Locksmith Northcote, VIC

Honestly, it depends on where the nearest van is when you ring, and anyone who gives you one number for the whole of Melbourne is guessing. Northcote sits in the inner ring, and vans working Thornbury and Fitzroy North pass through it constantly. That proximity is the difference between a locksmith who is genuinely nearby and one dispatched from wherever an office happens to be. Ask on the phone and you will get a real window rather than a marketing one.

Usually, yes. Front door, back door, laundry, garage side door and often the gate can be brought onto a single key by rekeying the cylinders rather than buying new locks. The limit is mechanical — different brands and lock types cannot always share a key — so it is worth us seeing the doors before we promise it across the whole property.

The garage side door and the sliding door onto the yard, almost every time. Both are entry points, both are often fitted with whatever the builder supplied, and neither gets thought about because the front door has a deadlock. They are also the cheapest things on a house to improve.

You should change who can open them, which is not the same thing. Rekeying cancels every key ever cut for those locks while keeping the hardware you paid for in the price of the house. Replacement only makes sense where the locks are worn, mismatched or not to the standard you want — and we will tell you which of those you are looking at.

No. Fix Mate is fully mobile — there is no counter anywhere, and the machines and stock travel in the van. It means we come to your door in Northcote rather than you driving to us, and it is why there is no closing time to work around. The same vans cover Thornbury, Fitzroy North and Clifton Hill.