Priority Lock is like having a force field on your home or office.
Priority installs, catalogs and maintains your lock and door hardware with routine visits and industry-leading service. Lever locks, panic bars, door closers, storefront hardware, rekeys and master key systems for property managers and businesses; rekeys and lock changes for homeowners.
Simply text us your name and your request. We respond fast to get you a price and get you on the schedule. Call or text 813-421-4787. Monday to Friday, 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM.
Property managers, office managers and business owners have a specific set of problems: a lever that sticks on a suite door, a panic bar that will not latch on a fire exit, a closer slamming hard enough to shake the glass.
Those take hands-on hardware knowledge, not a van full of house keys. That is the work we do all day, and we rekey and change locks for homeowners as well.
Text a photo of the door and the hardware. We will tell you what it is and what it takes to fix it.
Text a photoBusiness door hardware is the main job. We rekey and change locks for homeowners too. No car keys, no safes.
Send photos, get a real answer. No phone tree, no dispatcher.
Ybor City and about 30 minutes around downtown Tampa, across Hillsborough County. We come to you.
Offices, retail, restaurants, churches, schools, apartments, multi-tenant and mixed-use buildings. If it opens, latches or locks and it is on a door, it is in scope. Not in scope: car keys, car lockouts, safes, gate motors, and door or frame replacement.
Install, repair and replace grade 1 and grade 2 lever sets, mortise locks and deadbolts on suite entries, office doors and interior passages. The hardware you touch every day.
Read morePush bars, crash bars, rim and vertical rod exit devices on storefronts and fire exits, installed and adjusted to latch the way code expects.
Read moreDoors that slam, will not close, will not latch or are hard to open. Closers adjusted, repaired or replaced and sized to the door.
Read moreHook bolts, deadlatches, cylinders, pivots and alignment on aluminum and glass storefront doors that stopped locking or shutting right.
Read moreStaff changes, lost keys, new ownership. Rekeyed on site with keys cut, counted and recorded, so the building never sits unsecured.
Read moreSuites, apartments and offices rekeyed inside your master key system before the next tenant gets keys. Mailbox locks on the same visit.
Read moreKeying plans for multi-tenant buildings and office complexes: each tenant key opens its own door, one master opens them all, and the records are kept.
Read moreRekeys, lock changes and deadbolts for homeowners and landlords across Tampa. New house, lost keys, a roommate moved out.
Read moreManaging more than one property? How we work with property managers. The whole list, in one place: commercial locksmith services in Tampa.
Priority Lock and Security LLC is a locksmith company in Tampa, Florida, founded in June 2021 and owned by Steve Wathen. Most of our work is in and around Ybor City, for the property managers and owners of older multi-tenant buildings, and across greater Tampa for offices, storefronts, churches, schools and apartment communities. We are insured, we show up when we said we would, we tell you what we found in plain words, and we keep records of your doors, hardware and keys so the next request does not start from zero.
Before starting Priority Lock, Steve spent about five years working on the doors and security of Tampa commercial buildings, so those are the doors he knows. More about Priority Lock.
On-site service across Tampa and the surrounding communities, about thirty minutes from downtown, with Ybor City first. If you are just outside the list, ask anyway. No walk-in shop: we come to you.
Plain hourly rates. The first hour on site is the visit.
as low as $50 an hour
when we can settle a door, lock or key problem with you by phone, text or video instead of a visit
$100 an hour
the first hour is the visit; most homes are done in one visit
$125 an hour
the first hour is the visit
$149 for the first hour
evenings and weekends, by arrangement; one and a half times the hourly rate after that
$3 each
cut on site to your key system
Labor is billed in quarter hours after the first hour. Real hardware, such as a lock, a closer or an exit device, is quoted as a part. Small consumables are included. An estimate is a ceiling: the invoice does not go above it unless the scope changes and you agree first. Text a photo of the door and you get a price before anyone is scheduled.
If your question is not here, text a photo of the door to 813-421-4787. The full list is on the questions and answers page.
Priority Lock and Security, a locksmith company in Tampa, Florida, founded in June 2021 and owned by Steve Wathen. Commercial door hardware is the main work: lever and mortise locks, panic bars and exit devices, door closers, storefront door hardware, rekeying, tenant turnover and master key systems, for property managers, building owners and businesses in and around Ybor City and greater Tampa. We rekey and change locks for homeowners too.
Both. Commercial door hardware is the main work: office suites, storefronts, multi-tenant buildings and apartment communities. We also rekey and change locks for homeowners. We do not do car keys, car lockouts or safes, and we will point you to somebody good who does.
The closer's speed valves have drifted, the closer is leaking fluid, or the closer is the wrong size for the door. Tampa heat thins closer fluid on sun-facing doors. Most slamming doors can be adjusted. A closer that is leaking oil has to be replaced, because once the seals are gone it cannot be refilled.
Yes. An exit device that does not latch leaves the opening unsecured, and on a fire-rated door it is a life safety issue, not a convenience issue. Send a photo of the device and the strike and we will tell you what it takes.
Yes, and it is the standard recommendation. You cannot know how many copies of the old keys exist, and a rekey makes every one of them useless for far less than replacing hardware. In a master keyed building the rekey should go through the locksmith who keeps the building's key records, so the suite stays on the master.
Florida does not license locksmiths at the state level, and Hillsborough County stopped issuing and monitoring its locksmith licenses on July 1, 2025, after the state preempted local occupational licensing. Any company still advertising a county locksmith license number is citing a program that no longer runs. What is worth asking a vendor for instead is a certificate of insurance and references from buildings like yours. Priority Lock and Security is insured.
Monday to Friday, 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Text a photo of the hardware to 813-421-4787 with a sentence about what it is doing, and you get a real answer and a schedule the same day during business hours. For weekends and after hours, ask and we will see what we can work out.
Send a photo of the hardware with a sentence about what it is doing. That is usually all it takes to get you a real answer.
Hours: Monday to Friday, 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Weekends and after hours: ask, and we will see what we can work out.
Service area: Tampa and about 30 minutes around it, led by Ybor City. We come to you.
Prefer a form? Fill this out and we will follow up.
We will tell you what it is, what it takes, and when we can be there.
