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 San Bruno
Rekeying a lock in San Bruno means changing the internal pins so the old keys stop working, without buying new hardware. A standard rekey in San Bruno runs $25 to $45 per cylinder, and most single-family homes with three or four locks are done in under two hours. This is the smart fix after a tenant moves out, a roommate leaves, or a key goes missing along San Bruno Avenue. We show up with the right pin kits for both old and new locks, a written price, and a live arrival time you can track. Call (409) 405-4485 and a real person answers, 24/7.
Why Preston Locksmith & Security Is San Bruno’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company
San Bruno’s housing stock splits hard along the fog line, and we plan for it. The 94066 flats west of El Camino Real near San Bruno Avenue and the Caltrain corridor are mostly mid-century slab-on-grade homes whose original builders installed builder-grade Kwikset and Schlage knobs and deadbolts. The Terra Bay and Bayhill infill above Sneath Lane carries newer hardware that is often already a smart lock or keypad entry. That split means a rekey here is rarely a uniform job, so we stock cylinders, blanks, and pin kits for both worlds. A crew that carries only one brand has to drill or reschedule. We do neither.
Every San Bruno call gets a written price before the van moves, a live arrival time you can track, and before-and-after photos of the work. Our technicians are background-checked, uniformed, and arrive ready to prove who they are on the doorstep. Kevin Yoon, who leads the team, has built the operation around one rule: if the price is not in writing before work starts, nobody leaves the shop. That is The Relay Visibility Guarantee, and it is on every job in San Bruno, no exceptions.
Rekey Deadbolt in San Bruno
Rekey deadbolt service in San Bruno is the most common call we take, and it usually costs $25 to $45 per cylinder. The job involves pulling the deadbolt cylinder, swapping the internal pins to match a new key, and cutting fresh keys on the spot. The old keys stop working the moment the new pins go in. If a San Bruno homeowner bought a house and is not sure how many spare keys the previous owner handed out, this is the first thing to fix.
Front Door and Back Door Sets
Most San Bruno homes built in the mid-century have a Kwikset or Schlage deadbolt and a matching knobset on the same keyway. Rekeying both to the same key costs $50 to $90, and if the hardware is still in decent shape, it beats replacing it. We cut extra keys while we are there, and the whole job lands on one written invoice.
What It Does Not Do
A rekeyed deadbolt does not get new hardware. If the deadbolt casing is worn, rusted, or binding hard, we will tell you plainly and quote a replacement before touching the door. But if the cylinder is serviceable, we rekey it and leave the original ANSI-rated hardware in place.
Rekey House in San Bruno
Rekey house service in San Bruno means every exterior lock on the property gets matched to one new key, and typical pricing lands between $75 and $180 for a three-bedroom home with three to five entry points. The work covers the front door, back door, garage service door, and any sliding patio door with a key-operated lock. Old keys stop working at every one of those points.
Rental Turnovers and New Buyers
We were called to a rental turnover on a short residential block off San Bruno Avenue near the Caltrain station, where the outgoing tenant had left with one key to a worn builder-grade Kwikset deadbolt and the landlord had no idea how many copies were floating around. Our tech pulled the lock cylinder, rekeyed it instead of replacing it, and cut fresh keys on the spot so the old keys stopped working that afternoon, plus a fresh one for the new tenant’s keypad entry back door. Total time was under an hour, quoted before we rolled, and the landlord kept the same hardware she already had.
What Gets Overlooked
The front door is not the only way in. Hillside streets in San Bruno often have a garage service door, a side door, or a back door that shares the same keyway and gets skipped during a partial rekey. If a previous keyholder had access to any exterior lock, we rekey every one of them. A single missed point leaves the old keys live, and that defeats the whole job.
Trusted Brands We Service in San Bruno
We work on Kwikset, Schlage, Medeco, Yale, Baldwin, Mul-T-Lock, Sargent, and Abloy hardware, which matters here because San Bruno blocks often mix mid-century pin and tumbler locks with newer smart deadbolts and keypad entry. Our trucks carry blanks and pin kits for the common residential brands, so we do not need to run to a supplier mid-job. Whether it is a 1950s Schlage deadbolt near San Bruno Avenue or a Yale smart lock above Sneath Lane, we service the lock that is already on the door and match it to the right key profile before we start.
Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in San Bruno Homes
San Bruno’s fog and older housing stock create repeat patterns. Here is what we run into most often.
- Worn cylinders on mid-century deadbolts. Decades of coastal fog and daily use leave older Kwikset and Schlage cylinders gritty and hard to turn. We clean and re-pin them when possible, and we tell you if a replacement is genuinely required before we suggest it.
- Mixed keyways from different hardware generations. A front door knobset from the 1950s on a Schlage keyway and a newer Kwikset deadbolt on a different keyway is common on San Bruno streets. We match each cylinder to its correct blank rather than forcing one key across both.
- Skipped secondary entry points. Garage service doors and back doors along hillside streets often share hardware with the front door but get forgotten during a partial rekey. We rekey every exterior lock, not just the one you see every day.
- Teaser-priced jobs that balloon on site. A quoted rekey should never become a full lock replacement because the tech arrived without the right pin kit. We stock for both old and new hardware before we get to your neighborhood, and the price is in writing before we dispatch.
Pricing for Rekey Locks in San Bruno, CA
Rekeying a standard deadbolt or knob in San Bruno runs $25 to $45 per cylinder. A full house rekey with three to five locks typically lands between $75 and $180. Keypad and smart lock rekeys fall in the $35 to $60 range depending on the brand and cylinder type. If you have a mix of older Schlage or Kwikset locks and a newer Yale or Baldwin keypad, we quote the whole job as one written price before we send anyone out. There is no call-out fee added on arrival, and the price on the invoice is the price on the estimate. Call (409) 405-4485 for an exact quote, and the estimate is free.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Bruno
Our Rekey Locks team covers the surrounding peninsula communities from the same dispatch office. If you are in Millbrae, South San Francisco, Pacifica, or Brisbane, we bring the same written-price guarantee and the same trackable arrival time. For a full look at the neighborhoods we cover, see San Bruno service details or call us and we will confirm your block on the spot.
Serving San Bruno, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Bruno 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 San Bruno
Yes. A rekey means replacing the internal pins inside each lock cylinder so the old key no longer turns the mechanism. The moment we finish, any previously cut keys are dead. We rekey every exterior lock on the property, not just the front door, so a spare floating around from a past tenant or contractor cannot open the garage service door or back door either. Call (409) 405-4485 for a written quote before we dispatch.
Every Preston Locksmith & Security technician is background-checked and arrives in uniform with company identification. We send a live arrival time you can track, and before-and-after photos of the work are included in The Relay Visibility Guarantee. No anonymous contractor knocks on your door without a written price already in your hand. That is The Relay Standard we run on every San Bruno job.
Yes, and that exact mix is common in neighborhoods west of El Camino Real and off San Bruno Avenue. Each cylinder gets pinned to its own brand profile, and we cut keys that match each keyway correctly. If you want one key that operates both brands, we can often match them to a single compatible key profile depending on the cylinder types. We will tell you exactly what is possible before we start, with the price in writing.
Yes. Rekeying a deadbolt runs $25 to $45 per cylinder, while a new quality deadbolt installed typically starts around $90 and climbs from there. If the existing cylinder is physically sound, rekeying saves $50 or more per lock and keeps the same hardware on the door. We rekey first, and we recommend replacement only when the lock is genuinely worn past the point of reliable service.
It can. Many smart locks and keypad deadbolts have a mechanical key override that can be rekeyed just like a standard cylinder, typically for $35 to $60. If the keypad itself needs reprogramming, we can handle that as part of the same visit. We carry the right blanks for Yale, Baldwin, and Kwikset smart hardware, so the job does not stall on a missing part. Call (409) 405-4485 and we will confirm your hardware before we send a tech out.
Written by Kevin Yoon, Owner at Preston Locksmith & Security, serving San Bruno since 2008.