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 Ojai
Rekeying a lock in Ojai typically costs $35 to $75 per lock cylinder for most residential hardware, and the job at a single home usually takes 45 to 90 minutes total. That includes our written price before any work starts, a live trackable arrival time, and a technician who arrives in uniform with the exact tools for your specific hardware. If you’ve lost a key, bought a house, fired a contractor, or ended a lease anywhere from Meiners Oaks to Arbolada, call (409) 405-4485 for a free estimate.
Ojai’s housing stock is different from the tract developments down the hill in Oxnard or Camarillo. A lot of the doors we see in the East End and the older streets off Ojai Avenue still carry original hardware from the 1920s through the 1970s. That means the rekey work here often involves a mortise cylinder or a pin and tumbler stack that hasn’t been produced in decades, not a modern builder-grade knob that takes five minutes to swap. We know what that means for time, parts, and price before we touch a single screw, because we see it every week in this valley.
Why Preston Locksmith & Security Is Ojai’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company
We’re not a call center that dispatches some anonymous subcontractor. Preston Locksmith & Security has been doing locksmith work since 2008, and our crews serving Ojai are background-checked, uniformed, and working under something we call The Relay Visibility Guarantee. That’s a live arrival time you can track on your phone, before-and-after photos of the work, and a written price handed over before a single tool leaves the bag. On a rekey, that written price matters. It means the number we quote on the phone for your front door on Signal Street is the same number on your invoice, no “oh, this lock is old, so it’s an extra ninety bucks” after the work is done.
Ojai homeowners call us for a reason that’s pretty simple: we answer the phone, we show up when we say we’ll show up, and we don’t play games with the price. The 365-Day Done Right Promise backs every rekey we do. If it’s not right, we make it right, free, no argument. That’s a written guarantee stamped on the repair, not a vague line in a fine-print warranty.
Keyed Alike in Ojai
Keyed Alike in Ojai means every lock on your property turns with the same key. It’s not a rekey to new keys for each door. It’s the opposite: our Rekey Locks tech matches the pin and tumbler stack in every cylinder so one key operates the front door, the back door, the deadbolt, and the side gate. This is the setup we recommend for most Ojai houses, especially the older ones where someone has replaced one lock at a time over thirty years and now has a ring of six keys to get in their own home.
Keyed alike on a standard Ojai single-family home with two or three entry doors usually runs $65 to $120 for the labor plus the cost of cylinders if any need replacing, which is rare. The written price locks before we start. No call-out fee added when the tech arrives, no charge for “reinforcing the strike” that you never agreed to.
When keying alike makes sense now
A lot of Ojai homes share a key story we hear constantly: one key for the front, one for the laundry room, one that used to go to a deadbolt that got replaced in 2011, and nobody remembers which key goes where. Keying alike fixes that in one visit, usually under an hour.
What it costs for two versus four locks
For two locks keyed alike at one Ojai address, the labor is typically $55 to $90. For four locks, plan on $110 to $180. We quote that price on the phone before anyone leaves the Los Angeles office to head your way, because the price for a rekey in Ojai is written, not estimated.
Rekey Deadbolt in Ojai
Rekey Deadbolt in Ojai usually means re-pinning a single-cylinder or double-cylinder deadbolt so old keys stop working and new keys do. The deadbolt itself stays in the door. The internal pins get swapped. For most Schlage, Kwikset, and Yale deadbolts in Ojai, that’s a $30 to $60 job per deadbolt, done while you watch or while you take a video call in the living room.
On Ojai’s older doors we pay attention to the fit. A 1960s deadbolt that’s been painted shut by three owners has a different set of problems than a fresh one from the hardware store off Ojai Avenue. If the cylinder is frozen or the previous “rekey” was just someone shaving the lock cylinder with a hand file, we’ll tell you before we start. Fixing that is part of the rekey when it’s possible to keep the original hardware. Wholesale replacement is only suggested when the old unit is genuinely unsafe, and if we suggest it, you’ll get a written line-item price before we touch it.
Deadbolts on rentals and Airbnb units
Switching the deadbolt on a weekend rental or a guest unit off Montgomery Street is one of the fastest ways to restore key control. If you’ve just ended a booking or changed property managers, a same-day rekey on the deadbolt means the old key is dead by the evening.
Deadbolt brand and cylinder condition
A straight-forward Schlage deadbolt rekey takes about 20 minutes start to finish. An older Baldwin or Medeco high-security cylinder takes longer and costs more, usually $60 to $90 per deadbolt, because the pins are proprietary and the key blank costs more. We’ll tell you which one you have before we quote anything, and we’ll confirm the brand on the door when we arrive, not assume.
Trusted Brands We Service in Ojai
We stock pins, springs, and key blanks for Schlage, Kwikset, Medeco, and Yale hardware on our Ojai-bound vans, which is the difference between rekeying your existing lock today and ordering a part for next week. Ojai’s older stock runs heavily to Schlage and Kwikset, with some Yale on the oldest doors and Medeco or Mul-T-Lock on the high-security units we see around Thacher and the commercial spots on Ojai Avenue. We don’t force a brand change on you. We rekey the hardware you already own, whenever it’s serviceable.
Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in Ojai Homes
- Original mortise locks from the 1920s and 1930s. The front door on an Arbolada craftsman or an East Ojai Avenue bungalow often has a full mortise body, not a cylindrical knob. That cylinder can be rekeyed, but it takes a tech who knows the old pin stacks and has the right followers, not someone who only knows how to pop a Kwikset cap.
- Doors that have been retrofitted two or three times. A lot of Ojai houses have a Schlage trim plate on the inside over a cylinder that was filed down from something else entirely. The name on the face of the lock isn’t always what’s inside, and a blind phone quote gets that wrong.
- Shared keys from renters, contractors, and house sitters. Ojai has a lot of second homes, gardens, and short-term rental situations. Homeowners frequently have no idea how many copies of the current key are floating around, and they don’t know that rekeying is the only way to kill every old copy at once.
- Sticky cylinders from dry, dusty summers. Long stretches of Ojai heat plus the fine dust off the hillsides can gum up old lubricant in a keyway. The pins get sluggish, the key jams halfway in, and a homeowner assumes the lock needs replacing when it mostly needs a clean-out, new pins, and new keys.
Pricing for Rekey Locks in Ojai, CA
A standard single-cylinder deadbolt rekey in Ojai runs $35 to $60. A knob or lever rekey runs $30 to $50 per cylinder. If your front door is a vintage mortise, the cylinder work is $60 to $90, and we’ll explain that price on the phone before we dispatch. Keying a whole Ojai house alike, two door locks plus a deadbolt, is commonly $90 to $150, depending on the hardware. The price you hear on the phone is the price on your invoice. No dispatch fee, no after-hours surprise, no “deeper work was needed” phone call an hour after we leave. That’s the whole point of written pricing, and it’s what The Relay Visibility Guarantee means every time, in Ojai or anywhere else.
Call (409) 405-4485 for a free estimate on your specific locks. Kevin Yoon and the team can quote you after a thirty-second description of your door hardware.
We Also Serve Cities Near Ojai
If you’re based in Ojai but own a rental in Oak View, a commercial space in Santa Paula, or you’re splitting time between Ojai and the Oxnard/Camarillo side, the same written-price standard applies. Our crews route from Ojai out to the neighboring cities regularly, so a deadbolt rekey in Oak View is the same honest range as the work we do right here in Ojai, no distance fee.
Serving Ojai, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Ojai 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 Ojai
We can rekey the original mortise cylinder on almost every Ojai door from the 1920s through the 1970s, and we do it without pulling the trim or replacing the lock body. The cylinder comes out, the old pin and tumbler stack gets swapped, and a fresh key operates the same brass you’ve always had. The flat phone quote changes only when the cylinder is stripped or someone has already ruined it with a hand file. Call (409) 405-4485 and describe the face of the lock. We’ll tell you honestly if it’s rekeyable or if a new Baldwin or Schlage cylinder is the smarter move.
Because that’s our written standard. The price we agree on before dispatch is printed on the service order before any work starts, it matches the invoice when we’re done, and you can track the technician’s arrival time on your phone the whole way. If anything on the door is different from what you told us on the phone, we quote the new line item in writing and get your go-ahead first. That’s the Relay Standard. Estimates are free.
For a standard Schlage or Kwikset deadbolt, about 20 minutes on-site. For a full house with three or four entry points, plan on 45 to 90 minutes door to door, including the time we spend cutting new keys and walking the house with you to confirm every lock turns cleanly. Mortise cylinders take a little longer, usually 30 to 45 minutes per lock, because we’re frequently matching an old keyway to a modern pin stack. Call (409) 405-4485 for a time window specific to your street.
We can do either. If your current cylinder is a standard builder-grade Kwikset or Schlage, we can pin it to keyed-alike spec and hand you the new keys the same day. If you want a bump-resistant or Grade 1 cylinder, we’ll tell you the upgrade cost in writing before we drill a single hole, and we won’t talk you into a $90 high-security cylinder if your use case doesn’t call for one. Ojai is not a high-crime market. We’ll be direct about what we’d put on our own house, and it’s usually not the upcharge option.
You get a live trackable arrival link when your job is booked, and the technician shows up in a Preston Locksmith & Security uniform with a photo on the tracking screen so you see the face before the door opens. The work order shows your address, the deadbolt or lock we’re rekeying, the written price, and our phone number. If anyone else shows up and can’t show you that, don’t let them in.
For a free estimate on rekeying any lock in Ojai, deadbolt to mortise, call (409) 405-4485. Kevin Yoon and the crew will have a written price for you before the van leaves, and the invoice will match.
Written by Kevin Yoon, Owner at Preston Locksmith & Security, serving Ojai since 2008.