Master key systems
One key for the person who needs every door, individual keys for everyone else, designed on paper before anything is cut. $600 for the design visit.
Why we sell the survey rather than a quote
Every master key page on the internet says “call for pricing,” which is a polite way of saying nobody can quote it. That is true — the number depends on how many openings you have, what hardware is on them, and how many levels of access you actually need.
So we made the first step a real product with a real price. $600 buys a site visit where we survey every opening, design the keying hierarchy with you, and hand you a written schedule and a costed quote. That is the $250 mobile service charge plus the $350 system origination fee — both of which exist whether or not we call it a package.
| Master keying | Price |
|---|---|
| System design visit survey, hierarchy design, written keying schedule, costed quote | $600 |
| Cylinders, hardware and keys | Quoted per opening after the survey |
| Adding an opening to an existing system | Quoted from the schedule |
What the price includes:
- The mobile service charge ($250)
- The master key system origination fee ($350)
- A walk of every opening, with the existing hardware recorded
- The keying hierarchy designed with you
- A written keying schedule you keep, with a copy retained by us
- A costed quote for the cylinders, hardware and keys required
What costs extra, and how much:
- Cylinders, hardware and keys — quoted per opening after the survey, not before
- Rekeying existing cylinders into the new system — $55 each
- After 5 PM the mobile service charge is $350, collected before dispatch
Prices shown are in effect from August 2026 and remain in effect until updated on this page. Final price is confirmed with you before any work begins. The design visit is a fixed price regardless of how many openings the building has.
Master keying or access control?
We will give you the answer that is true rather than the one that sells more locks.
Master keying is better when
Access is stable. There is no power or network at the door. You do not want a subscription. The building is small enough that a schedule is manageable. Exterior gates, mechanical rooms, closets and storage.
Access control is better when
Access changes often — staff, contractors, tenants. You need an audit trail of who opened what and when. You want to revoke someone at four in the afternoon without rekeying anything.
Most buildings want both, in different places. The survey is how you find out which doors are which.
Credentials and terms
- · New Jersey Locksmith Business License 34LX00020300
- · D-U-N-S 103036769
- · Bonded and fully insured through State Farm — commercial general liability and commercial automobile liability. Certificate of insurance provided on request, naming your entity as additional insured where required.
- · Purchase orders accepted. Your PO number appears on the invoice.
- · Unit numbers, door numbers and location references are recorded on every line of every invoice, so your records reconcile to ours.
- · NET 15 terms after two completed jobs. First job is card on delivery — after that we know each other. Card on file and pay-on-completion are also fine.
- · Itemised invoices with before-and-after photographs on every job.
- · 24/7 dispatch. We are not a Monday-to-Friday, eight-to-four operation.
Master key questions
How much does a master key system cost?
The honest answer is that nobody can tell you without seeing the doors, because the price is driven by the number of openings, the hardware already on them and how many levels of access you need. What we can price is the first step: a $600 design visit that surveys every opening and produces a written keying schedule and a real quote.
What does the design visit include?
We walk every door, record the existing hardware, work out the access hierarchy with you — who needs to open what — and deliver a written keying schedule plus a quote for the cylinders, hardware and keys. The $600 is the mobile service charge plus the system origination fee, both of which you would pay anyway.
Is the design fee credited if I go ahead?
The design work is real work and it is what you are paying for — you own the schedule whether or not we do the installation. Ask us about crediting it against a full system build and we will have that conversation honestly.
Should I be doing master keying or access control?
Genuinely depends. Access control is better when access changes often — staff turnover, contractors, shifting permissions — because you reset it from a screen instead of rekeying cylinders. Master keying is better when access is stable, when there is no power or network at the door, and when you do not want an ongoing subscription. Plenty of buildings should have both, in different places. We will tell you which is which.
Can you add to an existing master key system?
Usually, if the system was designed properly and the keying schedule still exists. If it was accumulated over twenty years by whoever was cheapest that week, the survey will tell us quickly whether it can be extended or needs redesigning.
Who holds the keying schedule?
You do, and we keep a copy. That matters more than people expect — a master key system whose schedule has been lost is a building nobody can add a door to.