Change Locks in Commerce, CA: Rekey or Replace, Explained Straight

Why change your locks at all?

Most people call us about changing locks for one of a handful of reasons. They just bought a house and have no idea how many copies of the keys exist. They moved into a rental and the last tenant never handed everything back. A key went missing, or an ex-roommate, contractor or relative still has one. Or the lock simply feels worn out and nobody trusts it anymore.

In every one of those cases the real question is the same: who can still open this door? A lock change answers that. After it is done, only the keys in your hand will work, and you know exactly how many there are.

The words people use for this vary. Some say change the locks, some say rekey, some say replace the hardware. They are related but not identical, and picking the wrong one can mean paying for more than you need or leaving a weakness in place. That is why we start every lock change with a short conversation about the door, not a sales pitch.

Should you rekey or replace your locks?

This is the question we get most, and the honest answer is that it depends on the condition of the lock and what you want from the door. Both options stop old keys from working. They get there differently.

Rekeying keeps the existing lock hardware and changes the internal pin configuration so a new key fits and the old keys no longer do. Replacing means taking the old lock off the door and installing a different one. We cover each in more detail on our lock rekey and lock replacement pages, but here is the practical split.

• Rekey when the lock is in good working shape, the finish and style are fine, and your main goal is cutting off old keys. It is usually the more economical route, and every lock on the property can be set to a single key.
• Replace when the lock is worn, sticking, loose in the door, damaged from a break-in attempt, or simply a grade of hardware you do not trust.
• Replace when you want something different: a stronger deadbolt, a keypad, or a smart lock that does away with physical keys for some users.
• Replace when the lock is an unknown quantity, such as a mismatched set of mixed brands on one house, and you would rather start clean.
• Either way, we check that the door, strike plate and latch line up properly, because a perfect lock on a misaligned door still fails.

How does a lock change work, step by step?

Here is how a typical residential lock change goes when you call us. Specifics shift depending on the door, but the order stays much the same.

1. You call (213) 577-1366. A person answers, any hour of the day or night, and we ask what is going on: new house, lost key, break-in, or just a precaution. We also ask how many exterior doors you have and what kind of locks are on them.
2. We come to you in one of our mobile service vans, or you can bring hardware to our Westwood storefront at 10740 Wilshire Blvd if that suits you better.
3. On site, we look at each lock, the door and the frame. We tell you what we see, whether each lock is a good rekey candidate or better off replaced, and why.
4. You decide. Some customers rekey the front door and replace a worn back door lock in the same visit. That mix is common and perfectly reasonable.
5. We do the work: rekeying cylinders to a new key, or removing and installing new hardware, and aligning latches and strike plates so the door closes and locks smoothly.
6. We test every lock with the new keys, with the door open and closed, and confirm the old keys no longer operate them.
7. We hand over the new keys and, if you want extras for family members, we can cut them on the spot. Our key duplication service covers that.

What affects the cost of changing locks in Commerce?

We do not quote numbers in a web page because the real cost depends on your actual doors, and anyone who gives you a flat figure without knowing them is guessing. What we can do is tell you exactly what moves the cost up or down, so you can judge any quote you get, ours included.

The biggest factor is rekey versus replace. Rekeying uses your existing hardware, so you are paying mostly for labor and parts inside the cylinder. Replacing adds the cost of the new lock itself, and that varies widely from basic hardware to high-security cylinders to electronic models.

• Number of locks: a front door and back door is a smaller job than a house with a side gate, a garage entry door and a sliding door lock.
• Type of hardware: standard knobs, deadbolts, handlesets, and smart locks all have different parts and labor needs.
• Condition of the existing locks: a worn or damaged lock may not rekey reliably and is better replaced.
• Door and frame condition: a swollen, warped or poorly fitted door may need adjustment before any lock will work properly.
• Key control level: standard keys are easy to copy anywhere, while restricted keyways cost more but limit who can duplicate them.
• Time of day: a middle-of-the-night call is a different situation from a scheduled visit, and we are upfront about that when you phone.
• Add-ons: extra keys, a new deadbolt on a door that only had a knob, or a smart lock setup all add scope.

Changing locks after buying a house or moving in

If you searched for a locksmith for a new house, this is the part for you. The moment you get the keys to a home, rekeying or replacing the locks should be near the top of the list. You do not know how many copies the previous owner made. Neither do the previous owner, the agent who held a lockbox key, or the contractor who did the pre-sale repairs. It is not that anyone is untrustworthy. It is that you cannot account for the keys, and a lock change is how you fix that.

The same goes for anyone using a locksmith after moving into a rental. If you are a tenant, check your lease and talk to your landlord first, since many leases address who handles lock changes. If you are the landlord, turning units over between tenants is exactly where rekeying pays off, and we do a good amount of it. See our page on locksmith services for landlords for how that works.

Some practical tips for new homeowners:

• Do it before you move your belongings in, if you can. Doors are easier to work on when nobody is carrying boxes through them.
• Think about every entry point, not only the front door: back door, garage side door, sliding doors, and any outbuilding.
• Ask whether all the locks can be keyed alike so you carry one key instead of four.
• Consider upgrading a weak or missing deadbolt while we are there. Our deadbolt installation page explains the options.
• If you are curious about keypads or phone-controlled entry, we can talk through whether a smart lock fits your door and your habits, including the downsides, such as batteries and setup.

Changing locks in Commerce: Rosewood Park, Bristow Park, Bandini and the I-5 side of town

Commerce is a small city of roughly 12,000 residents, and a good share of them live in compact pockets of modest single-family homes built in the 1940s and 1950s: the Rosewood Park area, Bandini, and the Bristow Park area. Around Veterans Park there are more of the same. Houses that age have often had their locks swapped, patched or mismatched over the decades, and a front door may have one brand of knob, a different deadbolt, and a back door set that is older than either. When someone buys or inherits a place in 90040, a full lock change is often the sensible way to bring the whole house onto one key system, and we look at each door individually rather than assuming.

Climate plays a part, too. Commerce has an inland basin climate with hot, dry summers, and the I-5 corridor flats get little marine moderation. On older tract homes, summer heat can swell wood doors. A swollen door drags on the latch, and a lock that has to fight its strike plate wears out faster. When we change locks on a home like that, we check the door fit, and sometimes the right fix is adjusting the strike or latch position before blaming the lock.

There is also newer housing. Rosewood Village, a newer townhome tract, has a different kind of door and lock setup than the older bungalows, and new townhome buyers often want the locks changed even though the home is recent, because the builder, agent and previous owner may all have had keys.

Because residential and industrial needs sit side by side in Commerce, we get calls that go beyond the house. A typical local scenario is a family in the Rosewood Park or Bristow Park pockets who locks themselves out or loses a key and decides to change the locks while we are already at the door. If you are locked out right now, our house lockout service comes first and a lock change can follow once you are inside.

Most of Commerce's floor area is warehouses and distribution buildings along Washington Boulevard, Telegraph Road and Atlantic Boulevard, with heavy daily use wearing out hardware. If you run a business or manage a property out that way, a lock change for a shop door or office suite is a different job from a house, with different hardware and often master key considerations. Our commercial locksmith page covers that side. This page stays focused on homes.

Commerce sits about 19 miles from our Westwood base, and our mobile vans cover it as part of the 140 cities we serve across Los Angeles and Ventura counties. For a lock change you can also schedule ahead and have a technician come to the house, which is what most new homeowners do. Our mobile locksmith page explains how the van service works.

Why call Wilshire Lock & Key for a lock change?

We have been in business since 1987. That is a long time to see what happens to locks on every kind of door, and to learn when a quick rekey is the right call and when it is a bad idea.

We are one company. When you call (213) 577-1366, you are not reaching a dispatch center that passes the job to whichever contractor is available. You are dealing with Wilshire Lock & Key, with a storefront at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood and our own mobile vans on the road.

David, the owner and lead technician, oversees the work. That matters for lock changes especially, because the decision about whether to rekey or replace is a judgment call and not a script. We would rather tell you your existing locks are fine to rekey than sell you new ones you do not need, and we will also tell you plainly when a lock is past saving.

And we answer the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year. People do not plan to need a locksmith at 2 a.m. after a break-in or a lost wallet, and you should reach a real person when that happens.

What should you check before hiring any locksmith?

Lock work is about trust. You are letting someone into the part of your house that keeps everything else safe, so a few checks are worth doing no matter whom you call.

California requires locksmith companies to hold a license from the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, called a BSIS LCO license. Ask any locksmith you are considering for it, and check it with the state if you want to be sure. If a company will not give you a straight answer, move on.

• Ask for the company name and the address. A real storefront or an established business name is a good sign.
• Ask what the total will cover before the work starts, including any trip charge, labor, and parts, so there are no surprises at the door.
• Be wary of anyone who quotes a rock-bottom number on the phone and then changes it on site.
• Ask whether you will get all the new keys and whether the old ones will definitely stop working.
• Confirm they test each lock with the new key before leaving.

When a lock change is not the right job

Sometimes people call for a lock change when something else is going on. If the lock turns but the door will not latch, it may be a door alignment problem. If a key is snapped off inside, you need extraction before anything else. If you are only after spare keys and security is not a concern, copies are cheaper and simpler than a full change.

We will tell you if that is the case. Our job on a change-locks call is to leave you with a door you trust, and sometimes that means doing less than you expected, and sometimes it means doing something a bit different. Call us, describe what is going on, and we will point you the right way.

More locksmith help in Commerce

• Deadbolt Installation in Commerce
• Gate Lock Repair in Commerce
• High Security Locks in Commerce
• Key Duplication in Commerce
• Lock Installation in Commerce
• Lock Rekey in Commerce
• All services in Commerce

Change Locks near Commerce

• Montebello
• East Los Angeles
• Bell Gardens
• Maywood
• Bell
• Vernon