Most locksmith websites tell you to call a locksmith. These guides do something more useful: they tell you what we tell customers on the phone every day — what things should cost, what you can safely try yourself, when you genuinely need a professional, and how to avoid the traps in this industry. After 22 years of lockouts, break-ins, moving-day re-keys and strata jobs across Coogee, Randwick, Bondi, Maroubra and the rest of the Eastern Suburbs, we’ve heard every question. The answers are here, free, whether you ever call us or not.
Every guide follows the same rules we work by: honest numbers rather than teaser prices, clear boundaries about what locksmiths do and don’t do, and advice we’d give our own family. If a job needs a glazier, a carpenter or a security installer instead of a locksmith, the guides say so.
The question everyone asks first, answered with actual numbers. Our locksmith cost guide lays out typical 2026 Sydney market ranges job by job — lockouts, re-keys, lock changes, broken-key extraction and smart-lock installs — plus what a call-out fee really covers, why after-hours work costs more, and the exact mechanics of the “$49 locksmith” bait-and-switch scam so you can spot it from the first phone call. It also explains the single best defence against being overcharged: a fixed total price quoted before anyone travels.
Read it if: you’re comparing quotes, you’ve been quoted something that smells wrong, or you want to know whether re-keying or replacing your locks is the cheaper fix. Read the cost guide →
Five minutes of smart checking often saves the entire cost of a call-out — and one bad decision (climbing a balcony, forcing a window) can cost far more than any locksmith. The locked-out guide walks through the first five minutes step by step: what to check, who to ring, what renters should know about who pays, why the credit-card trick doesn’t work on modern deadlatching locks, and how to pick a trustworthy locksmith at midnight when you can’t comparison-shop. It also covers the special cases — a child locked inside (call 000 first), snapped keys, flat smart-lock batteries — and how to make sure a lockout never happens again.
Read it if: you’re locked out right now, you rent and want to know your rights, or you’d simply like a plan before it ever happens. Read the lockout guide →
A break-in is disorienting exactly when you need a clear head. The after a break-in guide gives you the sequence: police first (and why you shouldn’t clean up until they’ve documented the scene), insurer second, then securing the property the same night — including who fixes what, because locks are locksmith work while broken glass and splintered frames belong to a glazier or carpenter. It covers which locks must be re-keyed, how to turn the break-in into a proper security upgrade, and how to document everything so your insurance claim goes through first time. There’s a printable checklist at the end.
Read it if: you’ve just been broken into, someone attempted a break-in (that matters more than people think), or you want your home hardened before either happens. Read the break-in guide →
Apartment buildings have a key problem houses never face: dozens of owners, unknowable numbers of tenants and contractors, and common-property doors everyone shares. The strata guide explains restricted-key and master-key systems in plain English, what to do when an owner sells, how to manage contractor access without handing out permanent keys, what the Building Code expects of fire-escape hardware, who’s responsible for which locks, and what a proper strata lock audit should include. Written for NSW strata committees, owners corporations and building managers who need answers they can put in the minutes.
Read it if: you sit on a strata committee, manage a building, or own a lot and want to understand where your responsibility ends and the owners corporation’s begins. Read the strata guide →
Every guide on this page comes back to the same problem: when you need a locksmith, you’re usually stressed, in a hurry, and in no position to comparison-shop. These five checks work at any hour and filter out almost every bad operator before a van moves.
Two minutes, five questions, and the “$49 locksmith” trap documented in our cost guide simply can’t reach you.
The trade has its own vocabulary, and knowing ten terms makes every quote easier to compare and every guide on this page easier to use:
Re-keying, almost always — if the hardware is in good condition. Re-keying re-pins your existing cylinder to work on a brand-new key, so old keys stop working without buying new locks. Replacement makes sense when the lock is worn, corroded (a constant issue near the beach), or below your insurer’s standard.
We’re based on Rainbow Street in Coogee and aim to reach most Eastern Suburbs jobs within about 30 minutes, 24/7 — that’s a genuine local dispatch, not a call-centre promise. See all our service areas.
Yes — a fixed total price before anyone travels, including any after-hours component. The price quoted is the price you pay. That’s been the rule for 22 years, and the cost guide explains why you should demand it from any locksmith.
Worth knowing before you call anyone: locksmiths handle locks, keys, cylinders and entry hardware. Broken glass is a glazier’s job, damaged door frames are a carpenter’s, alarms and CCTV belong to security installers, and fire-door certification is for accredited fire-safety contractors. For our part, Keytech doesn’t do automotive or transponder car keys, and we don’t service safes — we’ll tell you straight away and save you the call-out.
Yes — locksmithing is licensed security work in NSW. Keytech holds Master Licence 000 101 663 and Security Licence 000209450, both verifiable with NSW Fair Trading, and we’ve served the Eastern Suburbs for 22 years.
One theme runs through every guide on this page because it runs through our job sheet: salt air destroys locks. Within a few streets of the ocean — Coogee, Clovelly, Bronte, Maroubra, Bondi — airborne salt works into cylinders and corrodes the brass internals years ahead of schedule. The warning signs arrive politely: a key that needs a wiggle, a cylinder that grinds, a deadlatch that wants a shoulder against the door. Ignored, they end impolitely, as a seized lock at midnight — the most expensive possible way to learn your lock was dying.
The fix is cheap and boring: a proper lubricant (graphite or a dry PTFE spray, never cooking oil) a couple of times a year, and a professional once-over when a lock starts feeling stiff rather than after it fails. When hardware does need replacing near the ocean, ask for marine-grade — we fit it as standard in the front-line beach streets because we’re tired of replacing the same corroded cylinders every few years. A business-hours service visit costs a fraction of an after-hours emergency, which is the entire economics of lock maintenance in one sentence.
Reading is free; so is the phone call. Whether it’s an emergency lockout, a lock change or re-key, a home security job or a business or strata job, call Keytech Locksmiths on 0411 340 242 — 24/7 across the Eastern Suburbs, fixed price quoted before we travel, 30-minute response target, 12-month workmanship warranty. Not urgent? Email info@keytechlocksmiths.com.au and we’ll come back to you promptly. We’re at 236 Rainbow Street, Coogee NSW 2034 — your local locksmith, not a call centre.