Commercial locksmith
Commercial Locksmith in Lancing
Call with your postcode for a current arrival estimate.
- 24-hour emergency cover
- No call-out charge
- Price agreed before work starts
When a Business Cannot Open, Every Hour Counts
L.M.N Locksmiths Lancing works on business premises across Lancing, from a shop that cannot open at eight in the morning to a lock change booked after closing, with emergency cover 24 hours a day and no call-out charge.
At home a failed lock is a security problem; on a shop, office or unit it is a trading problem too, so these jobs are fitted around your hours rather than through them. If you cannot open or lock up now, call now. For the full range, see commercial locksmith work.
What Businesses Are Calling Us About
Most businesses that call us are facing one of five situations. Each links to its own page, so you can see what to expect before you get in touch.
Insurance or a lease requires a lock upgrade
The policy or the lease names a standard for the lock on your entrance. Once the precise wording is in front of you, meeting it is usually uncomplicated.
A failed entrance door
Constant use wears mechanisms out, and handles work loose; eventually the entrance will not lock. In many cases the door is fine and one part is to blame.
Locked out of the premises
The only keyholder is out of reach, a key has snapped in the door early in the morning, or there is no one with access at all. Usually the door is opened with no damage, leaving the existing lock working as before.
Your premises have been broken into
Forced shutters, a damaged entrance door or a unit left unsecured until the police finish. We secure it first, then repair whatever is repairable and board whatever is not.
A staff member has left with keys
This is one problem a home never runs into. If keys have gone unaccounted for after someone leaves, changing the cylinders on every door they could get through is the only way to be sure, as old keys keep turning regardless of who holds them. With the lock cases and handles generally kept, it is quicker than replacing the locks entirely.
Why a Domestic Lock Is Not a Commercial Lock
For a business in Lancing, the difference between a commercial and a domestic lock is mostly about how hard it is worked. A front door at home sees a dozen openings a day; a shop or office entrance might see several hundred. That volume of traffic soon wears out hardware suited to a house, so specifications for trading entrances call for heavier-duty cylinders, handles and closers.
Commercial entrances also come in several forms that a home rarely has:
- Aluminium shopfronts, whose lock cases and cylinders differ from those in uPVC or timber doors
- Escape doors with push pads or panic bars that open from the inside without a key
- Roller shutters and shutter locks, which secure the frontage outside trading hours
- Suites of doors keyed to a plan, where one key opens several doors and another opens only one
Choosing hardware on price alone tends to cost more in the end, through repeat call-outs and the disruption each one brings. Matched to the traffic, the door just works. Tell us the door material and what is fitted at present.
Premises We Work On
If you run a business from any of the premises below, this page is for you.
- Offices and professional premises
- Shops and retail units, shopfronts and shutters among them
- Cafés, restaurants, pubs and bars
- Storage, workshops and industrial units
- Community buildings, salons, surgeries and schools
- Commercial units to let, for the landlords and managing agents who own or run them
Homes and residential lets have their own pages; this one is about doors that trade, serve the public or protect stock.
When Staff Change: Key Control
Ask most businesses how many keys to the front door exist and who holds them, and the answer is a guess. A dozen staff and a handful of keys is all it takes: keys are lent, copied and not always returned. When someone leaves on bad terms, or never brings their key back, you honestly do not know any more who can open the premises.
A cylinder change on each affected door settles it, because every existing key is retired in one step. An old key, after all, works just as well for whoever ends up with it. Because the lock case and handles normally remain in place, the work usually takes less time and costs less than businesses anticipate. New cylinders can be keyed alike where several doors need to keep working off one key, and if you would like fewer keys in circulation, ask about that when you call; we will tell you what is practical for your doors. Write down who holds each key afterwards. It costs nothing.
Work Scheduled Around Your Trading Hours
Most businesses would rather have a lock changed at six in the evening than at eleven in the morning with customers in the shop. Because emergency cover runs 24 hours a day anyway, planned work does not have to land in the middle of trading. Booking a cylinder replacement, a new stockroom door lock or a replacement shutter lock for before the shop opens or after it closes keeps the shop floor free from disruption and ensures customers never see a locksmith at the door. That applies to planned jobs as much as to emergencies, so mention your trading pattern when you call. Work outside Monday to Friday, 7am to 6pm, is charged at a higher rate, but the call-out itself is never charged and you hear the price on the call.
Locksmith pricing
What a Commercial Locksmith Costs
A commercial price is built from the job, not from a list. Before anyone attends you are told the expected price, and the call-out is never charged. The figure moves with:
- the type of door (aluminium shopfronts, shutters and composite doors take different parts from a timber door);
- how many doors and cylinders are involved, as with a full key change across a unit;
- the lock standard your insurance or lease requires;
- whether the job is urgent or booked outside trading hours.
You pay for the work carried out, any parts needed, and VAT. Rates outside Monday to Friday, 7am to 6pm, are higher, but the call-out itself is never charged.
For planned work, tell us the affected door or lock and your operating hours so the requirements and available appointments can be discussed.
What affects the cost?
Service required, time of attendance, lock and door type, labour and parts.
Fire Doors and Escape Routes
A lock that needs a key to get out has no place on a fire exit. Escape-route doors must open from inside without one, which is why they use keyless hardware on the inside, a thumbturn, push pad or panic bar, with the outside kept locked. BS 8621, the British Standard for lock assemblies with keyless egress, uses that inside thumbturn in place of a key both sides; panic hardware is governed by its own standards. Your fire risk assessment and the way the building is used determine what a particular door requires, so check it first. Fitting locks is part of our work; certifying a building's fire compliance is not.
Locksmith pricing
Invoices and Paperwork
Good invoicing is what turns a one-off call into a locksmith you use again. Each job is documented on an itemised VAT invoice that sets out the work, identifies the premises and lists any hardware fitted. That suits an accounts department, and it is the kind of record an insurance claim relies on. If your business has more than one site, the work across them can be invoiced whichever way your accounts people find most useful, so tell us how you would like it divided.
What affects the cost?
Service required, time of attendance, lock and door type, labour and parts.
Commercial Locksmith Work Across Lancing
We work on shops, offices, industrial units and managed premises across Lancing.
Business coverage is about premises rather than housing. It reaches every postcode in BN15 and the parts of BN43 around Lancing, from North Lancing and South Lancing to Lower Cokeham, and also Sompting, which has its own page. Premises near Lancing station, or off Brighton Road, Grinstead Lane, South Street and Old Shoreham Road, are within that area; give the postcode when you ring. The area has around 23,000 usual residents (Census 2021, ONS, output areas approximated to the built-up area), and North Lancing is mostly houses, so work there tends to be the odd shop or small unit among the homes.
If premises have been broken into, report it to Sussex Police on 101 or at https://www.sussex.police.uk. If anyone may still be inside, stay out and call 999, and do not start work at the entry point until the police say it may begin.
See all areas we cover.
Emergency and planned locksmith services
Call L.M.N Locksmiths Lancing
If you cannot open up, ring 01903 377061 for attendance at any hour; if the work can wait, tell us your trading hours and we will book it outside them. There is no call-out charge, the price is agreed before work, and invoices show VAT itemised.
- Phone: 01903 377061
- Urgent: 24 hours a day, every day
01903 377061
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you come out before we open?
Yes, emergency help is available before you open, as our cover runs at every hour, every day. Give your opening and closing times when booking. A lockout or failed entrance can need urgent attention because it stops the business opening.
A member of staff has left and not returned their keys. What now?
Replace the cylinders on each door that person could open. There is no way to disable a mechanical key, so as long as the old cylinders are fitted, the old keys work for anyone holding them. Handles and lock cases normally remain, which keeps the job quicker than new locks throughout. If a set of doors should share one key, the replacement cylinders can usually be keyed alike.
Are commercial locks different from the ones on a house?
The amount of use they receive is the main difference between them. Hundreds of openings a day are normal for a shop entrance, against a dozen for a front door, and commercial cylinders, handles and closers are specified with that heavier use in mind. Under-specify and you pay in repeat call-outs. Commercial premises also have shopfronts, shutters and escape doors, each taking hardware that a home never needs.
Do you work on aluminium shopfront doors?
Yes, we work on them. Commercial entrances are frequently aluminium, not timber or uPVC, which means different lock cases and different cylinders. Please describe the door when you get in touch so the correct parts are on board, since the door type shapes both the parts and the time the job takes on site.
Our insurance says we need a particular lock standard. Can you help?
Yes. Start by finding the exact wording in the policy or lease, because "insurance approved" is not a single standard and policies differ. Commercial insurers and landlords often name a lock standard for entrance doors, and once you know what the document says, meeting it is usually straightforward. Sending us the wording avoids fitting the wrong lock and then fitting again.
Can you do work across more than one of our sites?
Yes. Work can be carried out at each of your premises and invoiced to suit your accounts, whether that means per job, per site or something else. Start by telling us how many sites are involved and how you would like it arranged; that way the visits are planned, not attended one at a time.
Will we get a proper invoice for our accounts?
You will. The invoice is an itemised VAT invoice that sets out what was done, where, and which hardware went in, so your accounts team can file it without queries. If the work follows a break-in or other insured event, it also serves as the record for the claim.
Our fire exit door needs a new lock. What do we need?
The new lock has to open from inside without a key. BS 8621 is the standard for keyless egress and relies on an inside thumbturn rather than a key both sides; panic bars or push pads come under their own standards. Before choosing, check the fire risk assessment for the building and consider how it is used, since those decide the requirement, and mention what it says when you call.
Still have a question or need urgent assistance? Call 01903 377061, tell us what has happened and receive a current arrival estimate.