Getting keys cut at home?

Can you do key-cutting at home? This is a question we get asked on a regular basis. The short answer is: no way, José! However, there are other ways of getting keys cut without setting foot outside your home.

Why not?

The average price of a standard key in the UK is about £5. To cut a key at your doorstep, we’d need to take the time to drive to your location, incur any parking charges etc. Doing that for £5 simply isn’t feasible. The alternative would be if you paid way more for a simple key, e.g. £50. Few people would be willing to pay that for a basic Yale key.

There’s also always the risk that your house key is something non-standard. The locksmith would come all that way and then it turns out that he doesn’t even have the key blank in his van. That would leave everyone disappointed.

What do I do if I can’t go to a key-cutting shop?

Going to key-cutting shops can be really annoying. You might not live near one, or you might not get home from work before the shop closes.

Never fear! There’s a huge amount of keys that we can copy without ever needing to have the key in our hands. The best thing to do is get in touch with our key department who can tell you what the next steps are.

Most types of key, whether common or fancy, can be sent to you in the mail.

When are house-calls possible for key-cutting?

The only times I’ve ever known any locksmith go out to a site to cut keys is when a customer is ordering loads in one go. I once cut 800 keys on site at a building site in Burnt Oak. Another time, one of our locksmiths went to site to fit a lock, cut 30 keys and distribute them among tenants.

Sometimes it’s worthwhile to cut keys at a customer’s home, but most of the time, it’s cheaper and easier to get it done online or in a local shop.