Apartment lockouts
Keys inside, door pulled shut behind you, or a deadbolt that stopped turning. We open the apartment door and can rekey or replace the cylinder the same visit if you want the old keys dead.
Emergency lockout · Downtown Manhattan
Licensed locksmiths head out from our Union Square shop at 121 University Place, a real storefront that has been cutting keys and opening doors in Manhattan since 1988. Apartment doors, building front doors, offices and storefront gates. Tell us where you are standing and we will tell you what happens next.
Four answers let us load the right tools before anyone leaves the shop. If you are not sure about one of them, say so and we will work it out on the phone.
Call 212-510-8320Address plus the nearest corner, and the apartment or suite number. Downtown blocks run short, and the corner gets our locksmith to the right door.
Apartment door, building front door, office suite, or a rolling storefront gate. Metal or wood, one lock or two, and whether there is a police bar behind it.
A snapped key in the cylinder is a different job from a locked door with the keys upstairs. Please stop turning it and leave the piece where it is.
We open doors for the people who belong behind them. Driver license, lease, a piece of mail, or a super or building manager who can vouch for you all work.
After you hang up
One of our own locksmiths, licensed and insured, leaves from the Union Square shop with the cylinders, blanks and tools your door is likely to need. We tell you on the phone who is coming.
The locksmith looks at the door, explains what the job takes, and quotes it on the spot. Nothing gets drilled, picked or opened until you agree to the number.
Picking and non destructive entry first. Most apartment and office doors open with the cylinder and the frame untouched. When a lock has to be replaced, you get a real lock, not a hole.
If your keys were lost or taken, we can rekey the cylinder while we are there and cut you a fresh set, so the old keys stop working. More on that in apartment rekeying.
Same shop, same licensed locksmiths, whether it is a fourth floor walk up on East 10th Street or a gate on Bleecker at closing time.
Keys inside, door pulled shut behind you, or a deadbolt that stopped turning. We open the apartment door and can rekey or replace the cylinder the same visit if you want the old keys dead.
Vestibule and lobby doors, intercom strikes, and mortise cylinders on prewar entrances. If the building has a super or managing agent, we coordinate with them before we touch a shared door.
Glass doors, office suites and interior file rooms. We open it, then talk through keyed alike cylinders or a master key setup so the next late night does not end the same way.
Rolling gate padlocks, slam locks and cylinders that seized in the cold. We get the gate up so you can open, and replace the hardware if it is past saving.
Half the key in your hand, half in the cylinder. We pull the broken piece, check the cylinder for wear, and cut a new key from the original so you are not carrying a key that snaps again.
No key to copy is not a dead end. We open the door, then either rekey the existing cylinder or fit a new one and cut a fresh set, including high security keys where the lock takes them.
Not a dispatch number
Search "locksmith near me" at two in the morning and most of what comes back is a call center that sells your job to whoever picks up. Basics Plus has been a storefront locksmith in Manhattan since 1988. The number rings our shop. The locksmith who opens your door works here, and if something is wrong with the lock next week you walk into 121 University Place and say so in person.
Basics Plus Union Square, 121 University Place at 13 Street, New York, NY 10003.
Still standing there? Call and ask. It is faster than reading.
It depends on traffic, the hour and how many calls are already out. When you phone the shop we tell you honestly where the locksmith is coming from and roughly how long that takes. We would rather give you a straight answer than a number we cannot keep.
Yes. We ask for identification or something that connects you to the address before the door opens. A license, a lease, mail with your name on it, or the super or building manager confirming who you are. It is the same protection working in your favor the day someone else tries your door.
We work non destructively wherever the lock allows, which covers most apartment and office doors. Some high security cylinders have to be drilled and replaced. If that is the case, the locksmith explains it and quotes the replacement before doing anything.
Yes. With no key to copy we work from the cylinder itself, or rekey it and cut a fresh set. High security and restricted keyways are handled at the shop, where the blanks and machines live. See high security keys.
Every job is quoted before work begins, whatever time you call. The locksmith looks at your door, tells you the price, and waits for a yes. No surprise line items once the door is open.
Leave it alone. Pushing the broken half deeper or working it with pliers usually damages the cylinder and turns a quick extraction into a replacement. Call us and keep the other half of the key, it helps us cut the new one.
Shop
121 University Place, New York, NY 10003
Hours 24/7 for emergency inquiries
For a rekey, a new cylinder or a gate lock you want handled this week, write it here and we will get back to you from the shop. If you are locked out this minute, please call instead.