Locksmith in Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, FL

High-rise living: the association's doors and yours

A lot of Broward lives in condominiums — towers on Galt Ocean Mile and along the Intracoastal, mid-rises in Hallandale Beach and Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, and garden-style buildings inland. In almost all of them there are two sets of locks. The lobby entrance, garage gate, elevators, pool and fob readers belong to the association and are run by its management. The door to your unit is usually yours to deal with, within the association's rules.

That split matters. A locksmith can open or rekey your unit door, but a dead fob or a building door that won't release goes to the management office. Florida law also gives a condominium association a right of access to units for maintenance and repair, and many associations ask owners to keep a key on file, so read your rules before you change a lock.

Impact doors in Florida's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone

The Florida Building Code defines the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone as Broward and Miami-Dade counties, and the strictest wind and impact requirements in the state apply here. Many Broward homes and businesses have impact-rated entry doors and sliders as a result. Those doors carry a product approval — often a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance — and the approval generally covers the door as a tested assembly, hardware included.

In practice, before replacing a lockset, deadbolt or multipoint lock on an impact door, find the approval label or paperwork and choose hardware it allows, or ask the door's manufacturer. Rekeying keeps the existing hardware in place, so it doesn't raise that question. Before storm season, check that every exterior door latches and bolts fully, because a bolt that doesn't fully throw on a door that's meant to stay shut in high wind is worth fixing early.

Canals, marinas and boat show week

Fort Lauderdale calls itself the Venice of America, and the city has roughly 165 miles of inland waterways. That means dock boxes, gear lockers, boat cabin doors, outboard locks and trailer hitch locks, all living in salt air that is rough on metal. A seized padlock on a dock box or a lost key to a cabin hatch is a normal call here.

Every fall the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show fills the area around Bahia Mar and the beach, and the show uses the Broward County Convention Center as its parking and shuttle hub. Crowded lots, long walks and water-taxi hops are a good way to lose a key. Photograph where you parked and keep a spare somewhere you can reach.

Las Olas shopfronts and the western suburbs

Las Olas Boulevard's shops, galleries and restaurants, and the bars and hotels facing the beach, keep a commercial locksmith busy with staff turnover and storefront doors that take a beating from heat and salt. Further west, master-planned communities set a different tone. Weston was built largely as a planned community and became a city in 1996. Coral Springs was planned by Coral Ridge Properties and chartered in 1963, and SilverLakes spreads across Pembroke Pines and Miramar west of I-75. For homes behind a guard gate, tell us how the locksmith gets past it, or call the gatehouse to add them to your guest list.