Change Locks in Inglewood, CA: rekey, replace, or upgrade

Why change your locks when you move into a new place?

When you get the keys to a house or apartment, you get one set. You don't get a list of everyone else who has one. The previous owner, a former tenant, a relative, a contractor, a real estate agent, a neighbor who watered the plants: any of them may still hold a working copy. Most are harmless. You still have no way of knowing, and a lock change is the one step that settles the question.

That is the reason locksmiths talk about changing locks after buying a house or moving in. It isn't about assuming the worst. It's about starting from a known position, where you can count every key that opens your door because you were there when they were made.

The same logic applies outside of moves. If a roommate leaves on bad terms, a relationship ends, a key goes missing, or a set of keys was in a bag that got stolen, the lock should change even though the door itself is fine. A lock change doesn't mean tearing out your hardware. Often it means altering what the existing hardware responds to, and sometimes it means swapping it out entirely. Working out which one fits your door is most of the job, and it's where we spend our time at the start of every visit.

Should you rekey or replace your locks?

This is the question most people actually have when they call about a lock change. The honest answer is that it depends on the hardware you have and what you want from it. Here is how we think it through with customers.

Rekeying changes the internal pins of the lock so that the old keys no longer work and a new key does. The lock body, the handle, and the deadbolt stay on the door. If your hardware is sound and you simply need new keys, rekeying your locks is usually the more economical route, and it lets us key several doors to the same key so you carry one instead of four.

Replacing means taking the old lock off and installing a new one. That is the right call when the hardware itself is the problem, and lock replacement also makes sense when you want a different style, a higher grade, or a feature the old lock never had.

• Rekey when the locks are in good working order, turn smoothly, and you only need to cut off old keys.
• Replace when a lock is worn, loose, corroded, damaged from a past break-in attempt, or sticking even with the right key.
• Replace when you want a different finish, a keypad, or a smart lock to match the rest of the home.
• Replace when the deadbolt or latch is a lower grade than you'd like on an exterior door.
• Rekey when you have mismatched brands on different doors and want one key for all of them. Some brands rekey easily, and we'll tell you if one of yours doesn't.
• Either way, if the door or frame is the weak point, we'll say so rather than sell you a lock that can't make up for a loose strike plate.

How a lock change visit works, step by step

There's no mystery to it, and you can watch every stage. Here's how a typical call goes, whether we come to you in a mobile van or you stop by our Westwood storefront at 10740 Wilshire Blvd with locks in hand.

1. You call (213) 577-1366. A person answers, any hour, and asks about the property, how many doors, and what prompted the change.
2. We ask what hardware is on the doors now, and if you can, to send or describe the brand names stamped on the lock face and the latch edge.
3. On arrival, we look at each lock, test how it turns, and check the door, strike plate, and frame. This is where we tell you which locks are good to rekey and which should be replaced.
4. You choose the plan. We explain what each option involves before any work begins, so the cost is not a surprise when we finish.
5. We do the work: rekeying the cylinders, or removing and installing new hardware, and fitting it so the bolt throws cleanly into the frame.
6. We test every lock with the new keys, confirm the old keys no longer operate, and hand you the keys. If you need spares, we can cut them on the spot with key duplication.

What affects the cost of changing locks?

We don't quote numbers on a web page because the real figure depends on your doors, not on a list. What we can do is show you exactly what moves the cost up or down, so you know what to expect when you call.

In general, rekeying costs less than replacing because you're paying for labor and a few parts, not for new hardware. But the picture shifts depending on a handful of things.

• How many locks are involved: a front door only, or front, back, side gate, garage entry, and a sliding door.
• Whether you choose to rekey or replace, and the grade and brand of any new hardware.
• Whether the existing locks can be rekeyed at all. Some older or off-brand hardware can't be, which pushes the job toward replacement.
• Extras such as new deadbolts on doors that have none, smart locks, or a strike plate reinforcement.
• Whether the door or frame needs adjusting for the lock to work properly.
• Whether you want one key to work across all doors.
• The time of day. We answer around the clock, and a late-night or holiday call is a different situation than a weekday appointment.
• Distance and travel to your address, since we serve a wide area from one base.

Changing locks in Inglewood: what the housing here means for the job

Inglewood is not one kind of housing, and the locks that come with it vary a lot. In Fairview Heights and Morningside Park, many homes are 1920s–1940s Spanish bungalows. After that many decades, the hardware on those doors has often been swapped several times over, so we regularly find a mix of brands and ages on a single house. That makes an upfront walk-through important: some of those locks rekey without trouble, and others are better replaced so the whole house ends up on one consistent set of keys.

Security screen doors and window bars are common on older homes and small apartment buildings in the denser corridors. When we change locks on a door behind a security screen, we also look at the screen door's own lock, because a new front-door deadbolt does little good if the outer door's latch is loose or uses a key nobody can account for. On Morningside Park bungalows, gates and security doors often need attention at the same time as the main door, and when the gate latch is the problem we can point you to gate lock repair.

North Inglewood, Downtown Inglewood, Arbor Village, Lockhaven, Crenshaw-Imperial, and Inglewood Knolls each have their own mix of postwar stucco homes, small apartment buildings, and a large stock of apartments along the Century Boulevard and La Brea corridors. Apartment rekeys along the Century Boulevard corridors are among the most common calls we get for this area, usually because a tenant moved out or a key is unaccounted for. Newer condominium and apartment buildings from the Hollywood Park development near SoFi Stadium bring another type of call, where the locks are modern and often smart-enabled, and the question is usually how to update access codes or hardware rather than whether to rekey.

We cover all of Inglewood, including ZIP codes 90301 through 90305. Inglewood is about 11 miles from our Westwood base, and our mobile vans come to you with the tools and parts to do most lock changes on site. As for the weather, Inglewood gets marine-layer mornings but little direct salt exposure, so the climate is mild and wears on door hardware only modestly. In practice, age and past repairs matter far more than weather when we decide whether a lock is worth keeping.

Renters, landlords, and apartment tenants

Most Inglewood residents rent, so lock changes here involve more than homeowners. Tenants often ask whether they can change their own locks. That depends on your lease and your landlord, so check before you call anyone, and keep your landlord informed so that nobody ends up locked out of a unit they have a right to enter.

For landlords and property managers, turnover is the moment locks should change. Between tenants, a rekey cuts off every old key without the cost of new hardware on every door, and it keeps your units on a clean system. If you manage several units, our locksmith for landlords service is built around exactly that kind of work, including keeping unit keys organized.

What about deadbolts, smart locks, and other upgrades?

A lock change is a good time to look at what's on the door. Some older entries have only a knob lock with no deadbolt at all. If that's your situation, adding a deadbolt can be part of the same visit.

If you'd rather not carry a key, or you want to give family or guests their own codes, smart locks are an option. The newer Hollywood Park residential buildings are one place we expect to see them. A smart lock installation is a bigger step than a rekey, and it isn't right for every door. We'll tell you plainly if your door, your frame, or your wifi situation makes a simpler lock the better choice.

For a broader look at what we do for homes, see our page on residential locksmith service.

Why call Wilshire Lock & Key for a lock change?

We've been in business since 1987. That is a long stretch of watching which hardware lasts, which fails, and which advice holds up. Lock changes are straightforward work, but they go better when the person doing them has seen a lot of different doors.

We are one company, not a dispatch service. When you call (213) 577-1366, you reach us, and the technician who comes out works for the same shop that answered. We have a real storefront at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood and mobile vans for service on-site, so you can either bring hardware in or have us come to you.

David, the owner and lead technician, oversees the work. We say what we think about rekey versus replace, including when the lighter-cost option is the right one and when it isn't. If your locks are fine, we'll tell you that. We'd rather you call us again in ten years because we were straight with you.

And we answer the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year. Lock changes are often planned, but plans change, and sometimes the need is urgent.

What to check before hiring any locksmith

California requires locksmith companies to hold a license from the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, known as a BSIS LCO license. Ask any locksmith for it before they start work, and ask us too. A reputable company will give you the number without hesitation.

A few other habits help. Ask for a clear explanation of the work before it starts. Be wary of any company that won't tell you its name or address on the phone, or that gives a vague answer about who is coming. And keep every key made for you. When the work is done, count the keys, test each one, and make sure the old ones no longer work.

More locksmith help in Inglewood

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

Change Locks near Inglewood

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