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 Burlingame
Rekeying a lock in Burlingame typically costs $25 – $45 per cylinder, and on most homes our technician finishes the whole job in under an hour. That’s the honest range: a written price before we dispatch, and no line item that appears out of nowhere when the truck pulls up. We serve every corner of Burlingame, from the flats near Broadway to the hills above Adeline Drive, and because our crews are already working the Peninsula daily, we can usually have someone at your door within hours of your call. Reach us at (409) 405-4485 and a live person answers, not a voicemail tree.
Why Preston Locksmith & Security Is Burlingame’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company
Burlingame is a town of older, well-built homes, and that changes how a rekey should be handled. A 1910s bungalow off Burlingame Avenue does not have the same lock hardware as a 1990s condo near Mills Estates, and treating both the same is how doors get drilled and cylinders get stripped. Our technicians live with that distinction every day. We know which homes in the Easton Addition still carry original mortise locks and which in the Ray Park tract have standard Kwikset or Schlage deadbolts. That means the price we quote is the price that matches your actual hardware, not a guess.
The Relay Visibility Guarantee is how we earn trust back that other locksmiths squander. When you book a rekey, you get a written price, a live trackable arrival time, and before-and-after photos of every lock we touch. The person who knocks is the person whose name and photo you already have. Kevin Yoon leads our Bay Area team, and he holds every job to the same standard: if it’s not done right, we come back and make it right, at no charge, for a full year. That’s our 365-Day Done Right Promise, and it’s stamped on every invoice.
Rekey Service in Burlingame
Rekey Service in Burlingame means exactly one thing: we change the internal pins in your existing lock cylinders so your old keys stop working and a new key takes over. Nothing gets replaced unless it’s actually worn out. The lock stays in the door, the finish stays matched, and you don’t buy new hardware you didn’t need. In Burlingame, we see this most often after a tenant moves out of a rental, after a set of keys goes missing, or when a homeowner buys an older place and has no idea how many copies of the old key are floating around. Standard rekey runs $25 – $45 per cylinder before any applicable hardware costs, and we always confirm that figure in writing before dispatch.
Mortise Locks and Older Cylinders
Many pre-war homes around Burlingame Avenue, Hillsborough border streets, and the Easton Addition still have original mortise lock bodies. These aren’t bad locks; they’re often brass and built to outlast anything at a big box store. But their cylinders don’t always take modern pin kits cleanly. Our techs hand-fit pins when needed, and we never default to drilling a mortise lock just because it’s slower to rekey properly. If the cylinder is salvageable, we rekey it in place.
After a Key Loss or Tenant Change
If you lost a key or just ended a lease, rekeying is cheaper than replacing every lock and equally secure for daily use. The new key works, the old ones don’t, and the door hardware you already have stays put. For landlords in Burlingame who turn over units on Howard Avenue or near the Caltrain station, we can key your entire property to one master system so every unit has its own key and you carry one that opens them all.
Keyed Alike in Burlingame
Keyed Alike in Burlingame is what most people actually want and don’t know to ask for: every exterior lock on your home works with a single key. Front door, side door, back door, garage man-door, one key in your pocket. We do this by setting all cylinders to the same pin configuration during the rekey. If your locks are different brands, like Schlage and Kwikset, that’s fine, provided the cylinders are compatible or we swap one cylinder to match. Typical cost runs $25 – $45 per cylinder set up to match, plus any hardware if one lock genuinely can’t be keyed to the others.
Mixed Hardware, One Key
Burlingame homes accumulate locks over time. A Baldwin deadbolt on the front, a Kwikset knob on the back door, maybe a new Yale smart lock on the side entry. We key them alike where the hardware allows, and we’ll tell you honestly if one needs to be replaced to join the system. No charge for that assessment; it’s part of the written estimate.
Landlords and Multi-Door Properties
For duplexes and fourplexes east of El Camino Real or along the Grove Avenue corridor, keyed-alike plus a small master key system saves you from carrying a janitor’s ring of keys. Each tenant gets a key that only opens their unit. You get one that opens all of them. We set the pin depths on site and show you every key working before we leave.
Trusted Brands We Service in Burlingame
Our techs work on Kwikset, Schlage, Baldwin, and Yale hardware daily, which covers the overwhelming majority of Burlingame doors. When a home has Medeco or Mul-T-Lock high-security cylinders, those take a bit more time and may require replacement pins specific to the brand. We stock common pin kits and cylinder parts for Schlage and Kwikset in our service vehicles, so most Burlingame rekeys happen in a single visit with no waiting for parts to ship. If your cylinder is a Baldwin or Yale, we typically have what’s needed on hand as well, and anything specialized gets ordered with a clear ETA the same day.
Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in Burlingame Homes
- Crawlspace moisture corroding lower cylinder pins: Burlingame homes on raised foundations, especially in the flats near Broadway and around Mills Estates, push moisture up from below. The bottom pins in exterior lock cylinders take the brunt. During a rekey we pull the plug, inspect for rust and pitting, and replace any pins that look like they’ve been sitting in a damp basement.
- Original mortise hardware getting drilled by previous locksmiths: We see scarred lock bodies and drilled cylinders on older doors near Burlingame Avenue. It’s almost always cheaper to preserve the mortise body and rekey the cylinder than to pay for a lock replacement plus retrofitting a modern deadbolt into a door edge that was never routed for one.
- Mismatched brands from earlier DIY rekeys: A homeowner rekeys the front door but not the back, then can’t figure out which key goes where. We key the whole property alike in one visit and hand you one key that works every door.
- Smart lock and deadbolt pairings that don’t share the same key: A Yale keypad on the back door and a standard Baldwin deadbolt on the front are common here. We can often key the mechanical cylinder behind the keypad to match your new key, so the code still works and your backup key opens the same door as the front.
Pricing for Rekey Locks in Burlingame, CA
A standard rekey in Burlingame runs $25 – $45 per cylinder. Keyed-alike work lands in the same range per cylinder, with a possible additional charge if we need to replace one incompatible cylinder so it matches the others. Mortise cylinders in older Burlingame homes sometimes take an extra $10 – $20 in labor because the lock body has to be pulled from the door and re-pinned by hand. There is no separate dispatch fee and no charge added when the tech arrives; the figure we quote on the phone is the figure on your invoice. A written estimate is always free, and it’s sent to you before anyone is dispatched from our Bay Area office to Burlingame. Call (409) 405-4485 and we’ll quote your exact job over the phone in a few minutes.
We Also Serve Cities Near Burlingame
If you’re just outside Burlingame, we cover San Mateo, Millbrae, San Bruno, and Belmont as well. Our Rekey Locks team runs these routes daily, so booking works the same way: written price, trackable arrival, and a background-checked uniformed tech at your door. For more on what we do specifically in your neighborhood, see our Rekey Locks in Burlingame page.
Serving Burlingame, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Burlingame 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 Burlingame
Yes, in most cases. Schlage and Kwikset do not share the same keyway, which means a key cut for one will not physically slide into the other. If you have both, we rekey each brand’s cylinder and modify or replace one of the cylinders so both take the same key. That is a standard part of our keyed-alike service in Burlingame, and we’ll quote the exact hardware cost before we start. Call (409) 405-4485 and we’ll walk you through what your specific mix needs.
A straightforward rekey of three to four cylinders takes about thirty to forty-five minutes once the tech arrives. Older mortise locks, such as those on Burlingame’s pre-war homes east of El Camino Real, can add twenty or thirty minutes because the lock body comes out of the door for hand-fitting. We give you a real time window when you book, and the live arrival link updates as we get closer.
No trip fee, no dispatch fee, no charge that shows up after the fact. The price we quote on the phone is the price on your invoice. If the tech finds something unexpected inside the lock, any additional work gets quoted in writing and approved by you before it happens. That’s the Relay Visibility Guarantee, and it applies to every rekey we do in Burlingame.
No, your existing codes keep working. Rekeying changes only the mechanical cylinder inside the lock. If your smart lock has a physical key override, we can rekey that cylinder to match your new key as well, so the code and the key work together. If you want the back door keypad to match the front door’s new key, we set the mechanical override cylinder accordingly during the same visit.
Have all keys you still want to work in one place, and know which doors you want on the new key. If you can have a photo of your front door lock or the keyway, that helps us confirm the hardware before dispatch. You don’t need to buy anything in advance. We stock common Schlage, Kwikset, Yale, and Baldwin pins and cylinders on the truck, so everything needed typically arrives with the tech. Call (409) 405-4485 and we’ll tell you exactly what to expect for your specific locks.
Written by Kevin Yoon, Owner at Preston Locksmith & Security, serving Burlingame and the Bay Area since 2008.