If you’ve just moved into a new home, chances are, you’re keeping busy trying to get everything in order. There’s a lot to consider after moving house, including the “admin” stuff that’s equally important as it is boring. One of these admin tasks is making duplicate keys for your home.
You can get a duplicate key made in a number of locations, including some department stores and locksmiths. It takes a matter of minutes for a key copy to be produced in a key duplication machine, so it’s a relatively easy task if you have the original key to hand.
One of the main reasons why you might be considering copying your home’s key is if you’d like to give your family or neighbours a spare. This can be useful if emergency strikes, and you find yourself locked out of home, but it goes without saying that you should deeply trust the recipients of your spare keys before giving them away. It’s also a good idea to make note of who has access to your home, just in case you need to review a potential issue.
You might also duplicate a key for your kids. Around 40% of adults today give their children under 18 a set of keys to their home, but the decision is yours. If you can trust your child to look after their key, it may save you a lot of hassle to allow them access into your home on all occasions.
Duplicating a Key With No Original
If, for whatever reason, you don’t have the original key for your home, your locksmith can still create a duplicate key by assessing the lock itself. Providing you can prove that you live at your home, and you have a valid reason for needing a duplicate key, a locksmith will be happy to help with your situation.
Duplicating a Duplicated Key
It’s generally not recommended that you duplicate a key that has already been copied. This is because the copy key may have been worn down, and doesn’t exactly resemble the original anymore. It’s a wise idea to store the original key safely away, perhaps marking it with a sticker or permanent marker pen so that you can always return to this as the original.
The Dangers of Key Duplication
If you have learnt anything from this post, it’s probably just how simple it is to duplicate a key. For this reason, it’s important that your original key doesn’t get into the wrong hands.
Burglars can steal your key, copy it, then inconspicuously return the original to you right when you think you’ll never see it again. Even worse, there are now businesses that can copy your key based on just a photo, which is a pretty terrible idea. This means that you may be in danger even when leaving your keys lying around in a public place.
Staying alert to who, if anyone, has copies to your home’s keys, and making sure to follow up on any suspicious activity, will help you to avoid becoming another crime statistic in your local area.
