Golden Key Locksmith NYC has been serving New York City since 1984. With 40+ years of experience, we provide reliable, affordable, and professional residential locksmith services.
For renters and property managers, we also maintain a practical guide to handling apartment lockouts as a tenant.
Our team is available 24/7 across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx—ready to handle lockouts, repairs, installations, and complete home security upgrades.
If you're looking to change the locks on your home, our lock change service can help. We can install new locks on any type of door, including interior and exterior doors. We also offer a wide variety of different types of locks to choose from, so you can find the perfect lock for your needs.
If you need to change the keys for your home, our lock rekeying service can help. We can rekey any type of residential lock, so you can get new keys made for your home. We'll also make sure that the new keys work with your existing locks, so you don't have to worry about having two sets of keys
NYC residential locksmith work is not interchangeable with suburban work. The hardware, the door bores, the building rules, and the legal requirements are all different. Our techs spend most of their day on three building types: pre-war Manhattan apartments, Brooklyn brownstones, and post-war co-ops and condos — each one with its own quirks.
Pre-war Manhattan apartments typically run on full-mortise locksets — cast-iron cases, swing-cam levers, and either rim-cylinder + mortise-cylinder combos or multi-point cylinders. We carry replacement Penn, Corbin, Russwin, and Sargent parts, and we retrofit Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, and ASSA high-security cylinders into the original mortise case so the door trim stays original and the building’s facade rules stay happy. Drilling a pre-war door for a smart-lock retrofit is usually a no — most boards prohibit it.
Brooklyn brownstone front doors usually pair a rim cylinder up top with a deadbolt below, often on heavy original wood. Vintage Russwin and Corbin rim cylinders can be re-keyed rather than replaced when the case is sound; when it isn’t, we restore the door with period-correct hardware before we add a modern deadbolt.
Co-ops and condos add a layer most homeowners don’t expect: board approval. Most NYC co-op alteration agreements require board sign-off before any change to entry hardware that touches the corridor side of the door. Smart locks like August Wi-Fi (retrofits the existing deadbolt’s interior, exterior keyway untouched) and Level Bolt (lives entirely inside the door) get approved more often than full replacements like Schlage Encode because they don’t change the corridor appearance.
NYC HPD requirements: for rental dwellings, NYC Housing Maintenance Code §27-2043 requires the landlord to install and maintain a working interior lock on each apartment entrance door, including a peephole on doors not facing a public hallway. Tenants generally have the right to add their own additional lock on the inside of the door under Multiple Dwelling Law §51-c, provided they give the landlord a duplicate key on request.
Pricing context (NYC, 2026): rekey of a single residential cylinder typically runs in the $85–$175 range depending on cylinder type and whether high-security pins are used. A full residential lock change with new mid-grade hardware (Schlage B60N, Kwikset 980) typically runs $185–$325 per door installed. High-security upgrades to Medeco or Mul-T-Lock with restricted keyways run higher because of the cylinder cost and the keyway control. We confirm pricing on the call before dispatch — no surprise charges on arrival.
For after-hours emergency lockouts, our Manhattan and Brooklyn average arrival is 20–40 minutes depending on time of day and traffic. Standard rekey jobs can usually be scheduled same-day if booked before mid-afternoon.
Golden Key Locksmith NYC provides comprehensive security solutions for commercial and residential customers since 1984. We are a fully licensed, bonded and insured locksmith company. Our emergency locksmith services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week
The team at Golden Key Locksmith NYC is always on the go. We have a fleet of mobile locksmiths that are ready to service you when and where you need it. Whether you`re locked out, need a new lock or want your security system upgraded, we can help! Give us a call today for all your locksmith needs.
When New Yorkers need residential locksmith services they can trust, they turn to Golden Key Locksmith NYC — serving the city since 1984.
Louis picked our apartment lock without any damage. Saved us big time.
Incredible service! And so speedy, Ben was at my door 10 minutes after I called. Such great and friendly service. Really happy with my new lock.
More questions? Feel free to contact us any time!
Read more: Medeco lock installation guide.
We dispatch the nearest 24/7 tech and most of the time we’re at your door inside 30–45 minutes in Manhattan and Brooklyn. For standard residential cylinders we pick rather than drill, so the lock keeps working after we’re gone. We will ask for ID matching the address before we open the door — that’s a hard rule, not negotiable. If the door is a high-security cylinder that can’t be picked in a reasonable time, we’ll discuss drilling and replacing it before we touch anything, with the price confirmed up front.
Rekey is almost always the right call. We re-pin the existing cylinder to a new key — the old keys stop working immediately, the door hardware stays the same, and the cost is a fraction of a full replacement. Full replacement only makes sense if the existing hardware is failing or if you’re upgrading to a different security grade.
If you rent, your lease almost always requires you to give the landlord a copy of any new key, but you generally have the right to add or change interior locks under Multiple Dwelling Law §51-c. If you own a co-op, the alteration agreement typically requires board approval for any change visible from the corridor side — but interior-only smart-lock retrofits (August, Level) usually fall outside that rule. Always check your specific lease or alteration agreement before we install. We can do the work either way.
Often yes — with the right product. Drill-in smart locks like Schlage Encode or Yale Assure usually require modifying the door bore, which most pre-war buildings prohibit. Retrofit smart locks (August Wi-Fi over the existing deadbolt thumb-turn, Level Bolt inside the door) install without altering the exterior trim and get approved by most boards. We bring both options on the truck so you can pick after we look at the door.
Usually not. Cold weather makes lubricants seize and exposes worn pin springs. We clean and re-lubricate the cylinder with a graphite or PTFE-based dry lube (never WD-40 — it gums up the wafers) and most cylinders come back to life. If the wafers themselves are worn, we re-pin or replace just the cylinder, which is much cheaper than a full lock change.
Installed a full Mul-T-Lock master key system in our building. The team was meticulous, on schedule, and gave us great key control options.