Change Locks in San Marino, CA: Rekey or Replace, Done Right

What does it mean to change locks?

People say change the locks to describe two different jobs, and the difference matters for both your budget and your security. Rekeying keeps the lock hardware you already have and changes what is inside the cylinder, so the old keys stop working and a new key takes over. Replacing means taking the lock off the door and installing a different one, which comes with its own new keys.

After a move or a home sale, both jobs accomplish the thing that counts: the keys that existed before no longer open your door. What differs is what ends up on the door, how much labor is involved, and what it costs. Part of our job is telling you which approach fits each door in your house, not steering you toward the bigger job.

This page is about changing locks on San Marino homes: how to choose, how the work goes, what drives the price, and what is particular to the city's older houses. If you already know you want one or the other, our pages on lock rekeying and lock replacement go deeper on each.

Should you rekey or replace your locks?

This is the question we get asked most, and the honest answer is that it depends on the lock in front of us, not on a rule. We look at the brand, the condition, how the lock feels when it turns, and what you want from the door. Then we tell you what we would do if it were our own house.

Rekeying is usually the more economical route when the hardware is sound, because you keep a lock that already works and only change who can open it. Replacement is the better call when the hardware itself is the problem. A lock that is worn out, loose, or poorly made is not worth putting a new key into.

• Rekey when the lock is a decent make, operates smoothly, and you like how it looks on the door.
• Rekey when you have several doors and want them all to work with one key, as long as the locks are compatible with each other.
• Replace when the lock is damaged, sticks, wobbles in the door, or has a worn finish you are tired of looking at.
• Replace when you want a higher level of key control or pick resistance. Our page on high-security locks explains what that involves.
• Replace when you want electronic entry. If that interests you, see smart lock installation before deciding.
• Mix the two. Many houses end up with a few new locks on the doors that matter most and rekeyed locks everywhere else.

Do you need to change locks after buying a house?

Yes, and it should be one of the first things you do. When you buy a home, you cannot know how many keys exist. Previous owners, their relatives, agents, cleaners, contractors, and neighbors who watered the plants may all have had one at some point. Even honest people lose keys and forget who copied them. Changing the locks resets all of that to zero, and you are the only person holding keys.

We work as a locksmith for new homeowners often enough to know what gets missed. People remember the front door and forget the rest. Before you move belongings in, walk the property and count every way in.

• Front door and any secondary entry door
• Back door and kitchen door
• French doors and patio doors
• Side doors and garage service doors
• Side gates and rear gates on fenced lots
• Pool houses, guest houses, and detached outbuildings
• Deadbolts, which are sometimes keyed differently from the knob or handle set

Locksmith after moving: what to do on day one

If you are moving into a house that was previously occupied, whether you bought it or rented a whole house, the same logic applies. A locksmith after moving is not an upgrade, it is basic housekeeping. Call before the movers arrive if you can, so the doors are done by the time boxes are inside.

If you arrive and the keys you were given do not work, or you are locked out of your new place, that is a different problem with a different fix. Our house lockout service handles that, and we can change the locks while we are already there.

How does a lock change work, step by step?

There is nothing mysterious about it. Here is how a typical visit goes, from your first call to the last key tested.

1. Call (213) 577-1366 at any hour. Tell us how many doors and gates you have, roughly how old the house is, and whether you want everything on one key.
2. A technician comes to the property in one of our mobile vans, with cylinders, keying tools, and common hardware on board.
3. We walk every exterior door and gate with you and look at each lock, not just the front door.
4. For each door, we tell you whether we would rekey or replace and why, and we explain what will affect the price before any work starts.
5. We do the work. Rekeying means removing the cylinder, setting it to a new key pattern, and reinstalling it. Replacing means installing the new lock and adjusting the latch and strike so it closes cleanly.
6. If you want it, we key the locks alike so a single key opens the doors you choose, and cut as many working keys as you need.
7. We test every lock with the new keys, with the door open and closed, and confirm the old keys no longer work. Then we hand everything over.

How much does it cost to change locks in San Marino?

We do not publish numbers on a web page because the real cost depends on your doors, not on an average. What we can do is tell you exactly what moves the price up or down, so nothing surprises you.

Scheduled work during the day is generally easier to arrange than an emergency call in the middle of the night, and we tell you how the timing affects the quote when you call.

• The number of locks and cylinders. Five doors cost more than one, and a house with side gates and outbuildings adds up.
• Rekey versus replace. Rekeying is usually the lighter-cost option when the hardware is good; replacement adds the cost of the new lock itself.
• Hardware grade and finish. A basic knob set and a heavy designer handle set are very different purchases.
• Lock type. Older mortise locksets take more care than a standard cylindrical lock, and some period hardware calls for specialist handling.
• Keying choices. Keying several locks alike, or using restricted key systems, changes the work involved.
• Door condition. If a door has shifted and the latch no longer lines up, getting it right takes extra time.
• Time of day. After-hours and holiday calls are handled differently from planned daytime visits.
• Distance. Our storefront is in Westwood and San Marino is about 22 miles away, which we factor in honestly.

Changing locks on San Marino's period homes

San Marino is almost entirely single-family housing, built largely in the 1920s and 1930s, in Spanish Colonial Revival, Tudor, Monterey, and other period styles, on large lots. The city's zoning allows essentially no apartment development. That shapes what a lock change looks like here. It is rarely a single apartment door. It is a whole house: a front door with real presence, a rear entry, side doors, French doors, and often gates to go with them. Across the 91108 ZIP code, that is the normal job.

Many of these homes still carry their original mortise locksets and period door hardware. That hardware is worth keeping when it can be kept, and it needs a technician who knows how it is built. A mortise lock sits inside a pocket cut into the edge of the door, and it is not something you swap out at a hardware store counter. Often the right move is to rekey the existing cylinder and keep the lock that belongs on that door. Sometimes the lock has worn past saving and we find a replacement that suits the style. Either way, we explain which it is and why.

Here is how it tends to play out across the parts of town we are asked about:

• Lacy Park area: on the estate streets around the park, houses tend to have many entries, so a lock change is usually a walk-around of every door before we recommend anything.
• Full-house rekeys after home sales near San Marino High School: when a house changes hands, the buyer usually wants every lock on one new key before moving in. That is a straightforward rekey in most cases, with the odd door that needs replacement hardware.
• Huntington Drive corridor: large fenced lots along this stretch mean gates and side-door locks matter as much as the front door. If a gate latch is the weak point, our gate lock repair service covers it.
• Huntington Library area and the El Molino Viejo / Old Mill area: older houses near these landmarks are the ones most likely to have original hardware, which is where specialist care pays off.
• Oak Knoll border area, near Pasadena: the same approach applies. We start with the doors you actually have, not an assumption about them.

Does summer heat change how we handle old locks?

It does. San Marino sits in an inland San Gabriel Valley microclimate with hot, dry summers and mild winters. Heat can swell wood doors and pull older mortise hardware out of alignment. The result is a lock that seems to be failing when the real problem is a door that no longer meets its strike plate cleanly.

Before we recommend replacing anything, we check whether the lock is the culprit or the door has moved. If the lock is fine and the fit is off, fixing the alignment can save you from buying hardware you do not need. Our lock repair page covers that side of the work.

San Marino is far enough from the coast that salt-air corrosion is not a factor, so a stiff or failed lock here is more often a matter of age, wear, or alignment than of rust. That works in your favor on old hardware: much of it is worth saving.

Why call Wilshire Lock & Key to change your locks?

We have been in business since 1987. That is a long time to do one thing, and it means we have seen most of what a front door can throw at a locksmith. We run a storefront at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood plus mobile service vans, and we serve 140 cities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, San Marino among them.

When you call (213) 577-1366, you reach us, any hour of the day, any day of the year. We are one company. There is no dispatch middleman who takes your call and hands the job to whoever is closest. David, the owner and lead technician, oversees the work, and you are not left guessing about who is responsible for it.

One more thing worth saying plainly: California requires locksmith companies to hold a BSIS LCO license. Before you let any locksmith change the locks on your home, ask to see their license number. You are handing someone the means to get into your house, and you should know who they are.

What to do after your locks are changed

Changing locks only helps if you keep track of the new keys. A few simple habits make the work last.

Decide in advance who gets a key, and keep that list short. If you need more working copies later, a key duplication visit is simple, but copy only what you need. Keep one spare somewhere secure inside your own control rather than under a flowerpot.

Think about codes and openers too. If a garage keypad or gate code was left by the previous owner, change that as well. A new lock on the door does nothing if an old code still opens the garage.

Finally, test everything once the work is done. Lock and unlock each door a few times with the new key, and make sure the latch catches smoothly. If something feels off a week later, call us and we will take a look.

More locksmith help in San Marino

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

Change Locks near San Marino

• Pasadena
• South Pasadena
• San Gabriel
• Alhambra
• Temple City
• Arcadia