Non-destructive entry first, always - and we re-key Schlage, Kwikset, and Baldwin locks on the spot while you watch
You get a price before we start. It does not change when we arrive. No surprises.
Fast, Reliable Rekey Locks Across Cerritos
Rekeying a lock in Cerritos typically runs $25 – $45 per cylinder when you’ve got a handful of doors, and it’s almost always done well under an hour. That’s the honest number. You hand over the old keys, we re-pin the lock so those keys stop working, and you walk away with a new set. No new hardware, no wall patching, no bill that swells after the first lock is off the door. If you lost a key, bought a house, fired a property manager, or just want one key for every exterior door, call Preston Locksmith & Security at (409) 405-4485 and we’ll give you a written price before anyone gets dispatched to your Cerritos street.
Why Preston Locksmith & Security Is Cerritos’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company
Cerritos homeowners and small-business operators call us because we do something most locksmiths won’t: we put the full price in writing before a single tool leaves the bag. That’s the Relay Standard, and it applies to every rekey job from the Candlewood tract homes to the shops along Carmenita Road. You get a live trackable arrival time, a background-checked tech in uniform, and before-and-after photos of every cylinder we touch. Kevin Yoon started this shop in 2008, and the way we operate hasn’t changed: answer the phone live, name the price, show up when we said we would.
Our Rekey Locks team has seen every lock configuration Cerritos housing can throw at us. A 1971 ranch on Greyhawk Avenue with original Kwikset pin-and-tumbler deadbolts. A 2000s two-story near Whitney High with Schlage electronic keypads. A commercial suite near the Cerritos Auto Square with a Medeco high-security master key system that’s drifted out of sync. Same discipline every time: inspect the cylinders, write the pinning chart, confirm the price, do the work.
When you book a rekey in Cerritos, you know who is coming, what they look like, and when they’ll knock. That matters more here than people expect, because Cerritos streets mix so many lock generations that a generic “locksmith” with a drill and a markup sheet can turn a $40 rekey into a $400 hardware replacement before you even see an invoice. We’d rather re-pin what you have and keep your original hardware where it belongs.
Locksmith Rekey in Cerritos
Locksmith Rekey in Cerritos means pulling the lock cylinder, replacing the internal pins and springs so the old key no longer turns, and cutting new keys to match. That’s the whole job. You don’t need new deadbolts, new handles, or new strike plates unless something is actually broken. In Cerritos, where a single street can mix 1960s original Kwikset cylinders with modern smart lock backups, rekey is almost always the right call over replacing hardware. A standard rekey across two or three exterior doors in Cerritos runs $25 – $45 per cylinder, and we confirm the written price before the first cylinder is pulled.
One Key for Every Door
Most Cerritos homeowners want a single key that works the front door, the garage side door, and the back slider. That’s a keyed-alike rekey. We re-pin each cylinder to the same keyway and cut enough copies that everyone in the house has one. If your back door uses a different brand than the front, that’s normal in Cerritos, and it’s usually something we can fix by matching pins rather than buying new hardware.
Lost or Unreturned Keys
A lost key means every lock that key touched should be rekeyed the same day. Property managers near the Cerritos Auto Square call us most often when a tenant leaves and returns two of three keys. The master system drifts out of balance, and the only real fix is a rekey with a fresh pinning chart. We handle that in one visit, and the property gets a written key control log so the next turnover doesn’t repeat the same mess.
Rekey Door Lock in Cerritos
Rekey Door Lock in Cerritos usually means a front door and a back door, sometimes a side garage door, and occasionally a deadbolt that was never keyed to match the knob below it. We re-pin each cylinder to a new key, test the throw on every deadbolt, and confirm the old keys are dead before we leave. Cerritos homes built in the 1960s and 1970s often have original mortise lock bodies that were never shimmed correctly, so a rekeyed cylinder can bind if the lock isn’t cleaned first. We clean and lube as part of the rekey, not as an upsell. Pricing stays $25 – $45 per cylinder with the written quote locked before we start.
Deadbolt-Only Rekey
If your deadbolt is separate from your doorknob and you only want to rekey the deadbolt, that’s a 20-minute job per door. Cerritos tract homes frequently have a Kwikset deadbolt above a Schlage knob or vice versa, which means the old keys never matched to begin with. We’ll re-pin both cylinders to one key if you want, or just the deadbolt if that’s all you use. Written price first, either way.
New Home Move-In Rekey
Buying a home in Cerritos means you don’t actually know who has a working key. The sellers, their agent, a contractor, a neighbor who fed the cat. A move-in rekey resets all of that for under $150 on three exterior doors. We rekey the locks, hand you the new keys, and stamp the job with our 365-Day Done Right Promise: if a cylinder we rekeyed fails, we come back free.
Trusted Brands We Service in Cerritos
Our Cerritos techs rekey Schlage, Kwikset, Medeco, and Yale hardware every day, and we carry the specific pins, springs, and tailpieces those brands need so you’re not waiting on a parts run. Schlage and Kwikset cover most of the residential deadbolts in Cerritos’s 1960s and 1970s housing stock, and we stock high-security Medeco pins for the commercial suites and medical offices that want restricted key control. If your lock is worn, we’ll tell you whether a rekey will hold or whether the cylinder needs replacing, and the price won’t change because you asked the question.
Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in Cerritos Homes
- Mixed keyways on the same street. Cerritos’s housing stock jumps from 1960s Kwikset and Schlage pin-and-tumbler deadbolts to 2000s smart locks and ANSI Grade 1 hardware, sometimes on the same block. That means the front and back door often don’t match, and a rekey is the cheapest way to get one key working across all of them.
- Worn cylinders in older tract homes. In Candlewood and other 1960s neighborhoods, the original pin-and-tumbler cylinders have absorbed decades of rain-season moisture and daily use. A straight rekey without cleaning the lock body can feel gritty in a few weeks, so we match new pins to the existing wear and lube the cylinder as part of the job.
- Smart lock backup cylinders with undocumented keyways. A few Cerritos homeowners install a smart lock and never record the backup key control. When they lose the physical key, we often have to rebuild the pinning from scratch instead of a simple pin swap. It’s a slower rekey, but still faster and cheaper than replacing the smart lock.
- Master key systems out of balance. Property managers near Cerritos Auto Square and South Street call us when a past tenant returns only one of three keys and the whole master system is now compromised. The fix is a full rekey with a new pinning chart, not a fresh lock set and not a band-aid rekey on one door.
Pricing for Rekey Locks in Cerritos, CA
Rekeying locks in Cerritos runs $25 – $45 per cylinder for standard Schlage and Kwikset hardware, with most homes needing two to four cylinders done. A full exterior rekey on a three-door Cerritos home usually lands between $95 and $160, including the new keys and a written price confirmed before we start. High-security brands like Medeco run higher because the pins and key blanks cost more and the pinning chart takes longer to build. Smart lock backup cylinders sometimes add time if the original key control wasn’t documented. Every quote includes the full written price before any work begins, and there is no call-out surcharge added when the tech arrives. Call (409) 405-4485 for an exact quote on your doors, and it’s the price on the invoice, period.
We Also Serve Cities Near Cerritos
Our Cerritos techs cover the nearby communities of Artesia, La Palma, Hawaiian Gardens, and Norwalk with the same written-price-first policy and live arrival tracking. If you’re just across the 91 or a few blocks past the Los Cerritos Center, we’ll rekey your locks the same way we do here: background-checked tech, firm quote before dispatch, and a 365-Day Done Right Promise on every job. Call (409) 405-4485 and tell us which city you’re in.
Serving Cerritos, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Cerritos area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Rekey Locks in Cerritos
Yes, and that’s usually exactly what we do. The original pin-and-tumbler cylinders in 1970s Cerritos tract homes are almost always reusable, so we pull the cylinder, re-pin it to a new key, clean the lock body, and reinstall the same hardware. You save hundreds over a deadbolt replacement, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise still covers the work. Call (409) 405-4485 and we’ll confirm your lock can be rekeyed, in writing, before any work starts.
Two doors, standard Schlage or Kwikset cylinders, usually takes 30 to 45 minutes on site. That includes pulling both cylinders, re-pinning each, cutting new keys, and testing the deadbolt throw. If the lock bodies need cleaning or one cylinder needs replacing, it can push closer to an hour. You get a live trackable arrival time when you book, so you’ll know when our tech is pulling onto your Cerritos street. Call (409) 405-4485 for a firm time estimate on your specific doors.
Three things. Confirm the price you’re quoted on the phone is the full price, with no trip fee or call-out surcharge added on arrival. Confirm the tech is background-checked and arrives in uniform. And confirm the rekey comes with a written guarantee. Preston Locksmith & Security does all three: written price before dispatch, background-checked uniformed techs, and a 365-Day Done Right Promise stamped on every repair. Call (409) 405-4485 and ask us directly.
Yes, we rekey the physical backup cylinder on most smart locks and keypad entry locks in Cerritos, including Schlage Encode, Kwikset SmartCode, and Yale Assure models. The job is the same as a standard rekey, though some smart lock cylinders use a non-standard keyway that takes longer to pin. We’ll quote the exact price once we know the model, and the written price still comes before any work begins. Call (409) 405-4485 with your lock brand and model.
Yes, that’s a keyed-alike rekey and it’s the most common job we do in Cerritos. We re-pin each cylinder to the same keyway so one key operates both doors, even if the front is a Schlage and the back is a Kwikset. You get as many copies of the new key as you need, cut on site. Call (409) 405-4485 for a written quote on a keyed-alike rekey for your Cerritos doors.
If you need a rekey in Cerritos, call Preston Locksmith & Security at (409) 405-4485. We’ll answer live, give you a written price before anyone is dispatched, and send a background-checked, uniformed tech with a trackable arrival time. The price we quote is the price on the invoice, and the work is covered by the 365-Day Done Right Promise.
Written by Kevin Yoon, Owner at Preston Locksmith & Security, serving Cerritos and the surrounding Los Angeles area since 2008.