Change Locks in Lakewood, CA: Rekey or Replace, Explained Honestly

Should you rekey or replace when you change locks in Lakewood?

Most people who call to change door locks say they need new locks. What they usually need is for the old keys to stop working. Those are two different goals, and there are two different ways to reach the goal. Rekeying keeps your existing lock hardware and changes the inside of the cylinder so it only works with a new key. Replacing removes the old hardware and puts different hardware on the door.

Rekeying is usually the more economical route when the hardware is sound, because you're paying for labor and a few small internal parts instead of brand-new lock bodies. Replacement makes sense when a lock is worn, loose, damaged, corroded, or just not something you trust anymore. It also makes sense when you want something better than what the door has now. If a rekey is all you need, we'll tell you that, even though a replacement would be the bigger job.

The short version: we decide based on the condition of the lock in front of us, not on what's easier to sell. You can read more about each approach on our lock rekeying page and our lock replacement page. If you can't tell which one you need, that's exactly why this service exists. Call and we'll walk through it with you.

Why change locks after buying a house or moving in?

When you get the keys to a new place, you get the keys you were handed. You have no way to know how many other copies exist. Previous owners, tenants, real estate agents, contractors, cleaners, relatives, and the neighbor who once watered the plants may all have had one. Almost none of those people are untrustworthy. The point is that nobody, including them, can say for certain where every copy ended up.

Changing the locks after buying a house puts you back in control of who can open the door. The best time is before you move your belongings in, and the next best time is the first week. A locksmith for a new house can also look at the whole property in one visit, since new homeowners tend to discover a lot of small lock issues at once: a sticky back door, a gate nobody has a key for, a garage side door that doesn't latch.

• You just bought a house and want every old key made useless.
• You're renting a new place and your landlord has agreed to a lock change.
• You've lost a set of keys, or a set was stolen, and you don't want to wait and see.
• A roommate, partner, or former employee moved out and still holds a key.
• The locks work, but the keys are worn smooth and the lock feels loose or gritty.
• You've had a break-in and want the hardware looked at before you trust it again.

How a lock change works, step by step

We keep the process simple, and we explain things as we go. Whether you call as a new owner or someone who's lived somewhere for twenty years, the flow is the same.

1. You call (213) 577-1366, any hour. Tell us how many exterior doors you have, what the locks look like, and whether you want one key for everything.
2. We give you a straight recommendation on rekeying versus replacing, and we explain what will drive the final cost before any work starts.
3. A technician comes to you in one of our mobile vans, with a range of cylinders, deadbolts, and knobsets on board so most doors can be finished in one visit.
4. We ask you to show that you live at the property or have authority over it. This protects you, and it's standard practice for a reputable locksmith.
5. We check each lock before touching it: how the key turns, whether the latch lines up with the strike plate, and whether the door itself is sagging or swollen.
6. We do the rekey or replacement, then test every lock with the new keys, with the door open and again with it closed.
7. We hand over the keys, tell you which key opens which lock, and explain how to get extra copies cut without defeating the point of the change.

What does changing a lock actually involve? Your options

Under the umbrella of a lock change there are several different jobs. Knowing the names helps you ask for what you actually want.

• Rekey only: the lock stays on the door, and we change the internal pins so old keys no longer work. Best for good hardware you're happy with.
• Like-for-like replacement: new locks of a similar type go on, usually when the old ones are worn out or damaged.
• Upgrade: you move to a higher-grade deadbolt, or add a deadbolt to a door that only had a knob lock.
• Keyed-alike setup: every exterior lock opens with a single key, so you don't carry a ring of four or five.
• Keypad or app-based: some people use a lock change as the moment to move to a smart lock. It's worth a conversation, but it isn't right for every door.

What affects the cost of changing locks?

We don't quote numbers on a web page, because a lock change can be a very small job or a very large one, and a number out of context would mislead you. What we can do is tell you honestly what moves the cost up or down, so nothing surprises you.

The biggest factor is rekey versus replace. Rekeying is typically the lighter-cost option, since you keep the existing hardware. Replacement adds the price of the new locks, and that price varies a lot by grade. A basic knobset and a heavy-duty deadbolt are not the same product.

The other factors are straightforward:

• How many locks are involved: a front door only, or every door, gate, and garage entry.
• The condition of the existing hardware, since worn cylinders sometimes can't be rekeyed reliably and need replacing anyway.
• The condition of the door, because a swollen, warped, or poorly drilled door can need extra adjustment before any lock will work well.
• Whether you want keyed-alike locks or a more involved key arrangement.
• The grade and type of hardware you choose, including any smart lock features.
• The time of day. After-hours and weekend calls involve a technician leaving off-duty time, and that's reflected in the bill.
• Travel distance. Our storefront is in Westwood, roughly 29 miles from Lakewood, and mobile service to Lakewood is part of the picture.

Changing locks on a 1950s Lakewood tract home

Lakewood is a postwar planned suburb. Roughly 17,500 compact single-story tract homes went up between 1950 and 1953, and that ranch stock still dominates the city. Whether you're buying in Lakewood Park, Lakewood Mutuals, Lakewood Gardens, or Mayfair, there's a decent chance the house you're looking at still has decades-old knob and deadbolt hardware, sometimes original, sometimes patched in over the years. That's one of the most common situations behind a lock change here: a new owner in 90712, 90713, or 90715 gets the keys to a house that has outlived several sets of locks and an unknown number of copied keys.

Old hardware raises the rekey-or-replace question more sharply than newer hardware does. Some aging cylinders can be rekeyed cleanly. Others are so worn that the new pin setup won't hold up, or the parts to rekey them reliably aren't worth chasing. When that happens we'll tell you, show you what we're seeing, and recommend replacing instead of rekeying something that will fail in a year.

The weather is on your side, to a degree. Lakewood sits on a flat coastal plain several miles inland, with morning marine layer and mild temperatures. Salt-air corrosion is minor compared with shoreline Long Beach, so hardware here tends to wear out from age and use rather than from rust. The exception is the damp winters, which can swell older wood doors. A swollen door makes a latch bind against the strike plate, and people often blame the lock when the real fix is an adjustment. We check the door itself before deciding the lock is the problem.

Apartments are limited in Lakewood and sit mostly along major corridors such as South Street and Candlewood Street. If you rent, check your lease and talk to your landlord before anyone changes a lock. Property owners handling turnovers can look at our page for landlords and property managers.

Side gates, garage doors, and the locks people forget

On postwar ranch lots, the front door is rarely the only way in. Side-yard gates and attached or detached garages are near-universal in Lakewood, and many have a side door of their own. When people change locks after buying a house, these are the entries that get missed, and a lock change that skips them leaves a perfectly good way in for anyone holding an old key.

When you call, tell us about every point of entry, not just the main doors. That includes the side gate, the garage side door, any back door, and any storage shed or workshop that locks. We can fold them into one keying plan so a single key handles what you want it to handle. If a gate latch is rusty, bent, or loose rather than just needing new keying, that's a repair, and our gate lock repair service covers it.

Planning for extra keys is part of the job too. Once the locks are changed, you'll want spares for family members, and a good key duplication approach keeps your key count under control. We'll suggest how many copies are actually useful, so you don't recreate the problem you just solved.

Why call Wilshire Lock & Key for a lock change?

We've been in business since 1987, which means the person who comes to your door is working inside a company that has seen nearly every kind of lock, door, and mistake. We have a storefront at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood and mobile service vans, so you're dealing with a real shop and not a website that forwards your call.

Some points that matter in practice:

• One company. When you call, you reach us, and there's no dispatch middleman reselling your job to whoever is closest.
• David, the owner and lead technician, oversees the work. You're not getting a franchise with nobody accountable.
• The phone is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year-round at (213) 577-1366, including holidays.
• We serve 140 cities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and Lakewood is one of them. We're honest that we're not next door; our mobile locksmith service is how we reach you.
• We'll tell you when the lighter-cost option is the right one, and we'll tell you when it isn't.

How to check any locksmith before they change your locks

California requires locksmith companies to hold a license from the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS), called an LCO license. Ask any locksmith for their license number before work begins, and write it down. A real company will give it to you without fuss.

A few other warning signs are worth knowing. Be cautious if the person on the phone won't give a company name, if the story changes between the call and the doorstep, or if they want to drill out and destroy a lock that could have been rekeyed. A lock change on a house door in good shape rarely calls for that. Ask what the work involves, ask why, and expect a clear answer. If you don't get one, you're free to call someone else.

More locksmith help in Lakewood

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

Change Locks near Lakewood

• Bellflower
• Long Beach
• Signal Hill
• Paramount
• Hawaiian Gardens
• Cerritos