Lock Rekey in La Cañada Flintridge, CA

What does it mean to rekey locks, and how is it different from replacing them?

Rekeying changes the inside of a lock so that a different key operates it. Most house locks are pin tumbler cylinders: a row of small spring-loaded pins that have to line up at exactly the right height before the key can turn. When we rekey, we take the cylinder apart, swap the pins for a new set matched to a new key, and put it back together. The lock body, the deadbolt, the handle and the finish on your door all stay as they were. The old key still slides into the lock, but it no longer turns it.

Replacement is a different job. You buy new hardware, and the new hardware comes with its own keys. That is the right call when a lock is worn out, damaged, or you simply want a different style, and we do that work too. See our lock replacement page for it. But if your hardware is in good condition and your only goal is to cut off whoever else is holding a key, rekeying is usually the more economical route, and it keeps the look of the house intact. That matters on a custom hillside home or an older Flintridge estate where the door hardware was chosen on purpose.

People often use rekey and change locks as if they meant the same thing. They do not. Our change locks page covers swapping hardware. This page is about keeping the locks you have and changing what opens them.

When should you rekey your house locks?

The question underneath nearly every rekey call is the same: who might still have a working key? Most of the time you cannot answer that, and that is exactly why people rekey. These are the situations we see most often.

• Rekey locks after moving in. Previous occupants, their relatives, cleaners, dog walkers, contractors and real estate agents may all have held keys over the years, and nobody keeps a list.
• Rekey locks after buying a house. The seller hands you a set of keys, but you have no way of knowing how many copies exist. In a home that one family lived in for decades, the number can be large.
• Rekey locks after a tenant moves out. Tenants copy keys for partners, friends and relatives, and a copy rarely comes back with the original set. Rekeying at turnover resets the whole situation.
• Rekey locks after losing keys. If a key goes missing and could be tied to your address, or you simply cannot rule out that someone found it, rekeying makes that key worthless.
• After a roommate, partner, housekeeper or contractor stops being someone you want to have access, even if the parting was friendly.
• After a break-in where a key was taken, or after a forced door. If the door or frame was damaged, we will look at repair too, since a new key does not help a broken latch.

How does a house rekey work, step by step?

Rekeying is a hands-on job, and the process is simple enough to describe plainly. Here is how a typical visit runs.

1. You call (213) 577-1366, any hour. Tell us how many locks are involved (front door, deadbolts, back and side doors, the garage service door, gates), the brand if you can read it off the hardware, and why you are rekeying. That last part helps us decide what else to bring.
2. We send one of our own technicians in a mobile van. There is no outside dispatch service passing your job along to a stranger.
3. On arrival we confirm you live there or have authority over the property. A driver's license, a lease, or closing paperwork usually covers it. We do this at every address, and a locksmith who skips it is not one to trust with your doors.
4. We inspect each lock before touching it: brand, keyway, condition, and whether it can be rekeyed at all. Most can. A badly worn or damaged lock may not hold a reliable rekey, and we will say so and show you why instead of pushing it through.
5. We remove the cylinders, replace the pins to match the new key, cut the new keys, and reassemble each lock.
6. We test every lock with the new key, with the door open and with it closed. We confirm the old key no longer turns it, that the deadbolt throws fully into the strike, and that the latch lines up with the frame.
7. We hand over the keys, explain how to order copies, and tell you about anything else we noticed that deserves attention, such as a loose strike plate or a lock that is past its useful life.

How much does lock rekey cost in La Cañada Flintridge?

We do not quote numbers on a web page, because the honest answer depends on your doors. 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.

Rekeying is usually the lighter-cost option compared with replacing hardware, since you are paying for labor and a few small parts rather than new locks. Where your job lands depends on the factors below.

• How many cylinders you have. A single front door is a small job. Every deadbolt, knob, back door, garage door and side gate adds work.
• Brand and keyway. Common residential brands are straightforward. Unusual, older or restricted keyways can take longer or need special parts.
• Lock condition. A healthy lock rekeys cleanly. A lock that is worn, corroded or damaged may need repair or replacement, which changes the scope.
• Whether you want everything on one key. Keying several locks alike is more work than rekeying each one separately, though many owners find it worth it.
• How many new keys you want cut.
• The hour. Calls at night, on weekends and on holidays involve the same technicians but are priced differently from a scheduled daytime visit.
• Travel. Our storefront is in Westwood, about 22 miles from La Cañada Flintridge, and distance is part of what goes into a mobile call.
• Add-ons, such as high-security cylinders, which cost more than standard ones but also give you more than a basic rekey does.

Can every lock on the property work with one key?

Yes, in most cases. Rekeying all the house locks to a single key is one of the most useful things a rekey can do, and it is common on larger properties where a person might otherwise carry a ring of five or six keys. We match the cylinders to one key pattern so the front door, deadbolts, back door, garage service door and any side doors all open with the same key. Some owners prefer to keep one separate key for a guest house or workshop, and that works too.

There are limits. Rekeying works within a lock brand and keyway, so very mixed hardware sometimes needs one or two cylinders swapped to bring everything under one key. A padlock on a perimeter gate can be rekeyed to match if it is a pinned cylinder type, but a keypad or electronic gate lock does not rekey at all. It gets a new code or new components, and that falls under gate lock repair. The same is true of smart locks: you change user codes, not pins.

If you only need extra copies of a key you already have, that is key duplication, not rekeying. If someone else holds a copy and you want that copy to stop working, that is rekeying.

What about tenant turnover and apartment lock rekey?

Rekeying between tenants is routine and sensible. It means the person who moves in is the only one with a working key, and it removes any question about who copied what. Landlords and property managers who rekey at every turnover also avoid arguments about whether a lock was changed.

La Cañada Flintridge is almost entirely single-family housing, and multifamily buildings are few. So most turnover rekeying here is on single-family rentals, guest houses and homes that are being leased out for a season. We do these like any other house rekey, and a landlord with several properties can ask us to key them in a way that suits how they manage them. Owners who hold an apartment elsewhere in Los Angeles or Ventura counties can call us about an apartment lock rekey as well.

Our locksmith for landlords page goes into more detail on how we work with owners and managers. One practical note: your lease and local rules govern what you can change and when. We do the lock work but do not give legal advice, so if you are unsure, check with the right professional first.

Do you handle commercial and business lock rekey?

Yes. A commercial rekey is the same idea at a different scale: you keep the hardware and change who has access. It comes up when an employee leaves, when a business changes hands, when a tenant takes over a space, or when keys have been passed around loosely for years and no one can say how many exist.

Businesses along the Foothill Boulevard town center corridor and any small office or shop in the 91011 area often have a mix of front doors, back doors, storage rooms and sometimes a gate. We rekey them so each door has the access level you want. Some sites need one key for everything. Others need a structured set where certain staff can open some doors but not all of them, and that is a master key system rather than a simple rekey, which we can explain if it fits your setup.

For the wider picture of business lock work, see our commercial locksmith page. If a business door is jammed or you are locked out, that is a different call from a rekey, and we handle both.

What does lock rekeying look like around La Cañada Flintridge?

The housing here shapes the job. In Alta Canyada, many of the homes are large-lot mid-century ranch houses, and a lot of them still have original or decades-old hardware. A house like that has had many sets of keys pass through it, and several doors that all need to be accounted for: front, kitchen or back, garage side door. Rekeying every cylinder in a ranch home to a single new key is one of the most common requests we expect to see from new owners there, and it leaves the period hardware on the door.

Flintridge has older estates with long gated driveways and detached garages, and driveway-gate and estate-gate lock service is part of the picture. On a property like that, a rekey is rarely just the front door. It is the main house, the garage, a guest house or workshop, a pedestrian gate, and sometimes a padlock on the driveway gate. We walk the property with you, count every keyed lock, and decide which ones should be on one key and which should stay separate. Where a gate runs on a keypad or electric operator, that part is handled differently, as noted above.

Many properties in the Sagebrush area, the Paradise Canyon area and along the edges toward Descanso Gardens and the Angeles Crest Highway corridor back onto open foothill terrain. That makes the rear and side doors and any back gate worth including in the rekey, since those are the doors that are least visible from the street. On larger hillside houses we also ask whether the cylinders themselves are worth upgrading while we are there. A standard rekey changes the key but not the quality of the lock, so if the hardware is basic, a high-security locks cylinder may be worth considering.

The climate matters too. The foothills run hotter and windier than the basin during Santa Ana events, and strong sun on south-facing slopes dries out wood doors and trim. A wood door can shift slightly with the seasons, and what feels like a lock problem is sometimes a latch rubbing the frame. When we test a rekeyed lock, we also check alignment, so you know whether the cylinder or the door is the real issue.

If you are also locked out of a home near the Foothill Boulevard town center, we can open it and then rekey in the same visit. Start with our house lockout page for the opening part. Our storefront is at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood, about 22 miles from La Cañada Flintridge, so most local work is done by mobile locksmith van, and you can call (213) 577-1366 at any hour.

Why call Wilshire Lock & Key for a rekey?

We have been in business since 1987, and rekeying is one of the oldest jobs in the trade. It is also easy to do badly: a pin set in wrong, a cylinder reassembled with a sticky plug, a deadbolt that no longer throws all the way. We have the experience to do it properly and the habit of testing every lock before we leave.

We are a storefront and mobile company, which means we have a shop where parts, key machines and stock are kept, and vans that bring the work to your door. We are one company, not a call center that hands your job to whoever is closest. The person who answers (213) 577-1366 works for the same business that sends the technician, and David, the owner and lead technician, oversees the work.

We serve 140 cities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties and answer the phone 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

One more thing worth knowing: California requires locksmith companies to hold a BSIS LCO license, and you should ask any locksmith for their license information before they start work. That is a reasonable question for us or for anyone else you call, and a good locksmith will answer it without fuss.

We will also tell you when rekeying is not the right answer. If a lock is failing, damaged or too basic to trust, we will say so and show you the options, including lock replacement, instead of selling you a rekey that will not hold up.

More locksmith help in La Cañada Flintridge

• Change Locks in La Cañada Flintridge
• Deadbolt Installation in La Cañada Flintridge
• Gate Lock Repair in La Cañada Flintridge
• High Security Locks in La Cañada Flintridge
• Key Duplication in La Cañada Flintridge
• Lock Installation in La Cañada Flintridge
• All services in La Cañada Flintridge

Lock Rekey near La Cañada Flintridge

• Glendale
• Pasadena
• Altadena
• Burbank
• South Pasadena

Related articles

• Emergency Car Lockout Checklist for La Cañada FlintridgeA calm, step-by-step checklist for getting back into your car in La Cañada Flintridge without damage or guesswork.