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 Miami
If you just closed on a house near NE 125th Street or you’re turning over a rental unit off Biscayne Boulevard, rekeying your locks is the fastest way to make sure old keys stop working. A rekey in North Miami typically runs $65 to $120 per cylinder, and the full price gets confirmed in writing before we dispatch anyone. You don’t need new hardware. We swap the pins inside your existing lock so every old key becomes useless, then hand you new keys that work. Call (409) 405-4485 and we’ll give you an exact quote over the phone, free.
We work North Miami every day, from the condos along West Dixie Highway to the single-family blocks near Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay Campus. That local presence means we’re usually at your door in under an hour when you need us.
Why Preston Locksmith & Security Is North Miami’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company
North Miami has a particular housing stock: mid-century single-family homes, 1950s duplexes, and small walk-up buildings with original hardware that’s been in place for decades. We know those doors. When a landlord on NE 6th Avenue calls us after a tenant clears out, we already know to expect a Baldwin mortise lock on the front door and a builder-grade Kwikset deadbolt on the rear. That familiarity means faster work and fewer surprises on the invoice.
Kevin Yoon, who leads our team, built Preston Locksmith & Security on a simple rule: the price you’re quoted before we roll is the price on the invoice, period. Every tech we send to North Miami is background-checked, uniformed, and shows up with a live arrival time you can track. We wear that standard because it’s been our model since 2008, and it’s what the 365-Day Done Right Promise is built on. If it’s not done right, we come back and make it right. No charge, no argument.
Our North Miami customers see the whole job unfold: a written estimate before the first tool leaves the bag, before-and-after photos of the cylinder, and a digital invoice you can pay from your phone. You know exactly who’s coming and what they’ll do before they knock.
Lock Rekey in North Miami
Lock rekey in North Miami means pulling the cylinder from your existing deadbolt or knob, replacing the internal pins and springs so the old keys can’t turn the plug anymore, and cutting a new set of keys to match. It’s not a hardware swap. Your existing lock stays in the door, which matters a lot around here, because so much of North Miami’s residential stock still has original Baldwin or Yale mortise locks that are far sturdier than anything you’d buy as a replacement today. For most single-family doors in this area, a simple Rekey Locks job takes about 20 to 40 minutes per cylinder, and the written price is locked before we dispatch.
For anyone who just bought a home in North Miami, this is the first job you should schedule. You don’t know how many copies of the old key the previous owner handed to neighbors, contractors, cleaners, or a cousin who still has a drawer full of keys. Rekeying closes that door completely.
One Job, Every Old Key Dead
We don’t just rekey one lock and call it done. On a typical North Miami house, we check the front door, the rear door, the side garage door, and any gate or storage door that shares the same keyway. If the front and back doors are on different keyways, we’ll tell you before we start. You decide whether you want them keyed alike so one key opens everything, or kept separate. Most customers want one key for the whole property.
Keeping Your Existing Hardware in Place
There’s rarely a reason to replace a functioning lock housing. What we do instead is service the cylinder itself: clean out years of dust and humidity residue, re-pin to the new key, and lubricate the moving parts. Your original lock keeps its character. Your new keys are the only ones that work.
Locksmith Rekey in North Miami
Locksmith rekey in North Miami usually comes down to one of two scenarios: a homeowner who lost track of who has a key, or a landlord who just had a tenant move out. In both cases, the job is the same at its core. The lock’s cylinder comes out, the old pins get replaced with a new pinning configuration, and a new key is cut to match. The old keys simply won’t turn anymore. A standard pin-and-tumbler cylinder runs about $65 to $85 here. A mortise cylinder, common on North Miami’s older front doors, runs $85 to $120. That price is per cylinder, quoted before anyone is dispatched, and it doesn’t change when the tech arrives.
The reason we can hold that price is simple: we described the job correctly on the phone. You tell us what kind of lock you have, we tell you the cost before the van moves. No one shows up and invents a “specialty upcharge” because your lock is older than expected.
Rekey After a Tenant Turnover
North Miami landlords handle this differently than homeowners. When a tenant leaves a duplex or small multi-unit building, the practical risk is that several copies of the same key are floating around the neighborhood. On a 2-unit building, we can rekey both units on a single visit, set up a master key system if you want one, and hand you one key that opens every door you own. It’s a written per-unit price, approved before we ever touch the hardware.
Keyed Alike vs. Keyed Different
Some owners want every lock on their property on the same key. Others want the front door separate from the rear for added security. Both are standard rekey work. We’ll walk you through the tradeoff in plain terms and put the choice in writing before we start.
Trusted Brands We Service in North Miami
We’re trained and equipped to work on Kwikset, Medeco, and Baldwin hardware, plus a range of others. North Miami has a real mix: builder-grade Kwikset deadbolts on 1960s ranch homes, Medeco high-security cylinders on small commercial spaces along NE 163rd Street, Baldwin mortise locks on the nicer waterfront properties. We carry the pins, springs, and key blanks for all of them in our service vehicles, so the work doesn’t stall waiting for a part to be ordered. That local parts stock is one reason our response time in North Miami stays so tight.
Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in North Miami Homes
- Humidity-worn cylinders. North Miami’s salt air and damp season takes a toll on brass pins and springs. A cylinder that’s sticky or hard to turn is often full of fine corrosion. We clean and lubricate it as part of the rekey, rather than telling you to replace the whole lock.
- Builder-grade keyways with circulating keys. Many of the 1950s and 1960s homes around NE 5th Avenue and along 123rd Street were built with the same handful of Kwikset keyways. Old keys circulate more than people realize. Rekeying kills the entire history of copies at once.
- Mixed hardware on the same door. We regularly see a front door with a Baldwin mortise lock and a rear door with a completely different keyway. A homeowner rekeys the front, doesn’t touch the rear, and half the house is still open to anyone with an old key. We check every door.
- Mismatched pins from a previous bad rekey. If a lock was rekeyed before by someone who didn’t size the pins correctly, the new key sticks or the cylinder fails within weeks. We test every key turn before we leave the property. If it doesn’t feel right, we re-do it on the spot.
Pricing for Rekey Locks in North Miami, FL
Here’s the honest breakdown for this market. A standard Kwikset or Schlage deadbolt rekey in North Miami runs $65 to $85 per cylinder. A mortise cylinder, common on older Baldwin and Yale front doors, runs $85 to $120 per cylinder. That includes the service call, the labor, the new pins, and two new keys per lock. If you want additional keys cut, they’re around $5 each. Multiple locks on the same visit bring the per-lock cost down, and we’ll give you a flat total in writing before we dispatch. The price you approve on the phone is the price on your invoice. No call-out surcharge added at the door, no bait-and-switch. Call (409) 405-4485 for an exact quote on your specific locks. Estimates are free.
We Also Serve Cities Near North Miami
Beyond North Miami, we cover the surrounding South Florida corridor with the same written-pricing standard and same response time. That includes Miami proper, Hialeah and its older apartment stock, Miami Gardens with its mix of single-family and multi-unit buildings, and Homestead to the south. If you own property in more than one of these cities, one call covers it all.
Serving North Miami, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the North Miami 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 Miami
We rekey them. A mortise lock on a 1950s North Miami duplex is almost always worth keeping because the lock body is solid brass or steel and far better built than most modern replacements. We pull the cylinder, re-pin it to the new key, tune the mechanism, and put it back in the door. The cost runs $85 to $120 per mortise cylinder, depending on condition. We’ll only suggest replacement if the lock body itself is broken or the cylinder is too worn to hold a new pinning. Call (409) 405-4485 and describe what’s on your door. We’ll tell you over the phone whether it’s a rekey or a replace, and what each would cost.
On a standard single-family door with a pin-and-tumbler deadbolt or knob, rekeying takes 20 to 40 minutes per cylinder. A full propety with three or four doors is usually completed in under two hours. Older mortise locks take a bit longer because the cylinder has to be removed and serviced more carefully, but it’s still a same-visit job. We don’t take the lock away. The work happens on your doorstep in North Miami, and you’ll have new keys in hand before we leave.
You’ll get a live arrival time you can track on your phone, and the tech who shows up will be in a Preston Locksmith & Security uniform, driving a marked vehicle, carrying photo ID. We send you a photo of the technician before they arrive. That’s the Relay Visibility Guarantee: you know who’s coming, what they look like, and when they’ll knock. If anyone ever shows up claiming to be from us and can’t show you a written estimate with our name on it before starting work, don’t let them in. Call (409) 405-4485 and confirm with our dispatcher.
Yes. Keyed-alike rekeying is standard work for us. If your front and rear doors are currently on different keyways, we can convert them so a single key works both, and we can do it in the same visit. If you’d rather keep them separate, we’ll set them up that way instead. Either option gets priced in writing before we start, and you’ll test every key in every door before we hand you the invoice.
Because a rekey solves the actual security problem, which is unknown keys in circulation. A new smart lock without a rekey still has a physical key override, and if you don’t know who holds copies of that key, you haven’t fixed anything. Rekeying also costs less: $65 to $120 per cylinder versus $180 to $400 for a smart lock install, and it keeps the mechanical backup working. If you want a smart lock later, we can rekey the cylinder to match and integrate it properly. For most North Miami homeowners and landlords, rekeying is the right first move. Call (409) 405-4485 and we’ll help you decide based on your actual doors, not a sales pitch.
Written by Kevin Yoon, Owner at Preston Locksmith & Security, serving North Miami since 2008.






