What’s the difference between rekeying and replacing a lock?

Rekeying keeps your existing lock and changes its brain: a locksmith re-pins the cylinder so a new key operates it and every old key stops working. Replacing swaps the whole assembly for new hardware. Rekeying costs $20 to $35 per cylinder around here; replacement costs whatever the new hardware costs plus installation, easily five to ten times as much across a whole house. The security against old keys is identical, because old keys die either way.

Just moved in? Rekey.

This is the clearest case. The locks on a just-bought house are usually fine; the key situation is not. Copies exist you’ll never account for: sellers’ kids, a house cleaner, the neighbor from the years the owners wintered in Florida. Rekeying zeroes all of it in one visit, and every door gets keyed to a single new key while the pro is there.

The same logic covers a new rental, an inherited place out toward Douglas or Geraldine that half the family has keys to, and the roommate or ex who moved out but whose key didn’t.

Lost your keys? Rekey, today rather than this weekend.

A lost keyring with anything identifying on it, a tag, a fob for your own gym, is an address and a front-door key traveling together. Rekeying beats replacing here on speed as much as cost: a locksmith re-pins your existing doors in one short visit, and the lost key becomes a souvenir. What you’re buying is the calendar date, so book it like it matters. Our residential page covers how the visit goes.

After a break-in? Replace what broke, rekey the rest.

A kicked door usually kills the frame and strike before it kills the lock. The right repair is often a new deadbolt where the damage is, a reinforced strike plate with screws that reach the stud, and a rekey of every other door so the whole house moves to one fresh key. Replacing every lock in the house after a break-in is mostly fear spending; put that money into the frame-side hardware, which is what actually failed.

Hardware worn out or ugly? That’s the real replacement case.

Replace when the metal itself is the problem:

  • Keys stick in summer and freeze in January no matter the graphite
  • The knob spins or the bolt needs a hip against the door to throw
  • Builder-grade brass from 1987 that’s flaking through its finish
  • You want an upgrade: a smart lock, a keypad, or matching hardware after a repaint

Worn cylinders can sometimes be serviced instead, sticky locks on settled doors around Albertville are often a strike alignment fix, not a lock at all, so it’s worth a diagnosis before a shopping trip. Prices for both paths sit on the price page.

The one-visit version

Whatever the situation, the efficient move is one call, one visit, every door handled together: rekeys keyed alike, dead hardware swapped, the strike plates tightened while the tools are out. Piecemeal lock work is how a house ends up with four keys and three finishes.