Locksmith in New Berlin, WI

Locksmith in New Berlin, from the industrial parks to the country roads

A locksmith in New Berlin covers a city of about 37 square miles with no single center: suburban streets on the east side, a large industrial area in the middle, and open land with farms and long driveways on the west side. We work as a mobile locksmith, so the work happens at your door, your loading dock, or your detached garage. A lockout usually takes a few minutes once we arrive, and a rekey or a car key takes 15 to 60 minutes. New Berlin is about 11 miles west of downtown Milwaukee, in Waukesha County.

A town that became a city to stay in one piece

The Town of New Berlin was created on January 13, 1840, and named after New Berlin, New York, where some of the first settlers came from. Locals say the name with the stress on the first syllable of Berlin. After World War II the town filled up quickly, and its population roughly tripled between 1950 and 1960. In 1959 it incorporated as a city, mainly to keep neighboring Brookfield from annexing its land. In 2020 the city had 40,451 residents.

No downtown, but a lot of business

New Berlin does not have a traditional downtown. Its oldest buildings are gathered at the Historic Park on Prospect Hill, along National Avenue. The city's economic center is the industrial park that started in the mid-1960s and now spreads over three parks and about 1,126 acres, with roughly 600 businesses and some 13,000 workers. Manufacturing plants, warehouses, and shops work in shifts, and their doors take a beating: loading dock doors, steel side doors, and exit doors used hundreds of times a day.

For these buildings, we repair panic bars from $129 and install new ones from $349 (panic bars). We adjust and replace door closers, from $99 for a repair. When a supervisor leaves or a set of keys goes missing, we rekey the building from $79 for the first lock and $25 for each additional lock. For areas that need tighter control, such as a tool crib or an office with records, we install high-security cylinders from $149, whose keys cannot be copied at a hardware store (high-security locks). A business lockout starts at $89.

Rekeying a house you just bought

New Berlin has a lot of houses from the 1950s and 1960s building boom and a lot of newer subdivisions, and both change hands often. When you buy a house, you do not know how many copies of the old keys exist: the sellers, their relatives, a contractor, a neighbor who watered the plants. A rekey changes the inside of each lock so the old keys stop working, and the hardware stays on the door. We key the front door, the back door, and the door from the garage to one new key. The first lock starts at $59, and each additional lock on the same visit starts at $20 (rekeying).

The west side: detached garages, sheds, and barns

On the west side, New Berlin still looks like the countryside, with larger lots, open fields, and outbuildings next to the houses. A detached garage with a worn knob, a shed with a hasp and a rusty lock, or a barn door that does not lock at all are common sights. We replace the lock on a service door from $99 (lock change), add a deadbolt from $119, and key the outbuildings to the same key as the house, so one key opens everything on the property. For overhead garage doors and sliding doors with a failing latch, a new lock starts at $89.

Lockouts and car keys

A house lockout or a car lockout starts at $69. For a car with no key left, we cut and program a new key at the car from $119, and a push-to-start smart key starts at $159 (car key replacement). On the west side, give us the address and a landmark near the driveway, so we can find the house in the dark.

Driving to New Berlin

New Berlin borders West Allis and Greenfield on the east, across the Milwaukee County line. Brookfield is to the north, Waukesha is to the west, and Muskego is to the south. Hales Corners also touches its eastern edge. The prices are the same in all of them.