Master key systems · Greater Manchester
One key for you. One door each for everyone else.
Get a price in 2 minutes
Tell us how many doors and how many people. We ring you back with a design and a price.
- From £45 per cylinder
- Designed, not guessed
- Key charts documented
- Restricted profiles available
- 12-month warranty
If you run an HMO, an office, or a block of flats, you have a keyring problem. Fourteen keys, none of them labelled, and the one you need is always the one that fell off. A master key system fixes that properly: every tenant gets one key that opens their own door and nothing else, and you get one key that opens everything.
How it actually works
Inside a euro cylinder is a row of pin stacks. Each stack has to break exactly at the shear line for the key to turn. A normal cylinder has one break point per stack, so one key shape works.
A master keyed cylinder has a second break point in each stack. Two different key shapes now line up: the tenant's key, and yours. Add more break points and you get sub-masters, a floor manager who opens one floor, a cleaner who opens the communal doors and nothing else.
The catch: every extra break point is a smaller pin, and smaller pins are easier to pick. A badly designed system is genuinely less secure than the locks it replaced. Which is why the design matters more than the hardware.
The four levels
Keyed alike
Every door takes the same key. Front and back door of one house. Simple, cheap, no master needed.
Master keyed
Each door has its own key. One master opens all. The standard HMO and small office setup.
Grand master
Sub-masters per floor or per building, one grand master over the lot. For agents running multiple properties.
Restricted
Patented key profile. Copies can only be cut by us, against your written authority. No key cutting kiosk can touch it.
Restricted keys: the bit landlords miss
A standard master key can be copied at any shopping centre kiosk for three pounds. Your outgoing tenant hands back one key and keeps two. You have no way of knowing, and no way of proving it later.
A restricted profile can't be copied like that, the blanks are patented and only supplied to us. When someone wants a spare, they ring us, and we check they're on your authorised list before we cut it. Every cut is logged.
It costs more per cylinder. It is the difference between a lock and a system.
What it costs
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Standard master keyed cylinder, per door | £45-75 |
| Anti-snap master keyed cylinder, per door | £65-110 |
| Restricted profile cylinder, per door | £85-140 |
| Mortice lock, master keyed, per door | £70-120 |
| Additional keys, standard | £8-15 |
| Additional keys, restricted | £18-30 |
| System design and key chart | free |
Design is free because a system designed wrong is worse than no system. Fixed price for the whole job before we start. Invoiced for landlords and agents.
The key chart
You get a document. It lists every door, every cylinder, every key that opens it, and who holds that key. It is the thing that turns a drawer of unlabelled keys into an asset you can actually manage, and the thing you need when a tenant leaves and you have to work out what to rekey.
We keep a copy. If you lose yours, ring us. If you sell the building, the chart goes with it.
Where we cover
All ten Greater Manchester boroughs. Master key work is booked, not emergency, so we can survey, design, order and fit around your tenants.
Related
Questions people actually ask
How much does a master key system cost for an HMO?
Budget £45 to £75 per door for standard master keyed cylinders, or £65 to £110 per door if you want anti-snap, which you should on any external door. A typical six-bedroom HMO with six bedroom doors plus a front and back door comes to roughly £400 to £700 fitted, including the master keys. Restricted profiles cost £85 to £140 per door and are worth it if tenant key copying is your actual problem. The design and key chart are free.
Does master keying make my locks less secure?
It can, if it is designed badly. Every additional key that opens a cylinder means an extra break point in the pin stacks, and extra break points mean smaller pins, and smaller pins are easier to pick. A system with too many levels on cheap cylinders is genuinely weaker than the locks it replaced. A properly designed system on decent hardware is not. This is why we design before we quote and why we will tell you if what you are asking for is a bad idea.
Can my tenant get a copy of their key cut at a kiosk?
With a standard master key system, yes, in about three minutes for a few pounds, and you will never know. With a restricted profile system, no. The key blanks are patented and only supplied to us. When someone wants a spare they have to ring us, and we check them against your authorised list before we cut anything. Every cut is logged. If tenants keeping copies is your real problem, restricted is the only thing that solves it.
What is a key chart and why do I need one?
It is a document listing every door, every cylinder, every key that opens it, and who holds that key. Without one, a drawer of unlabelled keys is unmanageable and you cannot answer the only question that matters when a tenant leaves: what do I need to rekey? We produce it free with every system, keep a copy, and hand it over if you sell the building.
Can you add master keying to the locks I already have?
Sometimes. If your cylinders are a decent brand and the same profile throughout, we can often repin them into a system rather than replacing them, which is cheaper. If they are a mix of whatever the last five landlords fitted, which is the usual case in an HMO, repinning costs more in labour than new cylinders cost in parts. We will survey and tell you which way is cheaper rather than defaulting to the one that sells more hardware.
A tenant has moved out and kept a key. What do I do?
You rekey the doors that key opened. On a master system that is usually just their door, which is the entire point of having one: you are changing one cylinder, not the building. If they somehow have a master, you are rekeying everything, which is why masters should live on one keyring in one place and never go in a tenant pack. If you have the key chart, this is a ten-minute conversation. If you do not, it is a survey.