Lock rekey in City of Industry, CA

What does it mean to rekey a lock?

Rekeying changes the inside of a lock cylinder so it works with a new key and no longer works with the old one. The lock itself stays on the door. The deadbolt, the knob, the lever, the exit device trim, the padlock body: all of it stays put. What changes is the arrangement of the small pins inside the cylinder that decide which key turns it.

That is why rekeying is usually the more economical route when your hardware is in good shape and your only problem is who holds a key. You are not paying for new locks. You are paying to cut off access for whoever you no longer want inside, and to hand out a fresh set of keys to the people who should be there.

City of Industry is an unusual place to talk about this, because almost everything here is a warehouse, distribution center, manufacturing plant, office park or big-box store. Very few people live here. So the rekeying we do in this city is mostly commercial: steel doors, roll-up doors, panic devices and master key systems. We still rekey houses and apartments across the rest of our service area, and we cover that below, but we are not going to pretend this is a neighborhood of single-family homes.

When do people rekey locks in City of Industry?

The reasons are simple, and they usually come down to a key that is no longer where it should be. These are the situations that come up most often for the kind of buildings found here.

• Employee turnover. Someone leaves a business park job, and you cannot be sure every key came back. Rekeying the doors they could open is cleaner than hoping.
• Tenant turnover. A unit in an industrial building or office park changes hands, and the incoming tenant should not be sharing keys with the previous one. The same applies when a landlord is reclaiming a suite.
• Rekeying after moving in. You have leased or bought a building, and you have no idea how many copies of its keys exist or who holds them.
• Rekeying after buying a house. The same logic applies to a home you purchase anywhere in our service area: the previous owner, their agent, a contractor and a relative may all have keys.
• Rekeying after losing keys. A lost key ring is a problem even if you think it fell in your own driveway. If it carried an address or a company name, rekey.
• A key system that has grown messy. Over years, doors get added, keys get copied freely, and nobody can say who can open what. A rekey is a chance to reset that.

How we rekey your locks, step by step

The process is the same whether it is one office door or a long run of warehouse doors. What changes is the scale and how much planning goes in beforehand.

1. You call (213) 577-1366. Someone answers any hour of any day. Tell us what kind of doors and locks you have, how many, and why you want the keys changed.
2. We figure out the right way to do it. For a single door, that may be a quick conversation. For a building with many doors or several departments, we ask who needs access to what, because that determines whether you want one key for everything, a master key over separate keys, or something else.
3. A technician comes to you in a mobile van, with the tools and pin kits to work on site. For larger or more complicated jobs, our Westwood storefront at 10740 Wilshire Blvd is where we cut and organize keys and handle parts.
4. We check each lock before we touch it. A cylinder that is worn, sticking, damaged or the wrong type for the door may not rekey well, and we tell you that plainly before we do any work.
5. We rekey the cylinders: remove the cylinder, replace the pins to match the new key, and reassemble it.
6. We cut the new keys and test every one in its lock, along with the old keys to confirm they no longer work. We also operate each door itself, checking that the latch, deadbolt or exit device still moves freely.
7. You get the new keys, and we go over how to keep track of them, including which keys you should not copy casually.

Should you rekey or replace the lock?

Rekeying is right when the lock works and you only need new keys. Replacement is right when the lock itself is the problem, or when you want a different level of protection.

We lean toward replacement when a cylinder is badly worn, a lock has been forced or damaged, the hardware is mismatched or failing, or a business wants a type of lock that offers key control the current locks cannot. If a standard cylinder lets anyone with a hardware store key blank make copies, rekeying it gives you a new key that can be copied just as easily. In that case a high-security lock with a restricted keyway may serve you better, since duplication requires authorization.

If you are somewhere in between, we will describe both options and what each one gets you. When you want new hardware across a whole site, our lock replacement service covers that. If you simply want every lock on the property changed out, that is the work described on our change locks page. In plenty of cases, though, a rekey does the job and costs less than new hardware.

Commercial rekey, business lock rekey and master key systems

Commercial rekeying is the bulk of what makes sense in City of Industry. Warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturing buildings often have a number of doors: front offices, loading doors, side exits, storage rooms, supervisors' spaces, roll-up doors with cylinder locks, and padlocked hasps and gates. Rekeying lets you put all of that on a coherent plan.

A master key system is the usual answer when different people need different levels of access. A shift supervisor might have a key that opens every door in one department. A manager might have a key that opens everything. An individual employee might only carry a key to one door. Setting this up involves rekeying cylinders to fit a planned hierarchy, which is more involved than rekeying a single lock, and it deserves a plan on paper first. We explain how that works on our master key system page, and our commercial locksmith page covers the broader range of business work.

Two practical points. First, a master system is only as secure as the key control behind it. If master keys are copied loosely, the system loses its value. Second, an exit device or panic bar is a life-safety item. We can rekey the outside cylinder on these devices, but you should never lock people in or defeat the way a panic device is meant to operate. We are happy to look at that during a rekey, but the exit side must always work.

What affects the cost of lock rekeying?

We do not quote prices on a web page, because the honest answer depends on the job. Here is what actually moves the cost up or down, so you can see why two rekeys can look quite different.

• The number of cylinders. Rekeying one door is a small job. Rekeying every door in a building takes longer and involves more keys.
• The type of lock. Standard residential-grade cylinders are usually straightforward. Commercial cylinders, restricted keyways, padlocks and exit device cylinders can take more time or need specific parts.
• Whether you want a master key system. Planning and building a hierarchy is more work than rekeying everything alike.
• How many keys you need cut. A household needs a few. A business with several shifts may need many, and restricted keys cost more to produce than standard blanks.
• The condition of the locks. A worn or damaged cylinder may not hold a rekey, and swapping it adds parts.
• Access and location. Our storefront is in Westwood, and City of Industry sits about 31 miles from it. Travel is a factor for a mobile call, and we are upfront about that when we quote.
• When you need it. After-hours and urgent calls take a different kind of scheduling than a planned weekday project.

Why call Wilshire Lock & Key for a rekey?

We have been in business since 1987, and rekeying is the sort of work that rewards experience. A lot of problems come from a lock that looks fine and is not, a key that almost fits, or a system someone built years ago without writing anything down.

We are one company. When you call, you reach us, not a call center that passes your job to whoever is available. The same people who answer the phone stand behind the work, and David, the owner and lead technician, oversees how we do it.

We work from both a storefront and mobile vans. That means we can come to your site for the rekey and also cut keys, organize parts and prepare larger jobs back at the shop. We serve 140 cities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and we answer the phone at (213) 577-1366 around the clock, so a lost key at the end of a shift does not have to wait for business hours. If you would rather have us come to the building, our mobile locksmith page describes how that works.

Rekeying across City of Industry: Valley Boulevard, Gale Avenue and beyond

City of Industry spans four ZIP codes: 91744, 91745, 91746 and 91748. The buildings across them share a common character: large, mostly commercial or industrial, and often shared by tenants who come and go.

Along the Valley Boulevard industrial corridor, the typical scenario is a warehouse or distribution center that needs a master key system or a rekey. A new tenant moves into a unit, or a company reorganizes who works where, and the existing keys no longer match the way the business operates. That is a tenant turnover rekey in its plainest form: same doors, same hardware, new keys, and a clear record of who holds what.

On the Gale Avenue business corridor, many of the buildings are industrial and office properties with exit devices on their main doors. Rekeying here often means working on the cylinders that serve those devices, plus the office suite doors inside, while leaving the panic hardware itself alone unless it needs repair.

In the Grand Avenue business parks near SR-60, employee turnover is a common reason to rekey. When someone leaves a position that had a key to the building, the fastest way to be sure is to change the cylinders that key opened. Business parks also tend to have shared common doors and individual suites, which is where a master key plan earns its keep.

Retail locations are a different story. Around the Puente Hills Mall retail district and the surrounding big-box centers, stores deal with keys for back rooms, stock areas and employee entrances. A rekey after a manager leaves is routine there.

One more local factor is heat. Summers in this part of the county are hot and made worse by all the pavement and large industrial rooftops. Steel doors, roll-up doors and exterior gate hardware expand in the sun, and that can make a latch or bolt bind. When we rekey an exterior steel door, we test it with the door and strike as they actually sit in the heat, because a lock that turns easily in a cool shop may stick on the door. If the door itself needs adjustment, we will say so. The same goes for padlocks and hasps on roll-up doors, which take the full brunt of the sun.

If you are in the Industry Hills area near the Expo Center or the Pacific Palms area, the same approach applies: we look at the doors you have, who needs access, and what the simplest dependable fix is.

House and apartment rekeys: what we can do and where

Although this city has very little housing, our rekey service is not limited to commercial properties. If you own or manage a house, a condo or an apartment elsewhere in our service area, or you own a rental property and want it rekeyed between tenants, the process is the same. We rekey all house locks so every door works with one key, which is often what people mean by rekeying all house locks after moving or buying. Front door, back door, side gate, garage entry: one key for all, if that is what you want.

Apartment lock rekeys follow the same logic. A unit that changes occupants should have its cylinders rekeyed so the previous tenant's key stops working. If you manage several units, our locksmith for landlords page explains how we handle repeated turnovers. Landlords with a few doors and landlords with a few hundred use the same basic method, but they plan it differently.

If you have a key broken off inside a lock, that is a separate problem we handle on its own terms before any rekey can happen. And if you are locked out right now, a rekey is not the first step; getting you in is.

How to choose a locksmith for a rekey

Rekeying controls who can get into your building, so you are giving access to the person doing the work. A few sensible checks apply to any locksmith.

California requires locksmith companies to hold a license issued through the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, known as a BSIS LCO license. Ask any locksmith you call for their license number, and check it with the state. A legitimate company will give it to you without fuss.

Ask what is included. Does the quote cover the cylinders, the keys, and testing? Are keys cut for restricted keyways? Will they tell you if a lock should be replaced instead of rekeyed? And ask whether you are speaking to the company that will actually come out, or to a dispatcher.

Finally, if a locksmith suggests drilling out locks that are working fine when all you need is new keys, ask why. A rekey normally does not require destroying anything.

More locksmith help in City of Industry

• Change Locks in City of Industry
• Deadbolt Installation in City of Industry
• Gate Lock Repair in City of Industry
• High Security Locks in City of Industry
• Key Duplication in City of Industry
• Lock Installation in City of Industry
• All services in City of Industry

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