Master Key Systems in Gilroy

A master key system is a hierarchy in metal. Each tenant or each crew opens their own door and nothing else; a master opens a floor, a row of units or a whole yard; and sometimes a grand master sits above that for an owner or a manager. Designed properly it replaces a drawer of keys with one that is worth protecting. Designed carelessly it produces keys that open doors nobody intended, which is worse than no system at all.

That is why it is never quoted over the phone. Every door gets walked and counted first: what hardware is on it, whether the cylinders can take the pinning, who needs to reach it, and which doors must stay outside the system entirely — a chemical store, an owner's office, a meter cupboard. The walk-through does not commit you to anything, and it is the only way a figure can be honest.

In this town the common shapes are a row of units along the highway, a motel corridor, a packing operation with a yard and several buildings, or a landlord holding several shopfronts on the old main street. Outdoor locks and padlocks can usually be brought into the same system, which on a yard is where most of the benefit sits.

Cost is quoted as one figure after the walk-through, because the honest inputs are the number of doors, the number of levels and the state of the hardware. Existing cylinders in good order are repinned rather than replaced wherever possible, which is usually the largest saving available. Keys are stamped and issued against a list, so in a year there is a record of who holds what.