Locksmith on Marco Island, FL
Marco is about nineteen miles south of me and over the bridge, which makes it the one trip where I always give an honest arrival time before I set off.
Where I go on Marco Island
I cover Old Marco, Tigertail, Hideaway Beach and the condo towers along Collier Boulevard.
The drive
South on CR 951 and over the Jolley Bridge. There is one way on and one way off the island, so a backup on the bridge is a real delay and I would rather tell you that than pretend it is a twenty minute hop.
Salt air, and condo keys I am not allowed to copy
Marco is the hardest place in the county on exterior hardware. Salt gets into a standard deadbolt and it starts to drag within a season or two, which is why so many “my key snapped” calls here are really a corroded cylinder that had been stiff for months.
The towers bring a second problem. Many run restricted key systems, which I cannot legally duplicate without written authorisation from the building. If you are in a tower, check with your manager before you call anybody, because a locksmith who offers to copy that key regardless is telling you something about himself.
What Marco calls me for
Residential work and re-entry, far more than cars. It is a second-home island, so the calls are about getting back into a property rather than back into a vehicle.
Opening a house that has been shut since April
This is the Marco call. Somebody arrives in October, the key does not turn, nobody can remember the safe combination, and the only other copy is with a property manager who is three states away. It is worth booking a rekey before the season rather than standing on the step at the start of it.