Key cutting · on site · Greater Manchester
Keys cut at your door, including the ones shops can't do.
Get a price in 2 minutes
Tell us what's happened. We ring you straight back with a fixed price.
- From £8
- Cut on site
- Mortice cut to the lock
- Restricted profiles
A kiosk in a shopping centre cuts one thing: a standard pin tumbler key, copied from another key. That covers most of what people need, and it costs about three pounds, and we would honestly rather you did that than pay us.
Ring us for the rest, which is where the kiosk sends you away.
What a shop cannot do
You have no key
A copy needs an original. We read the lock instead and cut to the mechanism.
Lever mortice keys
The big keys on old wooden doors. No kiosk has the blank or the machine. £25-55.
Worn originals
Copying a worn key copies the wear. The new one is worse. We cut to the lock.
Restricted profiles
Patented blanks, only cut against a named list. £18-30.
Window and cabinet keys
Espagnolette handles, cabinet cams, cupboard locks. Odd little blanks nobody stocks.
You can't get there
We come to you. That's the whole point.
The worn key problem
This is the one nobody explains. Your key has been in that lock ten thousand times and it has worn down, invisibly, by a fraction of a millimetre.
Copy it and the machine copies the wear. The new key is now a copy of an already-degraded shape, so it works badly from day one and it wears the lock faster. Six months later you are jiggling it, and eventually you snap it.
If your key needs wiggling, do not copy it. Cut a new one to the lock. Same price bracket, and you get a key that is right rather than a photocopy of a photocopy.
Restricted keys
A standard key is copied at a kiosk in three minutes for three pounds and you never know it happened. A restricted key cannot be: the blanks are patented and supplied only to us, and when someone wants a spare they ring us and we check them against your authorised list first.
Worth it if you are a landlord, run an HMO, manage an office, or have simply had enough of wondering. See master key systems.
What it costs
| Key | Price |
|---|---|
| Standard house key, copied | £8-15 |
| Cut to the lock, no original | £25-55 |
| Lever mortice key | £25-55 |
| Restricted / patented profile | £18-30 |
| Window or cabinet key | £12-25 |
| Whole set, keyed alike | from £70 |
We do not cut car keys. Transponders and immobilisers are a different trade with different equipment, and we run a separate business for it at autoprolocksmith.co.uk.
Lost keys · Broken key extraction · Lock change
Questions people actually ask
Why can't a key-cutting shop copy my mortice key?
Because lever mortice locks predate standard key profiles. Those big flat keys on old wooden doors are cut to the individual lock rather than to a catalogue pattern, so a kiosk has neither the blank nor a machine that can read the bitting. It has to be cut to the lock itself, which is £25 to £55. If you have one working key we can copy it against the lock. If you have none at all, we take the lock off, read the levers and cut to the mechanism, which saves replacing a lock that may be a hundred years old.
My key sticks. Should I get a copy made?
No, and this is the mistake almost everybody makes. Your key has been in that lock thousands of times and has worn down by a fraction of a millimetre, invisibly. A copying machine copies the shape it is given, including the wear, so the new key is a copy of an already-degraded key. It works badly from day one, it wears the lock faster, and eventually it snaps. If your key needs wiggling, have a new one cut to the lock rather than copied from the old one. It costs about the same and you get a key that is actually correct.
How much does key cutting cost in Manchester?
A standard house key copied on site is £8 to £15. Cutting to the lock when you have no original is £25 to £55, and lever mortice keys are the same because they always have to be cut to the lock. Restricted or patented profiles are £18 to £30. Window and cabinet keys are £12 to £25. A whole set keyed alike starts at about £70. If all you need is a straight copy of a normal house key, a kiosk will do it for about three pounds and we would honestly rather you did that.
What is a restricted key and do I need one?
A restricted key uses a patented blank that is only supplied to us, so it cannot be copied at a kiosk. When somebody wants a spare they have to ring us, and we check them against your authorised list before we cut anything, and every cut is logged. A standard key, by contrast, is copied in three minutes for three pounds and you never find out. It is worth it if you are a landlord, run an HMO or an office, or have simply had enough of wondering how many keys exist. For a normal house with one family in it, it is overkill.
Do you cut car keys?
No, not from this business. Car keys need transponder programming, immobiliser coding and cutting to a vehicle database, which is a different trade with different equipment entirely. We run a separate company for it at autoprolocksmith.co.uk, so if you have locked keys in a car or lost the only key to a vehicle, go there rather than ringing this number. A house locksmith with a pick set cannot help you, and anyone who says otherwise is about to damage your door card.