Last Updated on July 22, 2024
Cost Table | Is it Cheaper to Rekey Locks or Replace Them? | Cost to Rekey Locks in Phoenix? | Why It’s Cheaper at a Locksmith Shop | Detailed Cost Breakdown | Pricing Variable | Cost to Rekey Other Types of Locks | FAQ
Cost to Rekey A Home
Just bought a home? Just tossed your roommate? Fired your cleaning crew or no longer need that house sitter? It’s time to rekey your locks! But how much does it cost to change home locks? This post will give you the information you need to understand the rekeying process, and the costs associated with it.
Most homeowners decide to have a locksmith out on site to do the work so that they don’t need to remove and replace the locks themselves.
The cost to rekey a home typically ranges from $200-$250 for three doors, including a service call, and the removal, rekeying, and reinstallation of locks. Costs vary based on the number of cylinders and your location, affecting labor and service fees. To save money, remove the locks yourself and take them to a lock shop, this avoids the service call fee and reduces labor costs to rekey each lock to around $13 per keyhole.
So bringing locks for 3 doors into a locksmith shop for rekeying would be just around $78.
For the cost of other common services, see our article, “How Much Does a Locksmith Cost.”
The table below provides detailed pricing. We arrived at that price this way. The national average price of a service call is $90-125 and the average cost to rekey a lock cylinder is $25 per cylinder (keyhole). The most common number of keyholes in a home is six, as most homes have three doors with each door having two keyholes.
Follow the links in our table below for details on the price breakdown and any other charges that may apply. The prices shown in the table are based on national averages. If you live in my state, it costs less to rekey your Arizona home as we are priced lower than the national average.
The Cost to Change Home Locks – Summary Table
| Rekey Service Provided | *Rekey Cost Per Cylinder (Keyhole) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to Rekey Locks in a Lock Shop | $ 13 | |
| Cost to Rekey Locks at Your House | $ 25 | |
| Cost of Trip Charge | $ 90-125 | |
| Cost for Mailbox Key in a Lock Shop | $ 20 | |
| Cost for Mailbox Key at House | $ 40 | |
| Rekey Surcharge if No Current Keys are available | $ 8 | |
| Rekeying Kwikset Smartkey Locks | $0-$30 | |
| Cost to Rekey Padlock | Same as Lock Rekey | |
*This article uses cost numbers from a nationwide locksmith pricing survey conducted in 2022 that has been adjusted for inflation to get the cost of a rekey in 2022. If you live in a city with a high cost of living, your costs may be slightly higher. For those living in a low-cost city, prices will be a little bit less.
The Cost to Rekey Locks in the Phoenix Area
A home rekey in Phoenix, AZ will run about 5% less than the national average. To rekey a home in Phoenix will run $190-238 and to rekey a lock cylinder in a Phoenix locksmith shop will be about $13.
If you are in the Phoenix Arizona market, you can schedule your rekey with ACME online.
Is it Cheaper to Rekey or Replace Locks?
When you want to protect your home from anyone who may have an existing key copy, you can rekey the locks so that they work with a new key. You DO NOT need to replace the door hardware. But, how much is a rekey? Is it cheaper to buy new home locks?
It is always cheaper to rekey a lock than to replace it. Depending on the door hardware, you can save up to 10X by rekeying the lock rather than buying a new one. The savings can be substantial as the number of locks increases. You will get the biggest savings when you can bring your locks into a locksmith shop near you.
Save Money By Taking Locks to a Locksmith Shop
When it’s possible, the least expensive rekeying option is to bring the locks into a lock shop.
The main price differences between having a locksmith out to your home to rekey and bringing the locks to a lock shop occur because:
- You’ll save the trip charge (the cost associated with getting a locksmith to your location), and
- The rekey will be a little less expensive because you will be doing the removal and reinstall of the hardware.
Locksmith Pro Tip: When in doubt, take pictures at each step when removing the lock body from the door – this will help you replace the hardware properly!
Taking your locks into a locksmith shop for rekeying is a great low-cost option available to you if you:
- Only have one or 2 locks on a single door and
- Can have someone who can watch the home while you’re at the locksmith having the work done and
- Feel comfortable with removing and replacing the hardware yourself.
A ‘cylinder’ is where a key goes into a lock – so each keyhole you have will need to be changed and incur this cost. Some locks have 2 cylinders – a key on each side, and some instead have a thumb turn and only one cylinder. Rekeying is priced by cylinder, and not by locks, so keep this in mind – just count the number of keyholes.
If you don’t have the existing key, the locks can still be rekeyed but it will cost slightly more as it will take longer to perform the rekey. Expect around $8 additional.
Price Details When a Locksmith Goes to Your Location
For larger jobs with more doors and cylinders to be changed (or if you just aren’t comfortable or willing to do a little of the work), it will be worth your time and money to hire a locksmith to come out to your location.
If you have a locksmith come out to your home, you start to save money at roughly 4 locks. That is, you will need to have at least 4 locks rekeyed before it is cheaper to rekey than to replace. However, you do have the added value of having a local locksmith take care of everything and ensure everything is functioning properly even if the price is comparable. After 4 locks, it’s less expensive to rekey the home.
The cost of a trip charge to get a locksmith to your home to perform the rekey will be around $90-125, depending on where you live. The cost to rekey each lock at your location will be about $25 per cylinder, plus the trip charge. It is more expensive to rekey a lock at your location because the locksmith is doing the removal and replacement of the hardware.
Arizona Locksmiths charge 5% less than the national average as our cost of living is lower than many other states.
There are also some circumstances when the costs will be a little higher. For instance, if you don’t have a working key for a door lock, all is not lost – locksmiths can still rekey them, but they will have to pick the lock open to pull the cylinder. When you don’t have the current key the cost to rekey the lock will have a surcharge of about $8.
House Rekey Cost Variables
You may also have specialty hardware if you live in an upscale home; things like profile cylinders (which take a longer time to rekey due to how they are built) or some homes have complex 3 – point lock systems that are a bit more time consuming in getting the cylinders out for a rekey.
You may have a high-security lock system in place. If you have high-security locks in the home, you will know it. The keys won’t look like any other you have ever had. These lock systems often have more internal moving parts which are retooled in the rekey, and the keys themselves are usually more expensive. These are great for security, but the trade-off is a higher price for the key blanks.
Each of these scenarios will add a moderate cost increase to your rekey, but most homes we go out to have the most common brands (Schlage, Kwikset, Yale, Baldwin are all popular), and these are fairly standard at the basic prices we’ve listed above.
Rekeying a Kwikset SmartKey Lock – Special Case
One other note – newer Kwikset residential products (and, by licensing agreement, some newer Baldwin products) have a different kind of cylinder system using wafer technology instead of pins, called a ‘SmartKey’. You can recognize this by the addition of a second small hole next to the keyhole.
One of the added benefits to this system is that the homeowner can rekey their own Smartkey locks for $0 (so long as you still have the current working key and a small tool provided by Kwikset).
Instructions for how to rekey SmartKey locks and Smartkey Rekey Kits are available on our website.
However, if you have a Kwikset Smartkey lock without the existing key it is very labor intensive to rekey the lock. It requires a special reset cradle and a lot of time. In some cases, it’s less to just replace this lock if you don’t have the keys. To rekey a Kwikset Smartkey lock rekeyed without the existing key, you can expect to pay about $30.
The Cost to Rekey Other Common Locks Around the Home
Padlocks by several manufacturers like Master Lock, American Lock, and ABUS can also come in rekeyable keyways. If you buy, or have the right product, these can be rekeyed to match your house key. These are great when you don’t want to track additional keys, such as with a side gate or shed.
You can pick up a rekeyable ABUS padlock on Amazon for a great price. Just order the keyway that matches your house key. Take it into your local locksmith shop and they will rekey it to match your house key. Or, even better, support your local locksmith and they will get you all set with a padlock that works with your home key in one stop.
The cost to rekey padlocks is usually the same as any other lock cylinder. Your local locksmith shop can help you get the right padlock or rekey an existing one.
The Cost to Rekey Mailbox Locks:
If You’ve Just Moved In, Have the Mailbox Rekeyed Too
Many community mailbox banks have locks that are the responsibility of the homeowner (you can verify if this is the case with your local post office). These locks typically aren’t made to be rekeyed, but they can be replaced easily enough.
While a locksmith is at your house performing a rekey, have them rekey the mailbox too. The cost (lock and labor) to rekey/replace the mailbox lock is around $40. Plus the trip charge if the locksmith is not already out onsite.
For this price, the locksmith will drill out the mailbox lock (when you don’t have a key) and replace the lock with a new lock. If you can get the postman to open the box for you, just remove the lock and take it to a local locksmith shop. They will have the replacement lock on hand. It is best to bring them the lock because there are a few types and the locksmith will want to match it.
In some communities, however, there may be proprietary locks that may not be able to be addressed with a locksmith (you would go instead to a home or community association or the post office to address these).
FAQ
When to Rekey Locks
Rekeying Locks vs Buying Locks – Which Cost Less
In almost all cases, rekeying costs less than replacing the locks.
How Much Does it Cost to Rekey One Lock?
Can I Rekey My Own Locks
Yes, in some cases. The Kwikset Smart key product can be easily rekeyed by anyone, but there are some things you must have in order to do it.
More of Our Favorite Security Products
See our Amazon Store for Videos and Links to All of Our Favorite Security Products.
Door Armor: Reinforce your doors. This video on YouTube shows the installation of Door Armor, and you can buy this or similar products from Amazon at a great price.
Video Doorbells: This video doorbell offers great images and video and has NO monthly video storage fees. Watch our SkyBell Video Doorbell Review on YouTube and buy it on Amazon.
Smart Locks: Access Your Locks via Smart Phone. You’ll find some of our favorite smart locks that allow you to control home access and monitor entry in our Amazon Smart Lock Shop. Watch our Smart Lock Comparison Video on YouTube for reviews of the most popular Smart Locks.
High-Security Safes: When you want a safe that is designed to protect the valuables you put inside, you want a high-security safe found on ACME Locksmith’s Safes for Sale website.
Sliding Glass Door Lock: The best Arcadia door lock that stops your sliding glass door from being lifted out of its tracks and prevents little ones from opening the door and leaving the home. Check out the video on YouTube and Buy it on our website.
Disclosure: As an eBay / Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases.
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