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 Key Biscayne
Rekeying a lock in Key Biscayne typically costs $25 to $45 per cylinder for labor, and most houses with three or four exterior doors are done in under an hour. That’s the honest range, and it’s the number we put in writing before any of our techs drives over the Rickenbacker Causeway toward your side of the island. Whether you just closed on a 1960s ranch near the Village Green or you’re renting out a unit in a Crandon Boulevard tower, the job is the same at its core: we pull the lock cylinder, swap the internal pins, and hand you keys that work while the old ones stop turning. Call (409) 405-4485 and you’ll get a live person, a real price range for your specific hardware, and a written confirmation before anyone leaves our shop.
Why Preston Locksmith & Security Is Key Biscayne’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company
Key Biscayne isn’t a stop on a route for us. Our crews know the island’s two distinct housing worlds: the single-family ranch homes from the 1950s through the 1970s that cluster around the Village Green and along Harbor Drive, and the newer high-rise condos that line Crandon Boulevard facing the bay. That split matters more than most people realize. A rekey request from a homeowner on Woodcrest Lane with a Baldwin mortise lock and a worn Kwikset deadbolt is a completely different job from a rekey request from a condo owner on Crandon Boulevard whose building operates a master key system. We arrive knowing what to expect because we’ve done both jobs on the island many times over.
Every tech Preston sends to Key Biscayne is background-checked, uniformed, and arrives with a live arrival time you can track on your phone. You’ll see a name and a photo before the knock. The price was already confirmed in writing before dispatch, so there’s no awkward renegotiation on your doorstep. And every rekey is covered by our 365-Day Done Right Promise: if the rekey doesn’t work right, we come back and make it right at no charge. No argument. No second invoice.
Kevin Yoon, who leads Preston Locksmith & Security, built the company in 2008 on one principle: a locksmith’s word should match the invoice. That’s why we put the price in writing before a single tool leaves the bag, and why we document every job with before-and-after photos you can review. Key Biscayne homeowners have told us that’s the difference between feeling taken and feeling taken care of. We intend to keep it that way.
Rekey House in Key Biscayne
A Rekey House job in Key Biscayne means walking every exterior door on your property, identifying each lock’s brand and condition, and re-pinning every cylinder so a single key operates everything. For most of the island’s ranch homes, that’s two or three doors: the front entry, the rear door off the patio, and often a side door near the carport. Labor for a full-house rekey in Key Biscayne typically runs $85 to $140, depending on how many cylinders we’re re-pinning. Parts are separate if a cylinder is too worn to hold new pins, but we always confirm that cost in writing before touching the lock.
We recently helped a family on Harbor Drive who had just closed on a 1960s ranch. They handed us four mismatched Kwikset and Schlage keys and asked us to consolidate everything. We pulled each lock cylinder, re-pinned the pin-and-tumbler stacks to one new key, and left the original Baldwin mortise lock on the front door untouched. That lock was still ANSI Grade 1 and worth keeping. One rear deadbolt had a worn cylinder that wouldn’t hold pins, so we swapped just that cylinder rather than the whole lockset. The family walked away with one key operating every exterior door in the house. That’s what a proper rekey house job looks like on Key Biscayne.
When to Rekey After Closing
Anyone who just bought a home in Key Biscayne should rekey before moving in a single box. You don’t know how many copies of the previous owner’s key are floating around, and on an island where many homes have changed hands multiple times since the 1960s, the count can be higher than you’d think. Rekeying costs far less than replacing every lock and gives you the same result: old keys stop working.
Consolidating Multiple Keys
Many older Key Biscayne homes end up with a ring of keys because a previous owner changed locks one at a time over the years. A rekey lets us set every cylinder to the same key, so you carry one key instead of four. We see this constantly on the ranch-home side of the island, especially on streets like Woodcrest Lane and Harbor Drive where original hardware often survives alongside newer deadbolts.
Lock Rekey in Key Biscayne
A Lock Rekey in Key Biscayne focuses on one or two specific locks rather than the whole house. Maybe you gave a housekeeper or dog walker a key and that arrangement ended. Maybe a tenant moved out of your condo unit. Maybe you just want the front door on a different key than the side door. A single lock rekey typically runs $25 to $45 per cylinder in labor, plus the cost of any replacement cylinder if the existing one is too worn to re-pin safely. We confirm that price in writing before we dispatch.
On the condo side of Key Biscayne, a lock rekey gets more complicated. Many Crandon Boulevard towers run master key systems where building management holds keys that open multiple units. Rekeying your unit door without coordinating the new cylinder with that system can break the building’s key control, and management may undo the work and bill you for the reset. We know which buildings on the island operate this way, and we’ll tell you upfront whether your rekey needs building approval before we touch anything.
Rekey After a Tenant Change
Key Biscayne has a steady turnover of seasonal and short-term rentals, especially in the high-rise buildings along Crandon Boulevard. If you own a rental unit and the last tenant just moved out, rekeying is the fastest way to make sure nobody old has access to what’s inside. We can rekey the unit door and, where the building allows, any interior doors that have their own locks.
Rekeying One Lock to Match the Rest
Sometimes one lock gets replaced and suddenly you’re carrying an extra key. We can rekey that new or replacement lock to match the rest of your existing keys, so you don’t have to change everything. This is common on Key Biscayne’s older homes, where a prior handyman installed a new deadbolt but never rekeyed it to match the front door.
Trusted Brands We Service in Key Biscayne
We service and rekey hardware from Kwikset, Schlage, Medeco, Yale, Baldwin, Mul-T-Lock, Sargent, and Abloy, so whatever is on your door, we’ve handled it before. For Key Biscayne’s older ranch homes, that usually means Baldwin mortise units and Schlage or Kwikset deadbolts. For the high-rises on Crandon Boulevard, we see more Medeco and Mul-T-Lock cylinders tied to building key control systems. We keep common pin kits and replacement cylinders stocked in our South Florida dispatch office, which means most rekey jobs on the island are completed same-day without a second trip across the causeway.
Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in Key Biscayne Homes
- Worn cylinders on 50-to-60-year-old ranch house locks. Salt air and humidity accelerate wear on brass cylinders, and many original locks on the Village Green side of Key Biscayne simply won’t hold new pins. We check cylinder condition before trying to rekey, and we’ll tell you if a replacement is the honest fix.
- Building master key conflicts in Crandon Boulevard towers. A unit door rekey that breaks the building’s key control system can get undone by management within a week. We verify access protocol for your specific building before changing anything, so you don’t pay twice.
- Mismatched hardware after years of partial replacements. A 1960s ranch might have a Baldwin mortise on the front door, a Schlage deadbolt on the rear, and a Kwikset knob on the side. We can consolidate all of it to one key, but the job requires more than a simple pin swap.
- Rekeying done poorly by a previous locksmith who quoted a teaser price. We’ve repaired jobs where a “starting at” price turned into a much bigger bill on the doorstep and the work was rushed. A proper rekey means confirming the full price in writing before dispatch and documenting every lock after the job.
Pricing for Rekey Locks in Key Biscayne, FL
Here are the numbers we quote to Key Biscayne customers, and these are the numbers you’ll see on the invoice.
- Single lock rekey: $25 to $45 per cylinder in labor
- Full house rekey (2-4 exterior doors): $85 to $140 in labor
- Cylinder replacement (if existing cylinder is too worn): $20 to $55 per cylinder, confirmed before work starts
- Key duplication after rekey: $3 to $6 per key
What changes the price is the number of cylinders, the brand of hardware, and whether any cylinder is too corroded to re-pin. We don’t add a call-out surcharge when we arrive, and we don’t quote one price on the phone and another on your doorstep. The price we confirm in writing before dispatch is the price on your invoice. Call (409) 405-4485 and we’ll walk through your locks and give you a firm range before anyone leaves the office.
We Also Serve Cities Near Key Biscayne
We handle Rekey Locks requests across South Florida. Beyond Key Biscayne, our crews serve Miami Beach, Miami, Coral Gables, and Hialeah. If you’re just over the causeway or up the coast, the same written-price guarantee and trackable arrival apply. Read more about our service area and what to expect on our Rekey Locks in Key Biscayne page.
Serving Key Biscayne, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Key Biscayne 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 Key Biscayne
Probably not, and that’s exactly why we don’t do it. A “starting at” price for a rekey often climbs once the tech arrives and discovers a worn cylinder, a high-security lock, or a building key-control requirement. Preston Locksmith & Security confirms the full price in writing before anyone is dispatched to your Key Biscayne address. The number we confirm is the number on your invoice. Call (409) 405-4485 for a straight answer about your specific locks.
Often yes, but it depends on the building’s specific key control rules. Some Crandon Boulevard towers require building management approval before any change to unit door hardware. Other buildings allow a rekey as long as the new cylinder works with the master system. We’ll ask about your building and give you a direct answer before we touch anything, and we’ll coordinate with management if needed. Call us with your building name and we’ll tell you what’s possible.
For a standard ranch home with two to four exterior doors, a full rekey takes 45 to 75 minutes on site. Add a little time if any cylinders need replacement or if the hardware is heavily corroded from salt air. Condo unit doors are usually faster, often 20 to 30 minutes, assuming no building approval holdup. We’ll give you a realistic time window when you call (409) 405-4485.
If your locks are physically functional and you just want old keys to stop working, a rekey is enough and costs significantly less than replacement. If a lock is broken, seized, or too corroded to hold pins, replacing the cylinder or the full lockset makes more sense. We’ll inspect each lock during the rekey and only recommend replacement when rekeying wouldn’t fix the actual problem. On Key Biscayne’s older homes, this call comes up on almost every job because salt air takes a real toll on exposed hardware.
You’ll receive the technician’s name and photo before they arrive, along with a live arrival time you can track on your phone. Our techs arrive in uniform with company identification, and we document every job with before-and-after photos. If the person at your door doesn’t match the photo we sent, don’t open the door. That’s part of The Relay Visibility Guarantee, and it’s how we protect Key Biscayne homeowners from the anonymous-technician problem that plagues this trade.
Written by Kevin Yoon, Owner at Preston Locksmith & Security, serving Key Biscayne and surrounding South Florida communities.