Rekeying Your House in Fullerton: What a Full Rekey Covers

What to know first in Fullerton

It helps to know what a house rekey leaves untouched. It changes the pins in mechanical cylinders, and that's all. Your garage door opener still responds to every remote ever paired with it until someone clears its memory, usually by holding the Learn button on the motor unit until its light goes out, then re-pairing the remotes you keep. The keypad beside the garage keeps its old code until you change it. Smart locks keep their user codes and app users. Alarm codes, a lockbox left by an agent or contractor, and a spare hidden under a planter all survive too. A mailbox on a cluster box may belong to the Postal Service, in which case the lock change goes through the post office. When we finish a house rekey in Fullerton, we walk through that list with you, so the only way into your house is the way you intend.

How we can help in Fullerton

• Garage-to-house door. The door from the garage into the house is the most overlooked lock in a house rekey. Many people leave it unlocked, and anyone with an old garage remote or keypad code can reach it. We rekey its knob and deadbolt to the house key and suggest keeping it locked as an exterior door.
• Security screen and wrought-iron doors. Security screen doors double the cylinders on an entry: one on the screen door, one or two on the door behind it. A house rekey that skips the screen door leaves an old key working on the first barrier. We rekey or replace that lock and make sure the latch still catches against the frame.
• Side gates and yard padlocks. Gate locks take the worst weather on a property. We check the latch, the hasp and the lock, rekey or replace the cylinder, and make sure the gate actually closes without being lifted. If a pool gate is involved, the self-latching hardware needs to keep working; we leave it that way.
• Casitas, ADUs and rented rooms. Rooms rented with their own exterior entrance, a converted garage studio, or a home office with client access can each get a separate key during the house rekey. Rekeying a tenant's unit requires the right notice and paperwork, so plan timing around the lease and any move-out date.
• Older-house and mortise locks. Many mid-century houses in Fullerton still run the knobs they were built with. Older Schlage knobs, for example, rekey well once the grime is cleaned out. Where an old lock's parts are no longer available or its keyway can't match the rest of the house, we'll show you a replacement that suits the door's style.

What's different about Fullerton

Student houses collect keys fast: five roommates, a landlord, subletters, friends, and keys lost at parties. A house rekey in Fullerton when a lease turns over resets all of it. Tenants should get the owner's written okay first, and many owners schedule the rekey between lease terms or when a roommate leaves mid-term. Putting every door on one key keeps the group's key count manageable, and a spare stays with the owner or an agreed contact.

Long commutes leave the house empty from early morning, and a rekey can't happen while you're stuck on the freeway. We start at 6:30 a.m. every day and run until 11:30 p.m., so an early or evening appointment fits around the drive home. If you can't be there all day, a spouse or trusted adult can show ID at the start of the visit, walk the doors with us and approve the quote.

A house from before 1980 has usually had its locks replaced one door at a time, so a house rekey in Fullerton starts by sorting original hardware from later additions. Early Schlage knobs and mortise cylinders often re-pin well once old paint is cleaned off the trim. Warded skeleton-key locks have nothing to rekey and are better backed by a modern deadbolt. Expect at least one door with only a knob, and a screen door or side gate that still opens for a previous owner's key.

Common situations

• Say a homeowner rents the casita behind the house to a long-term tenant. The main house needs rekeying because a former roommate kept a key, but the tenant's unit shouldn't change without notice. We rekey the main house doors and side gate to one key, leave the casita on its own key, and the owner schedules that unit separately with proper notice.
• Imagine a house near Fullerton Municipal Airport with wrought-iron security screen doors at the front and back, each on its own key, plus two keys for the doors behind them. Four keys for two entrances is a lot to juggle. During the house rekey we re-pin the screen door cylinders to the Kwikset keyway the house already uses, and everything runs on one key.
• Say a house sitter spent the summer at the house while the owners traveled, using the back door key and the garage keypad. Everyone parted on good terms, but the owners want a clean slate. The house rekey covers all exterior cylinders, the keypad gets a new code, and the sitter's old key becomes a souvenir instead of a working key.
• Picture a 2006 two-story off Malvern Avenue with builder-grade Kwikset SmartKey on every door. The previous owners left two keys and a garage keypad still set to their code. With a working key, each SmartKey cylinder resets quickly, so the house rekey covers the front, garage entry, garage side door and back door in one short visit, followed by a keypad code change.

From your call to the finished job

1. Walk your house before you call. A slow lap around the house takes a few minutes and saves surprises later. Check the garage-to-house door, the garage side door, any door from a laundry room or family room, and the side gates. Write down what you find and mention anything that sticks, wobbles or has no key at all.
2. Gather proof the house is yours. We confirm you own the house or live there before any lock comes apart. Photo ID with the address works, or ID plus a deed, property tax bill, utility bill or closing papers. Renters need the owner's written consent; executors and trustees bring the court letters or trust paperwork.
3. Walk-through and label every door. The walk-through doubles as a quick security check. We note doors without deadbolts, strikes held by short screws, sliders without a secondary lock and gates that don't latch. None of it is required for the house rekey, but it's good to know while someone experienced is standing at your doors.
4. Settle the key plan. Decide which doors share a key. Most houses go on one key; some keep a casita, workshop or rented room on its own. If brands don't share a keyway, we'll suggest which cylinders to swap so the plan works. Then we agree on how many keys to cut for each zone.
5. Rekey door by door and test. We pull one cylinder at a time, re-pin it to the new combination and put it straight back, so the house is never left with an open door. Each lock is tested with the new key from inside and outside, with the door shut, and the old key is tried so you can watch it fail.
6. Close the routes keys don't cover. We finish with the paperwork and the keys: an invoice listing every lock rekeyed or replaced, our license number LCO7891, and a note of which doors share which key if you'd like one. Hand out the new keys yourself, and keep the list somewhere you'll find it later.

What affects the cost

• Separate key zones. Putting the whole house on one key is the simplest plan. Each additional zone, such as a casita, a rented room or a workshop, needs its own combination and its own set of keys, which adds a little to the total. It's usually worth it wherever a tenant or valuable equipment is involved.
• Extras around the property. The extras are often where old keys linger longest. A screen door on a separate key, a padlock nobody remembers buying, a shed lock from the previous owner. Each one is priced individually, so you can include what matters and skip what you plan to replace yourself.
• Missing keys and stuck cylinders. If the sellers, a former tenant or a relative left you no key for one door, tell us when you call. It changes the approach for that lock and sometimes the parts we bring. Most can be opened and rekeyed without damage; a few are better replaced to match the rest of the house.

Every job gets a clear quote before any work starts. Call (951) 903-3193 with the details and we'll tell you what to expect for your situation in Fullerton.

What to do before we arrive

• Decide what to do with the casita or rented room before the visit. Keying it separately protects a tenant's privacy and your own; keying it to the house is simpler if family uses it. Making the call ahead of time keeps the walk-through short and the quote accurate.
• Before you book, pull every loose key out of drawers, cars and old bags and test them on your doors. You'll often find keys that open something you forgot, like the garage side door. After the house rekey, recycle the old ones so nobody wonders later whether they still work.
• Retire the hidden spare key. Fake rocks, doormats, planters and porch lights are the first places anyone looks. Leave a spare with a trusted neighbor or relative, or install a keypad on one door, so a lost-key evening doesn't require hiding a key outside your house again.
• Give the side gate a real lock plan. A padlock on the old key undermines the whole house rekey. Choose between a rekeyable padlock on the house key, a keyed gate latch, or a combination padlock for gardeners and pool service, and change that combination periodically.

Mistakes to avoid

• Buying matching locks for one door and expecting the house key to fit. Different brands use different keyways, so a new Schlage lever won't take your Kwikset key. Tell your locksmith before buying, or let us supply hardware keyed to the rest of the house.
• Rekeying only the front door. Anyone holding an old key will try the back door, the garage side door or the garage entry next. A house rekey only works when every exterior keyed lock moves to the new key, including the ones that rarely get used.
• Ignoring a door with no deadbolt. A house rekey changes which key opens the knob, but a spring latch on its own can be slipped or forced far more easily than a deadbolt. If any exterior door has only a knob, add a deadbolt keyed to match.

Service in Fullerton

Fullerton is about 55 miles from our San Bernardino base, roughly 60 minutes in light traffic via I-215 South to SR-60 West through Jurupa Valley, Ontario and Chino. When you call, you get an arrival estimate based on where the technician is and the traffic at that moment.

Our path into Fullerton depends on where the previous job wrapped up. Sometimes that's a straight run via SR-57; other times it's surface streets the whole way. Either way, you get a heads-up call when the technician is close.

About Fullerton: Hughes Aircraft's 293-acre Ground Systems Group campus in west Fullerton was redeveloped into the Amerige Heights neighborhood between 2001 and 2004.

Planning a rekey in Fullerton?

Call (951) 903-3193 and tell us how many doors you want on the new key and the brand of the locks if you know it. We'll quote the rekey before any work starts.