutting and programming car keys, master key systems for businesses, and fitting keypad or connected deadbolts. The services page lists each one separately.

What hours are you open?

Every day from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM. Those are the hours the phone is answered and work is scheduled. We do not advertise availability outside them.

Do you travel outside Washington, DC?

The District is where nearly all of our work is. Addresses in nearby Maryland and Northern Virginia are possible depending on the day, the distance and the job. Give us the address and we will tell you honestly whether we can get there. See where we work.

What identification will I need?

Something showing who you are, plus something connecting you to the property or vehicle: a lease, a deed, a utility bill, a registration document. For a business, we need to hear from someone with authority over the space. This applies to every job, including ones where you are standing outside your own front door.

Can you tell me the price over the phone?

For clearly defined work — rekeying a known number of cylinders, cutting a mechanical key for a listed vehicle — yes. For a lock that is misbehaving in a way nobody has seen yet, we can give a range and confirm it before starting. Ask, and keep asking until the answer is a number.

Tell us what the lock or key is doing

A short description on the phone is usually enough to work out what the job is. Written enquiries are answered during opening hours.

Request a Quote Call (202)929-4209

Locksmith work for homes, businesses and vehicles across the District