Rekey Locks in Kensington - Flat Per-Lock Price, Quoted on the Phone

Fast, Reliable Rekey Locks Across Kensington

Rekeying a lock in Kensington typically costs between $95 and $165 for the first cylinder and another $20 to $35 per additional cylinder, written price confirmed before we touch a single tool. For most Kensington homes, that means changing the internal pins so old keys stop working while the existing hardware stays put, and we can usually have it done within a couple hours of your call. If you’ve just moved into a place off Colusa Avenue, ended a relationship, or handed a key to a contractor, cleaner, or pet-sitter you’d rather not have holding access anymore, rekeying solves it without drilling new holes in your stucco or replacing hardware that still has years of life. Call (409) 405-4485 and a live person answers, day or night.

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Why Preston Locksmith & Security Is Kensington’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company

We’ve been doing Rekey Locks work in Kensington long enough to know the housing stock here isn’t a bunch of interchangeable suburban doors. The pre-war bungalows above Arlington Avenue and the mid-century ranchers down toward the El Cerrito border often have original mortise locks whose cutouts don’t match modern deadbolt prep. Kevin Yoon, who leads our team, trains every tech to work with what’s already in the door before recommending new hardware, because forcing a modern cylinder into a 1940s stucco door usually costs more and looks worse. Kensington homeowners tell us the same thing on repeat: they want one key, old keys dead, and a price that doesn’t move between the phone call and the walk-through. That’s what we do, and we put it in writing before the job starts.

Our dispatch is coordinated from the San Francisco Bay Area office, so a background-checked, uniformed tech can reach Kensington fast, usually within 60 to 90 minutes for non-emergency calls. You’ll get a live trackable arrival time, so you’re not sitting around through a four-hour window wondering who’s coming. When our tech pulls up to your place on Purdue Avenue or Cambridge Avenue, you already know their name and what they look like. That’s The Relay Visibility Guarantee, and it’s standard on every job, including before-and-after photos and a written guarantee on the rekey itself.

Rekey House in Kensington

A Rekey House job in Kensington means re-pinning every entry lock on the property so one key opens everything and every old key stops working. When a Kensington homeowner closes on a house off the Arlington, they often can’t know how many copies of the previous owner’s key are floating around. Rekeying the whole house kills that risk for good. We repin the cylinders in your existing Schlage, Kwikset, or Yale hardware, cut a fresh set of keys, and hand them over. Most Kensington homes have two to four entry points, and the full job ranges from $135 to $240 depending on cylinder count. The price is on paper before we start, and it’s the same number on the invoice.

After a move-in or tenant change

You shouldn’t run on inherited key control. A house keyset from the previous owner might have copies with neighbors, dog walkers, or a painter who worked inside six months ago. We rekey every exterior door to a fresh bitting and key the new keys alike where possible, though older mortise locks sometimes need their own individual key, which we’ll explain before starting.

Whole-house key matching

If your front door, back door, and side door each need a different key, that’s not a rekey failure, that’s just old hardware with mixed cylinders. For many Kensington homes we can repin cylinders from the same brand family to match a single key, cutting down the key ring without replacing any visible hardware. Some mortise setups won’t play along, and we’ll tell you that honestly before quoting.

Lock Rekey in Kensington

A single Lock Rekey in Kensington, whether it’s a front door deadbolt, a side gate, or a detached garage off a narrow driveway, usually runs $95 to $135 for the first cylinder. The work involves pulling the cylinder, swapping the top pins or changing the plug’s pin stack so the old key no longer turns, and testing with a fresh-cut key until the throw is clean. It’s a 20 to 40 minute job on most residential locks. When someone on Michigan Avenue tells us they handed a key to a contractor during a kitchen remodel and now they want that key dead, a single lock rekey is the cheapest, fastest fix that doesn’t require drilling or replacing the hardware.

The original hardware stays put

We don’t drill locks unless the cylinder is so worn it can’t be re-pinned safely, and on Kensington’s older doors we see that mostly on hardware that’s been re-pinned two or three times already. If the pins still seat cleanly, the lock stays. Your door’s look doesn’t change, and the stucco around the collar doesn’t get chewed up by a drill bit.

When one door is all you need

You don’t have to rekey the whole house if you only handed one key to one person. A side door off the carport or a detached studio door can be rekeyed on its own, and we’ll cut however many new keys you need for that cylinder. The price for one cylinder is flat and quoted in writing, no call-out surcharge tacked onto the final bill.

Trusted Brands We Service in Kensington

Most Kensington doors carry Schlage, Kwikset, or Yale hardware from the era the house was built, and we keep common pin kits and cylinders for those brands stocked in our vans so a same-day rekey in Kensington doesn’t become a two-trip job. We also work on higher-security Medeco and Baldwin hardware when a Kensington owner has upgraded a front entry or added a deadbolt to a home office. If your lock is a Medeco with restricted key control, you’ll need the original owner card to authorize new keys, and we’ll verify that before we start rather than discovering it mid-job. Whatever the brand, we repin the cylinder rather than swapping in generic parts, so the action stays smooth and the new key doesn’t bind.

Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in Kensington Homes

• Worn cylinders that won’t repin cleanly. Kensington’s older bungalows often have Schlage or Yale cylinders that have been re-pinned twice. Old pins don’t seat, keys hang or spin, and the right fix is either a new pin stack or a cylinder replacement, which we’ll show you before doing.
• Recessed mortise locks on pre-war doors. The original lock body sits deep in the stucco and trim, and forcing a modern deadbolt prep into that cutout is a slow, ugly mistake. We rekey the existing mortise cylinder instead and keep the original strike plate aligned.
• Lost key control after contractors or renters. A Kensington homeowner replaces the front door lock but never rekeys the side door, so the same old key still works. Rekeying only one entry point when the old key opens several is the most common half-fix we correct.
• Mixed keyways across one house. Front door is Kwikset, back door is Schlage, garage is an old Yale. You can carry three keys forever, or we can repin the compatible cylinders to match where the hardware allows, and tell you upfront which lock can’t be matched.

Pricing for Rekey Locks in Kensington, CA

We Also Serve Cities Near Kensington

While this page covers Rekey Locks in Kensington, our team also runs calls into nearby Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. If you’ve got a property on the edge of Kensington or a second location in one of those cities, the same written-price, same-day rekey service applies.

FAQs About Rekey Locks in Kensington