Northeast DC
Two kinds of building on the same side of town
Northeast holds some of the oldest detached housing in the District and some of the newest apartment stock, sometimes on the same street. The lock work those two need has almost nothing in common.
The older half
Brookland, Woodridge and the porch houses
Brookland and Woodridge are unusual for the District in having so many detached and semi-detached houses, a lot of them wood-framed with deep porches and side entrances. Those side and rear doors are where most of the work is: they are used daily, they were often fitted with lighter hardware than the front, and they take the weather.
Trinidad and Edgewood run closer to the city norm — flat-front two-story rows, many with basement entrances. Around Catholic University the housing turns over between student leases, and rekeying between tenants is routine rather than occasional.
A recurring job in this part of town is a house with three exterior doors on three different keys, each added by a different owner. Bringing them together is almost always a rekey rather than a set of new locks.
The newer half
NoMa, Union Market and fob-run buildings
The blocks north of Union Station are largely buildings put up in the last fifteen years, and they mostly do not use keys at the front at all. Lobby doors, garages, package rooms and elevators run on credentials issued by the building.
That changes what a locksmith is for. The building's own contractor handles common doors and the credential system. Inside a unit, we can rekey or replace the lock — but a good many buildings hold a master, and any change has to keep working with it. That is a conversation with the management office before hardware is bought, not after.
Where we are more use in these buildings is the things the fob does not cover: storage cages, bike rooms, interior office doors, and unit doors where a roommate has moved out.
Along Rhode Island Avenue
Commercial work on the corridors
Rhode Island Avenue, Bladensburg Road and the industrial pockets around them carry a different sort of door: warehouse units, auto shops, small manufacturers and long-established storefronts.
Roll-up and service doors
Cylinder locks on roll-up shutters and the padlocks and hasps that back them up. Exposed to weather and worth keeping in one keying scheme.
Storefront mortise hardware
Aluminum doors that cycle all day. Usually repairable long past the point at which they start feeling loose. See commercial work.
Staff and contractor access
Small master key systems for a business with a front, a stock room and an office, so a change of staff does not mean recalling every key.
Practicalities
Getting to you in Northeast
The shop is a short distance west of North Capitol, so Edgewood, Eckington and Brookland are close. Further east, Woodridge and Fort Lincoln are straightforward runs outside peak hours.
In the newer NoMa buildings, the practical constraint is nearly always access rather than distance: a lobby that needs a resident to open it, a garage with a height bar, or a loading dock that has to be booked with the front desk. Sorting that out before an appointment saves more time than anything else.
Questions and answers
Questions about Northeast
My building uses fobs. Can you help at all?
Inside your own unit, usually. The lobby, garage, elevator and package room belong to the building's credential system and its own contractor. If your building holds a master key for unit doors, tell us before anything is ordered, because any new lock has to keep working with it.
Can a roommate be removed from a unit's key without replacing the lock?
Yes, that is exactly what rekeying is for. The cylinder is repinned to a new key, old keys stop working, and the lock stays on the door. In a rented unit, check the lease and let the landlord know first.
Do you work on warehouse and roll-up doors along Rhode Island Avenue?
The locking hardware on them, yes — cylinders, padlocks, hasps and keying them into a wider scheme. The mechanical operation of a roller shutter, its motor and its springs is a door company's work rather than ours.
Is student turnover around Catholic University something you deal with often?
Regularly. Rekeying a house between tenants is a short job, particularly if several doors are done at once, and it removes any question about who kept a key from last year.
Keep reading
What Northeast addresses usually need
Older houses and newer buildings pull in different directions, and these three pages cover most of what falls out of both.
Northeast, both halves of it
Whether it is a 1920s side door in Woodridge or a unit door in NoMa, tell us the building and we can say what is involved.