Commercial Locksmith in Buffalo, NY

Buffalo's business streets and their doors

The city's 2016-2017 snow-removal procedures name its business districts, among them Elmwood Avenue, Hertel Avenue, Allen Street, Chippewa Street, Niagara Street on the Lower West Side and Broadway. The doors on those streets vary with the buildings behind them.

• Two-part commercial blocks. The city's historic survey describes Broadway blocks of two to five stories, with shops at street level and offices, meeting halls or apartments above. Such a block has at least two kinds of entry to manage: the shop door, and a street door to the upper floors whose keys belong to the people upstairs.
• Shops in former houses. The survey also notes that adding storefronts to existing houses was common in Buffalo in the 1920s and 1930s. In those buildings, a door and lock chosen for a home can end up serving a business and taking far more daily use than they were built for.

Keys, turnover and control

Every employee or tenant who leaves with a key is a door no longer fully under your control. Rekeying the affected cylinders cuts those keys off without new hardware. Businesses with several doors or suites often use a master-key system, where a manager's key opens everything and each staff key opens only its own doors, or a restricted keyway whose blanks are not sold over the counter. A written log of who holds which key makes the next change simpler.

In a mixed building, the owner and each tenant should agree on who holds keys to the shared upper-floor entrance and any common areas. Plan any change so that people can still leave without a key.

Details to send with a commercial request

• the street and building type: storefront, two-part block, or shop in a former house
• which doors are involved: shop front, side or rear door, upper-floor entrance, interior offices
• how many keys are out, and whether any were not returned
• whether you own or lease the space, since changes to shared doors may need the building owner's approval
• what is wrong: old keys to cut off, a worn lock that will not latch, or hardware to upgrade

New York Locksmith Pros takes service requests from homes, businesses and drivers in Buffalo. Related pages: commercial locksmith, lock replacement and Buffalo.