Lock Rekey in Lakewood, CA: keep your locks, change the keys

What does it mean to rekey locks in Lakewood?

A lock is two things: the hardware you can see, and the small set of pins inside the cylinder that decide which key will turn it. Rekeying changes those pins so a new key works and every earlier key becomes useless. The knob, deadbolt, or handle stays on the door. Nothing gets drilled or patched, and in most cases the finished lock looks exactly as it did when we arrived.

In Lakewood, that matters for a specific reason. The city was built as a planned postwar suburb, with roughly 17,500 compact single-story tract homes going up between 1950 and 1953. Many of those houses have changed hands more than once, and many still carry decades-old knob and deadbolt hardware. Keys to those doors have been copied, lent to relatives, handed to contractors, and forgotten in kitchen drawers for a very long time. Rekeying is the practical way to reset who has access without buying a whole new set of hardware.

This page is about rekey work for houses, apartments, and small businesses in Lakewood. If what you actually want is new hardware on the door, that is a different job, and we explain it on our change locks page.

When should you rekey your locks?

The honest test is simple: do you know exactly who holds a working key to your door? If the answer is no, or even probably, rekeying is worth considering. These are the situations we get called about most often.

• Rekey locks after moving in or after buying a house. You have no way of knowing how many copies the previous owner, their relatives, a realtor, or a past contractor kept. Rekeying makes the keys in your pocket the only ones that work.
• Rekey locks after a tenant moves out. Tenant turnover is the most common reason landlords call us. A fresh rekey between tenants means the last occupant's keys, and any copies they made, no longer open the unit.
• Rekey locks after losing keys. A key that slipped out of a pocket at Lakewood Center or a park is a key with no name tag on it, but sometimes it has your habits attached. If there is any chance a stranger could connect it to your address, change the lock's key code.
• After a roommate, partner, or caretaker leaves. Anyone who had a key and no longer lives or works there should not still be able to use it.
• After a break-in attempt or a stolen bag. If keys, a wallet with a house key, or a purse went missing, rekeying is faster and more sensible than waiting to see what happens.
• To put every door on one key. If your front door, back door, garage side door, and side gate all take different keys, we can rekey all house locks to a single key so you carry one instead of four.
• For a business after an employee leaves. Shop and office locks follow the same logic, and we cover that further down.

How does a rekey visit work, step by step?

Rekeying is a hands-on job that is easy to rush and easy to do well when you take the time. Here is how a standard visit goes.

1. You call (213) 577-1366, day or night, and tell us what is going on: moved in, tenant left, keys lost, or just want one key for everything. We ask how many locks are involved and what kind they are.
2. We send a mobile van to your Lakewood address. Our storefront is at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood, so Lakewood work is handled by van rather than from the shop.
3. On arrival we confirm that you live at, own, or manage the property. Any honest locksmith asks this, and it protects you as much as it protects the person whose door it is.
4. We look over each lock before touching it. Some cylinders are worn, damaged, or too old to hold a new pin set reliably. We tell you plainly which locks can be rekeyed and which should be replaced instead.
5. We remove each cylinder, take out the old pins, and fit new ones cut to the new key. The lock goes back onto the door.
6. We test every lock with the new key several times, then try the old key to confirm it no longer turns. A rekey is not finished until the old key fails.
7. We hand over the new keys, and if you need extra copies, we can cut them on the spot through our key duplication service. You get a clear explanation of what was done and what was not.

Should you rekey or replace the lock?

Rekeying is the right answer when the hardware itself is sound and the only problem is who has keys. It is usually the more economical route because you keep what you already own and pay for labor and parts that go inside the cylinder, not for new locks.

Replacement makes more sense in a few cases. If a lock is physically worn, sticks, or has a loose or damaged cylinder, new pins will not fix that. If the hardware is a style you dislike or a grade you want to move up from, rekeying does not change the quality of the lock. A rekeyed bargain-grade deadbolt is still a bargain-grade deadbolt. And if a door has no deadbolt at all, no amount of rekeying adds one.

• Choose rekey when the locks work smoothly, look fine, and you only need new key control.
• Choose lock replacement when the hardware is damaged, failing, or no longer what you want.
• Choose a new deadbolt when the door has only a knob lock. Our deadbolt installation page explains what that involves, and we can rekey the new bolt to match your other doors.

How much does lock rekeying cost in Lakewood?

We don't quote numbers on a web page, because the real price depends on your actual doors. What we can do is tell you exactly what moves the cost up or down, so nothing at the door surprises you.

The biggest factor is the number of cylinders. A one-door rekey is a small job. Rekeying every lock on a house, including the front door, back door, garage side door, and side gate, is a larger one. The brand and condition of the hardware matter too, since some cylinders rekey easily and others need extra parts. Whether you want everything keyed alike on one key changes the work. So does the number of new keys you want cut.

Timing also plays a part. A scheduled visit during the day is a different job from an after-hours call, and we are open to both because the phone is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Distance is a factor as well: Lakewood is about 29 miles from our Westwood base, and we account for that honestly rather than hiding it.

If a lock turns out to be too worn to rekey, we tell you before doing anything, and you decide whether to replace it. You are never charged for a plan you didn't agree to. For a clear picture of your own doors, call us, describe what you have, and we'll walk through the likely scope.

Rekeying 1950s tract homes: what Lakewood houses need

Lakewood's housing is unusually consistent, and that shapes how we work here. Most homes in neighborhoods like Lakewood Park, Lakewood Mutuals, Lakewood Gardens, and Mayfair are single-story ranch houses from the early 1950s, often with original or aging hardware still on the doors. Lakewood Country Club Estates is a different pocket of the city, but the same practical question applies: who has the keys to a house that has probably been through several owners?

That is why rekeying 1950s tract homes is one of the most common jobs we do in the 90712, 90713, and 90715 ZIP codes. A typical house here has a front door, a back door, and an attached or detached garage with its own side door. Many lots also have a side-yard gate, and the gate lock is easy to forget. When a buyer in 90713 or a renter in 90715 asks us to rekey the house, we walk every entry point, not just the front door, because a new key at the front does nothing if the garage side door still takes the old one.

Older knob and deadbolt hardware needs a closer look before rekeying. Decades of use can leave a cylinder loose or its internals worn, and we check that before promising a rekey will hold. Damp Lakewood winters can also swell older wood doors, which makes locks bind and sometimes gets blamed on the lock itself. We'll tell you if the problem is the door and not the cylinder, so you don't pay for a rekey that doesn't fix a sticking latch.

Lakewood sits several miles inland, so salt-air corrosion is minor compared with shoreline Long Beach. That is good news for hardware life, but it does not stop age from catching up with 70-year-old locks. If you live near the Long Beach border, around Carson Park or near Lakewood Village, the same approach applies: we inspect, we explain, and we rekey what is worth keeping.

Apartment, landlord, and commercial rekey in Lakewood

Lakewood has fewer apartments than most of Los Angeles County, and they sit mostly along major corridors such as South Street and Candlewood Street. For those buildings, apartment lock rekey and tenant turnover rekey are routine work. When a tenant leaves, the unit's keys should change before the next person moves in. Rekeying does that without replacing a door's hardware every time, which keeps turnover costs more manageable. If you manage several units, our page on locksmith services for landlords explains how we handle repeat work.

Businesses need rekeys too. Storefronts along Lakewood Boulevard, South Street, and Del Amo Boulevard change hands, change staff, and lose keys just like houses do. Commercial rekey and business lock rekey follow the same steps as residential work, with a few differences: more doors, sometimes more than one keyway, and a need to coordinate around business hours. We can rekey after an employee leaves, after a lease transfer, or when a shop's keys have drifted into too many hands. Details for businesses are on our commercial locksmith page.

If a business wants a structured key hierarchy, where staff keys open some doors while a manager key opens all of them, that is a master key system rather than a simple rekey. We will tell you honestly which one fits what you are trying to do.

Why call Wilshire Lock & Key for a rekey?

We have been in business since 1987, and we serve 140 cities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, Lakewood among them. We are one company, not a call center that passes your job to whoever is closest. When you phone (213) 577-1366, you are reaching Wilshire Lock & Key, and the technician who arrives works for us. David, the owner and lead technician, oversees the work.

We run a storefront at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood plus mobile locksmith vans, so a rekey does not depend on you coming to us. We bring the tools and the key-cutting equipment to your door.

California requires locksmith companies to hold a BSIS LCO license, and you should ask any locksmith for it before they start work, us included. A reputable company will not hesitate to answer.

One more honest point: rekeying is a modest job, and we will not talk you into more than you need. If a rekey solves your problem, that is what we recommend.

More locksmith help in Lakewood

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

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