Should you rekey or replace when you change locks?
Most people who call about changing locks are really asking one question: do I need new locks, or just new keys? The honest answer is that it depends on the condition of the hardware you already have, and that is something we can usually sort out in a short phone conversation and then confirm by looking at the door.
Rekeying means we alter the inside of your existing lock so the old keys stop working and a new key operates it. The lock body, the handle, and the deadbolt stay on the door. Replacing means we take the hardware off and install different hardware, which makes sense when a lock is worn, damaged, outdated, or simply not the style or security level you want. Both approaches end with the same result for your safety: keys that someone else is holding no longer open your door.
We don't push one over the other. If your hardware is in decent shape, rekeying is usually the more economical route and the one we'll steer you toward. If a deadbolt sticks, a handle wobbles, or the lock is a type that is hard to rekey properly, we'll say so and explain why replacement is the better call. If you want the detail on the first path, our lock rekey service page covers it; this page is about helping you decide and getting the job done.
When does it make sense to change your locks?
There is no rule that says locks must be changed on a schedule, but there are clear moments when it is the sensible thing to do. The common thread is that you no longer know how many keys exist or who is holding them.
Searches like change locks after buying a house, locksmith for new homeowners, and locksmith after moving all point to the biggest reason: a change in who lives in the home. When you take over a house, you inherit an unknown number of keys. Previous owners, their relatives, agents, cleaners, contractors, and neighbors may all have had a copy at some point, and nobody is obligated to tell you.
- You just bought a house, townhome, or condo and want to be the only one with keys.
- You moved into a rental and the landlord has agreed to a lock change, or you are the landlord turning over a unit.
- You lost your keys, or they were stolen along with a wallet or bag that had your address on it.
- A roommate, partner, or family member moved out and still has a key.
- A contractor, house sitter, or short-term guest had access and you want it closed.
- Your lock is worn, sticking, or hard to turn, and you would rather fix the cause than keep forcing it.
- You want to move to a different key system, such as keyless entry, and need the old hardware out.
Locked out or need a locksmith now?
We answer around the clock, every day of the year.
Call (213) 577-1366How we change your locks, step by step
Whether you call us after a move at noon or after a bad night at 3 a.m., the process is the same. We keep it simple and we explain each choice before we make it.
- You call (213) 577-1366. A person answers, any hour, any day. Tell us the address, how many exterior doors you have, and what prompted the change.
- We ask about your current hardware: brand if you know it, whether you have deadbolts, handles, or combined sets, and whether anything sticks or feels loose. Photos help if you can send them.
- We come to you in one of our mobile service vans, or you can bring hardware to our Westwood storefront at 10740 Wilshire Blvd if that suits you better.
- On site, we inspect each lock. We check that it turns cleanly, that the bolt extends fully, and that the strike plate and door alignment are sound. A good lock on a poorly aligned door is still a weak door.
- We explain what we see and lay out the options: rekey what can be rekeyed, replace what should be replaced. You choose, and we tell you what affects the cost before work begins.
- We do the work, test every lock with the new keys from both sides of the door, and confirm the old keys no longer operate.
- If you want matching keys for family members, we cut them on the spot or point you toward our key duplication service. Then we walk through what we did so you know exactly what is on your doors.
What affects the cost of changing locks?
We don't quote numbers on a web page, because a lock change is not a single fixed job. Two homes on the same street can need very different work. Here is what actually moves the cost up or down, so you can judge any estimate you receive, ours or anyone else's.
The biggest factor is rekey versus replace. Rekeying keeps your existing hardware, so you are paying for labor and a small amount of parts. Replacement adds the cost of the new hardware itself, which can range from basic builder-grade sets to high-security deadbolts, and the grade you choose matters a great deal.
- Number of locks: a front door with a handle and deadbolt is two cylinders; a whole house with a back door, garage entry, and side gate can be many more.
- Rekey or replace: reusing good hardware is usually the more economical route; new hardware adds its own cost.
- Hardware grade and finish: basic sets, heavier-duty deadbolts, high-security cylinders, and smart locks sit at very different levels.
- Condition of the door: if the bore is damaged, the latch hole is misaligned, or the frame is split, repairing that is part of making the lock actually secure.
- Matching keys: a single keyway across every door is convenient, and it can change how the job is done.
- Time and place: after-hours and emergency calls differ from scheduled daytime visits, and distance from our base is a factor in how we plan the trip.
- Number of keys: extra copies for family members are separate from the lock work.
Locked out or need a locksmith now?
We answer around the clock, every day of the year.
Call (213) 577-1366What should you know about changing locks in Santa Fe Springs?
Santa Fe Springs is mostly an industrial city. Warehouses, machine shops, and distribution facilities take up most of the land, which is why commercial hardware, panic bars, and master-key systems make up so much of the lock work here. But there is a real residential side, and that is where lock changes happen. The homes are mostly single-story ranches from the 1950s, built in tract layouts, with some newer townhomes near the civic core.
Take the Town Center / Telegraph Road residential core, where the tract homes cluster. Houses of that age have usually been through several owners. The original hardware may have been replaced at some point, or it may still be the builder-installed set from decades back. Either way, a new owner there often has no idea how many people have held a key over the years. That is precisely the situation where changing locks after buying a house earns its place on the to-do list, ahead of painting or unpacking boxes.
The same goes for the Little Lake Park neighborhood, around Lakeland Road and Pioneer Blvd. Residential rekeys in the tract homes near Little Lake Park are the kind of job we expect there: a family moves in, we rekey the front door, the back door, and any side or garage entry to one new key, and we check that the deadbolts are in good shape while we are at it. The Lakeland Road area works the same way. Single-story homes tend to have several ground-level entry points, and each one counts when you are deciding what to change.
If you live near the Los Nietos edge in the northwest, or along the Sorensen Avenue corridor close to the unincorporated West Whittier-Los Nietos area, the process does not change. Everything in the city falls under ZIP code 90670, and we travel to all of it from our Westwood base, about 25 miles away. Because we run mobile service vans, you do not need to bring anything to us.
One more local note: the dry, mild inland climate here is easy on residential hardware. Heat and truck-corridor dust hit commercial door closers and exterior padlocks harder than they hit a typical front-door deadbolt. So for houses, the reason to replace is usually age, wear, or wanting a better lock, not weather damage. If you also manage a unit near the Santa Fe Springs Road industrial corridor or deal with storage padlocks, that is a different kind of job, and we will point you to the right page for it below.
Locked out or need a locksmith now?
We answer around the clock, every day of the year.
Call (213) 577-1366Why call Wilshire Lock & Key to change your locks?
We have been in business since 1987, and the lock-change question has not changed much in that time: people want to feel that their home is theirs again. What has changed is the range of hardware, and we have kept up with it.
Here is what you get when you call us, stated plainly and without hype.
- One company, start to finish. The person who answers the phone works for us, and the technician who arrives works for us. We don't pass your call to a dispatch middleman who then sends whoever is available.
- A storefront and mobile vans. We have a real address at 10740 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood, plus vans that come to you, so there is a place you can walk into and a team that can come out.
- David's oversight. David, the owner and lead technician, sets how we work and stands behind how we explain things to customers. You get straight advice, not a script.
- Open at every hour. The phone is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year-round at (213) 577-1366, which matters when a lost set of keys can't wait until morning.
- Coverage across 140 cities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, so Santa Fe Springs is a normal part of our service area, not a stretch.
Which hardware should you choose when you replace?
If we conclude that replacement is the right call, the next question is what to put on the door. This is where a lock change turns into a small security upgrade, and it is worth spending a few minutes on it.
For the main entry, a solid deadbolt matters more than the handle. If your door has a weak or missing deadbolt, adding one is often the best improvement you can make, and our deadbolt installation page explains what to look for. Strike plates and screw length matter too; a deadbolt held in with short screws will not stand up to a hard kick no matter how good the cylinder is.
If you want to stop carrying keys, or share access with family and guests without cutting copies, a keypad or app-based lock may suit you. Those are a different category of job with their own setup and trade-offs, covered on our smart lock installation page. We will tell you honestly when a smart lock is a good fit and when a conventional keyed deadbolt is the simpler, more dependable choice for a particular door.
For most homeowners in the 1950s ranch-style tract homes, the practical path looks like this: rekey the locks that are sound, replace any that are worn out, and make sure every exterior door ends up on the same key so you are not juggling a ring of different keys.
Locked out or need a locksmith now?
We answer around the clock, every day of the year.
Call (213) 577-1366What if you are a landlord, or locked out while changing locks?
Some situations overlap with a lock change but belong to a different service. If you are a property owner turning over a unit between tenants, you are doing a lock change on a schedule, and our page for locksmith for landlords covers turnover practices in more detail.
If you are standing outside right now because the keys are gone and you cannot get in, the priority is getting inside first. That is a lockout job, not a lock change, and our house lockout page explains how we handle it. Once you are inside, we can change the locks the same visit so the missing keys are no longer a worry.
And if you would rather not travel at all, our mobile locksmith page explains how the vans work. We keep this page focused on changing locks, and we send you to the right place when your problem is something else, such as a business door, a car key, or a broken key stuck in a cylinder.
How do you check that a locksmith is legitimate?
Anyone can put up a website and say they are a locksmith. California requires locksmith companies to hold a Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS) locksmith company license, known as an LCO license. Before anyone touches your locks, ask for the company's LCO license number. A real company will give it to you without hesitation.
Beyond that, a few common-sense checks apply to us and everyone else. Ask who will actually come to your door and whether the company has a real address. Ask what affects the cost before work starts, not after. Be careful with any provider who answers with a generic name, refuses to say where they are based, or insists on drilling a lock that could have been rekeyed. Changing locks is a security job, and the person you let into your home should be someone you could find again.
Frequently asked questions
Should I rekey or replace my locks after buying a house in Santa Fe Springs?
If the existing hardware works smoothly and looks sound, rekeying is usually the more economical route and it fully cuts off every old key. If the locks are worn, loose, damaged, or you want a higher security level, replacement is better. We can usually tell which fits from your description and confirm when we see the door.
How quickly can you change locks after I move in?
We answer the phone at (213) 577-1366 around the clock, every day of the year, and our mobile vans come to you. We don't promise a specific arrival time on a web page because travel depends on where our vans are, but we will tell you what to expect when you call.
Do I need to be home while you change the locks?
Someone should be there, or at least be reachable, so we can confirm which doors to work on and hand over the new keys. We test each lock from both sides, and it is good to be present for that part. If you are not in the home yet, call us and we'll talk through options.
Will the old keys still work after the change?
No. After a rekey or replacement, we test the new keys and confirm the old keys no longer operate the lock. If you have old keys lying around, they will not open the doors we changed, though any lock we did not touch, such as a shed or a gate, will keep its own key.
Can all my doors use the same key?
In most cases, yes. We can rekey or choose matching hardware so your front door, back door, and side entries all open with one key. It is convenient, and it also reduces the number of keys you have to keep track of. Tell us when you call and we'll plan around it.
What does changing locks cost?
It depends on how many locks you have, whether we rekey or replace, the grade of hardware, the condition of the doors, and the time of day. We don't put numbers on this page because every home is different. Call (213) 577-1366, describe your doors, and we'll explain what will drive the cost before any work begins.
Is changing locks the same thing as installing a smart lock?
Not exactly. A lock change replaces or rekeys your existing hardware. A smart lock is a specific kind of replacement with electronic features. Many people start with a lock change and later add a smart lock on one door. We can do either, and we'll tell you honestly which fits.
Does the locksmith you send hold a California license?
California requires locksmith companies to hold a BSIS LCO license, and you should ask any locksmith for that number before work begins, including us. Don't hesitate to ask. A legitimate company will answer plainly and without making it awkward.
More locksmith help in Santa Fe Springs
Change Locks near Santa Fe Springs
Reviewed by David, Owner & Lead Technician, Wilshire Lock & Key — in the locksmith trade since 1987.
Last updated 2026-10-11.