Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 06, 2010 9:13 pm Hi there we were just wondering where other builders keep the house keys during the construction process? Ours keeps ours in the metre box. They say these are the "builders keys". When it went missing, the supervisor said not to worry as we we get an 'owner key" which once used makes the builders keys not work. Today, when we were on site we noticed that the key in the metre box doesn't work anymore, which makes us think 1)maybe someone's taken the key and replaced it, or 2) someone's (maybe the supevisor?) has used the owner's key. Anyhow, the house is completely unlocked at the moment and given its saturday we can't contact anyone. Do you think we can demand all the locks be replaced? cheers about to build our first home! Re: where does your builder keep the keys? 2Feb 06, 2010 10:07 pm Hi There When you get the house handed over they take out the front door lock (there lock and handle) and replace it with one that takes "your 'keys"...so should be no problem. The problem we had was when we got 'our keys' they didn't fit the front door as builder had not taken out their lock and replaced it with our official one. There should be no problem...this is how all builders work. Basically they have mulitiple locks that they use over and over again for builds with their keys...but when handed over it is changed to a new key...I hope this makes sense TG Re: where does your builder keep the keys? 3Feb 06, 2010 10:14 pm thanks for your reply. We were worried about the risk of being cleaned out once we move in about to build our first home! Re: where does your builder keep the keys? 4Feb 07, 2010 12:07 am When I built my first house about 8-9 years ago they did it a different way... The lock that they installed at lockup was the one that stayed. They had "builders keys" like you mentioned. The locks come filled with a type of waxy material that allows keys without some of the "teeth" to work. The first time you use the full key for that lock it should knock out the wax and from that point on it won't work with any of the builder's keys. Or at least that is how it was explained to me way back when!! Re: where does your builder keep the keys? 5Feb 07, 2010 12:19 am That seems weird how they would leave a key in a metre box But anyway, we have builder keys and owner keys. The lock stays the same, the builder key no longer works when the owner keys opens it. It changes the settings in the lock. Not sure about replacing the locks Built with New Generation (Summit Homes) We own land!... with a slab on it! Plus a shell of a house with stuff inside ! Re: where does your builder keep the keys? 6Feb 07, 2010 8:20 am wallywombat7 They say these are the "builders keys". When it went missing, the supervisor said not to worry as we we get an 'owner key" which once used makes the builders keys not work. This is correct. Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: where does your builder keep the keys? 7Apr 15, 2012 2:21 am somewoman They had "builders keys" like you mentioned. The locks come filled with a type of waxy material that allows keys without some of the "teeth" to work. The first time you use the full key for that lock it should knock out the wax and from that point on it won't work with any of the builder's keys. This is not true. Basically the lock has one/two special master pins (usually ball bearings) that act as master pins whilst the construction key is being used and become dislodged when the owner's key is used. Re: where does your builder keep the keys? 8Apr 15, 2012 3:31 am Either way, I think your only real option after the build is complete would be to pay for new cylinders to be fitted to the locks by a locksmith, probably the only way to be sure only you have a key anyway! 2 Re: where does your builder keep the keys? 10Apr 15, 2012 7:24 am stormjr Either way, I think your only real option after the build is complete would be to pay for new cylinders to be fitted to the locks by a locksmith, probably the only way to be sure only you have a key anyway! 2 I know it's an old thread, but for anyone who may be thinking this, this idea is not neccesary and a waste of money. Once the construction lock has been tripped your key is the only one that will open the lock. Re: where does your builder keep the keys? 11Apr 15, 2012 11:08 am The question whether to get your locked changed or not after you receive your owner keys is quite valid. Personally, because I know how to repin cylinders, I would definitely change the locks. The problem with not changing your cylinders, even after deactivating the builder's key using the owner's key, is that the cylinder still has a heap of master pins. This means that keys other than your own owner's key will work, depending on how many master pins there are. Assuming each pin stack has one master pin, and assuming a 5 pin system, then 1+2^4 = 17 other keys will work with your lock. Generally speaking though, if it is a 6 pin lock then you shouldn't have to worry, depending on how the builder's locksmith has configured the pins (because you roughly have an extra 2^9 combinations available due to the extra stack from a 5 pin). But for most houses, and certainly for the last house that I built, it was a Gainsborough 5 pin lock that was installed. One of the old keys I had (NOT the new owner's key that I was given) actually worked with the lock. So if you do get a locksmith to change your locks ask him to remove all the master pins from the lock. Some lazy locksmiths wont do it. But saying something like "I will pay extra for you to remove them" would probably work (and they can't really charge you more either). Also, there is always the possibility that a master key could be made (that works with all locks built with that builder, regardless of if the old builder's construction key was deactivated using the owner's key). But this does require a bit of ingenuity and probably wont happen. But it is always a possibility. Hope that helps. Sorry but you have a crap builder. Probably too late now. For our last build I only spoke to builders who would allow me easy access (at no cost). I used my own sparky… 10 9749 Hi All, I just wanted to close this topic out with an update. So we ended up agreeing to a number with the insurance company, and after an extensive amount of hand… 8 23348 |