Lock Rekeying

Rekeying changes the pins inside a lock so the old keys stop working, while the lock itself stays on the door. It is quicker than replacing hardware, it costs less, and in most situations it is what people actually need when they say they want the locks changed.

When rekeying is the right answer

• You just bought a house. The most common reason, and the most sensible.
• A tenant moved out. Whether or not the keys came back.
• You lost a set of keys. Particularly if anything with your address was attached to them.
• A relationship ended, or a housemate moved on.
• Contractors had access during a renovation.
• You have too many keys. Different keys for front, back and garage can usually be brought down to one.

Just bought a house?

Do it in the first week. You have no way of knowing how many keys to your house exist. Previous owners, their relatives, a neighbor who watered the plants, contractors, a cleaner, whoever had the realtor’s lockbox. None of those people are necessarily a problem, but you cannot account for a single one of those keys, and that is the point.

Rekeying every exterior door to one new key settles all of it in a single visit.

One key that opens every door

Houses often end up with a front door key, a different back door key, and a third for the garage entry, usually because hardware was replaced piecemeal over the years.

Where locks share the same keyway, they can be rekeyed to match so one key opens everything. Where they do not, we can usually swap the odd ones out so the whole house works off a single key. Tell us how many doors and roughly what is on them when you call.

Rekey or replace?

Rekey when the locks are in good working order and you only want the old keys to stop working. The hardware is not the problem, the keys are.

Replace when the lock is damaged, sticking, older than the door, or weaker than you want on that particular door. See lock change.

If a key has to be jiggled or lifted to work, that is worth a look while we are there. Often it is the door or frame having moved rather than the lock failing, and adjusting the strike costs far less than new hardware.

Landlords and rental properties

Turnover means rekeying, and doing it one panicked call at a time is expensive. If you have several units, it is worth setting them up so changeover becomes routine. Tell us what you are managing and we will work out what fits.

Common questions