Change or rekey · Baden
Lock Rekeying in Baden
The builder handed over your new home with a stack of identical keys, and you know the framing crew, the painters and the flooring installers all used a construction key during the build.
In plain words
Moving into a home is the moment most people first hear about rekeying, and it is the most sensible time to do it. A resale house has usually passed through owners, real estate agents, home inspectors, cleaners and trades, each of whom may have held a key at some point. Rekeying every exterior cylinder on move-in day means the only keys that work are the ones cut for you, and the same visit is a chance to put every door on one key so the coffee tin of mystery keys can go in the recycling.
How the visit goesYour basement tenant has given notice, and a new one arrives on the first. The lock on the separate entrance works perfectly well. You simply want a fresh key for the incoming tenant and for the old one to be retired.
Inside the lock
What a rekey changes
01
The lock you already have
02
Inside the cylinder
03
Pins, springs and the shear line
04
A new key, new pins
Lock Rekeying
How the visit goes
Walking every door that should be included
Before a single cylinder comes out, the locksmith walks the property with you and lists each opening: the front door, the back and side doors, the door from the garage into the house, a walkout basement, a gate with a keyed latch, a shed, a mailbox, and any interior door you want on a key. It is surprising how often the garage's side door or the storm door is forgotten and left on the old key. The list becomes the plan for the visit and, at the end, the record of what was done. A door that is not on the list is not rekeyed, so the walk is worth two careful minutes.
Resetting a user-rekeyable cylinder properly
Some residential deadbolts and handle sets are built so the owner can change the key with a small tool, a working key and the new key. They save a bench session, and they also go wrong in a particular way: without a working key of the correct type, or with a key from the wrong keyway, the reset stalls partway. The locksmith carries the reset tool and the reset procedure for these cylinders, confirms the keyway matches the new house key, and completes the change so the cylinder accepts the new key and rejects the old one. If the mechanism has been damaged by a forced reset, it is replaced with a standard cylinder and pinned to match.
Living with one key for the house
If the visit brought your doors onto a single key, daily life gets a little simpler: one key opens the front door, the back, the garage's side entry and the shed, and the ring in your pocket shrinks to the car key and one for the house. Anyone you give a key to gets the same freedom, which is convenient for family and worth thinking about for anyone who should only reach one door; that is what a separate group is for. Keypads and smart locks keep their codes, and their override cylinder now takes the same key. If you add a door later, its cylinder can be pinned to match.
Lock Rekeying
In the van
Key tags and keying record
Pinning tweezers and tray
Replacement cylinder for odd keyways
Reset tool for user-rekeyable cylinders
Code cutter or key duplicator
Lock Rekeying
What affects the quote
Number of keys cut
Keys are cut and tested individually, so the total depends on how many the household or the tenants need. Say the number when you book and the quote reflects it from the start.
No working key for a door
When a cylinder must be shimmed, decoded or picked open before it can be repinned because no key exists for it, that extra step is included in the quote for that door.
Condition of the existing cylinders
A clean cylinder is repinned as it is. One with collapsed springs, a plug packed with old oil or a worn housing needs service or replacement while it is apart, and that shows separately.
What to have ready
- Do you own the home, rent it, or manage it for someone else?
- Is there a basement suite or office that should keep its own key?
- Do you have a working key for every lock, or is there a door with no key at all?
Lock Rekeying: questions
QuestionsCan the entry door of my condo suite be rekeyed?
Often, but check with your property management first. Condominium corporations have a right to enter a unit on reasonable notice, and without notice in an emergency, and many buildings ask that suite doors stay on a system the corporation can open or that a key be lodged with management. Lobby, garage and locker-room doors belong to the corporation and are theirs to manage. A locksmith will ask about your building's rule and work within it.
I rent. Can I have my locks rekeyed?
Yes, with your landlord's agreement, which is what the tenancy rules here expect before a tenant changes a lock. Most landlords are glad to consent when a key has gone missing or a former roommate has moved out, and the locksmith will want to hear that the landlord knows and will be holding one of the new keys. The rekey itself runs the same as for an owner, and a short note listing the doors done is handy to pass to the landlord.
My house is older and has a mortise lock. Can that be rekeyed?
Yes. A mortise lock, the kind with a large case set into the edge of the door, uses a threaded cylinder held by a set screw reached from the door's edge. The cylinder unthreads, is pinned like any other and screws back in. Where a very old lock uses a bit key or a lever mechanism instead of a pin cylinder, the locksmith will explain the options, which may include fitting a modern cylinder into the existing case so the door keeps its original hardware.
Related services
- Lock Replacement & UpgradeThree teenagers, a dog walker, a cleaner and one house key that keeps going missing.
- Vintage Mortise Lock ServiceSomeone painted the door years ago without removing the hardware.
- Smart Lock InstallationYou have just taken possession of the house and the previous owners handed over a keypad deadbolt with a code nobody wrote down and an app account you cannot get into.