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 North Highlands
Rekeying a lock in North Highlands typically costs $25 – $45 per cylinder when we come to you, and most houses here take under an hour once we’re on site. That’s the honest range before we even look at the front door. We work throughout North Highlands, from the post-war ranch blocks off Watt Avenue to the apartment rows near McClellan, and we answer our own phones at (409) 405-4485 whenever you call. This page was written by Kevin Yoon, owner at Preston Locksmith & Security, so a North Highlands homeowner knows what a rekey actually involves on this area’s older housing stock before anyone is dispatched.
What makes North Highlands different is simple: a lot of the homes here were built between 1945 and 1970, and the locks on those exterior doors are frequently the originals. That changes how we approach a rekey. We don’t just swap pins and leave. We check the cylinder housing, confirm the old keys actually stop working, and show you the worn parts before we reinstall anything.
Every rekey we do in North Highlands includes a written price before work starts, a live trackable arrival time, before-and-after photos, and a written guarantee on the repair. If it’s not done right, we make it right – that’s our 365-Day Done Right Promise.
Why Preston Locksmith & Security Is North Highlands’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company
North Highlands homeowners keep calling us because we do one thing differently than the dispatch-everything shops: we tell you the price per cylinder before the truck rolls, and that price doesn’t change when the tech is standing at your door. No “trip charge plus labor plus a surprise cylinder fee” math performed on your welcome mat. Kevin Yoon founded this company in 2008, and the rule hasn’t changed: a written price before any tool leaves the bag.
We also show up as ourselves. Every Preston Locksmith & Security technician is background-checked and arrives in uniform with a name tag. You’ll see our arrival time on the live tracker link we send, and after the job you receive before-and-after photos of every cylinder we touched plus a digital invoice with a pay link. That’s the Relay Visibility Guarantee, and it’s included on every rekey.
North Highlands is one of the areas our Sacramento dispatch coordinates directly. That means when you call (409) 405-4485, a live person answers. Not a voicemail tree. The response time to most North Highlands neighborhoods runs 45 – 75 minutes after your call during normal hours, and we don’t add a surcharge for same-day work.
We’re trained on Schlage, Kwikset, Medeco, Baldwin, Abloy, Mul-T-Lock, Sargent, and Yale hardware. For a 1950s Kwikset deadbolt or a newer Schlage knob, the rekey is straightforward. For multi-unit rental doors with mismatched cylinders, we walk you through exactly what you have before you pay anything.
Keyed Alike in North Highlands
Keyed alike in North Highlands means your front door, back door, side garage entry, and storage room lock all turn with one single key. We do this constantly in older North Highlands rental properties and converted garage setups where one property might have four or five exterior doors, each with a different key floating around from previous tenants or contractors. The work involves removing each cylinder, repinning the internal plug to a shared key code, and reinstalling everything. A typical keyed-alike job on a North Highlands ranch home with three doors runs $75 – $135, written price confirmed before we start.
How the cylinder matching actually works
We pull each knob or deadbolt cylinder, decode the existing cuts on the key you want to keep, and repin every cylinder to match those same cuts. If you’d rather start fresh with a brand-new key, we cut a new code key and repin everything to that. Most North Highlands homes with original builder-grade hardware have Schlage or Kwikset cylinders, which repin cleanly in 10 – 15 minutes per lock.
Which doors are worth keying alike
Almost every exterior door on the same key ring. But there’s a good local reason to keep a deadbolt on a different key than the knob: if you drop one key somewhere, you only need to rekey one cylinder, not the whole house. We’ll talk through your actual door count and key habits before we quote you a per-cylinder price.
Rekey Deadbolt in North Highlands
A rekey deadbolt in North Highlands is the job we do most often: the single-cylinder deadbolt on the front or side door gets pulled, the old pins removed, new pins installed that match your chosen key, and the unit reinstalled so the old key stops working completely. On older North Highlands homes the deadbolt is frequently a Kwikset or Schlage that hasn’t been touched since it was installed decades ago, and that’s usually fine. A standard deadbolt rekey runs $25 – $40 per cylinder.
What to expect from an original 1950s deadbolt
The pin-and-tumbler stacks inside an original deadbolt wear down over time, especially in North Highlands where summer heat cycles cause brass components to expand and contract. A deadbolt that still turns with the current key can often be rekeyed in place. If the pin chambers are wallowed out or the plug wobbles, we’ll show you the slack and recommend a replacement cylinder before going further.
Deadbolt count in North Highlands homes
Most single-family houses in North Highlands have two or three deadbolts: front entry, a side or garage entry, and sometimes a back kitchen door. Apartment and duplex units in converted buildings often have one deadbolt per unit door. Before we quote you, we confirm the actual number so the price on the phone matches the price on the invoice. The full price is always in writing before anyone is dispatched.
Trusted Brands We Service in North Highlands
We stock common pin kits and cylinder parts for Schlage and Kwikset, the two brands most often found on North Highlands doors, and we’re factory-trained on Medeco and Abloy for higher-security work. Most rekeys on post-war North Highlands homes use standard Kwikset or Schlage pin kits, and we carry those on the truck so there’s no waiting on parts. For commercial or high-security cylinders, we quote the specific cylinder type before we start. If you’re considering upgrading from a builder-grade Kwikset to a higher-security Schlage or Medeco cylinder at the same time, we can do that in the same visit and you’ll see the hardware cost line-itemed in the written estimate.
Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in North Highlands Homes
- Worn pins inside original cylinders. On a 1950s ranch home off Watt Avenue, a lock that’s been in service since the Eisenhower administration often has pins so rounded they won’t pick up a new key cleanly. We repin these and show you the old pins before we bag them.
- Mismatched hardware across a rental property. North Highlands has a lot of multi-unit properties and converted garage units where one door has a Kwikset, another a Schlage, and a third is an off-brand cylinder a previous handyman installed. A rekey here means confirming the exact cylinder types on-site, not just quoting “per lock” over the phone.
- Painted-over cylinders and trim. Doors in older North Highlands homes have often been repainted several times without removing the lock. A cylinder that’s been painted into place has to be extracted carefully or the paint and trim get chipped. We account for that before we quote, so you’re not hit with a surprise trim-repair charge.
- Deadbolts that turn with one key but not another. When multiple keys from previous owners or tenants are floating around, we sometimes find a deadbolt that was half-rekeyed or never properly pinned. The fix is a full repin to a single new key, and we’ll key the knob and deadbolt alike so one key works both.
Pricing for Rekey Locks in North Highlands, CA
A standard rekey in North Highlands runs $25 – $45 per cylinder. That covers removal, repinning, reassembly, and a test with the new key. If we need to add a new key or replace the cylinder housing, that’s quoted as a separate line before we touch anything. A typical three-door house – front knob, front deadbolt, back door – comes in around $75 – $135. Keyed-alike across multiple doors follows the same per-cylinder rate. High-security cylinders like Medeco or Abloy run higher because the pin kits and time required are different, and we’ll give you that number by phone before we dispatch. North Highlands prices track close to Antelope and Carmichael, but our dispatch from the Sacramento metro office means we can usually reach you a little faster. Call (409) 405-4485 and Kevin Yoon or a team member will quote the full price by phone. No call-out surcharge added on arrival, ever.
We Also Serve Cities Near North Highlands
Our North Highlands customers sometimes ask us to rekey doors on rental properties they own in Antelope, Carmichael, Rio Linda, and Elverta. We take those calls and schedule them directly. If you’re looking for the full breakdown of what our Rekey Locks service includes anywhere in the metro area, start there. For everything specific to your neighborhood, keep this page bookmarked or just call us. We serve all of North Highlands and the surrounding communities with the same written-price rule.
Serving North Highlands, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the North Highlands 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 North Highlands
Yes. On North Highlands rental and multi-unit properties we commonly set up a master key system where the landlord’s key opens every unit door, but each tenant’s key only opens their own door. That requires repinning cylinders to a master wafer system, and we quote it per cylinder after counting every door. The written price includes the key cuts for landlord keys and tenant keys before anyone is dispatched. Call (409) 405-4485 with the number of units and exterior doors, and we’ll give you a firm range.
It involves removing the existing knob or deadbolt cylinder, opening it, pulling the old pins, and installing new pins in cuts that match your new key. On original 1950s North Highlands hardware, we also check the cylinder housing for wear and the plug for wobble before reassembling. If the housing is wallowed out, we’ll show you and recommend a replacement cylinder. You see the old pins, you test the new key in front of us, and the old keys are dead before we leave.
For a single-family North Highlands home with two or three cylinders, plan on 30 – 60 minutes on site once we arrive. The per-cylinder work itself is usually 10 – 15 minutes. Most of the time goes to removing and reinstalling hardware carefully on older painted doors and testing each lock with the new key. You’ll get a live arrival time before we come, and before-and-after photos when it’s done.
You can rekey a Kwikset SmartKey lock without replacing it, and in North Highlands we do these often. The SmartKey system uses a learning tool to reprogram the cylinder to accept a new key in about 10 seconds per lock, without disassembling the cylinder or replacing pins. It’s not compatible with standard Schlage keys, so if you want the SmartKey to match a Schlage key you already have, we may need to replace the cylinder. We’ll tell you which route works before we quote anything.
You’ll know because before we arrive, you’ve already spoken with a live person, received a written price, and gotten a live trackable arrival link showing the tech’s location. When the tech arrives, they’re background-checked, in a Preston Locksmith & Security uniform, with a name tag and a company ID. You’ll also have a before-photo sent from the job site once work starts. No anonymous guy in an unmarked van. If anything doesn’t match, you can call (409) 405-4485 and verify with us directly before opening the door.
Written by Kevin Yoon, Owner at Preston Locksmith & Security, serving North Highlands since 2008.