House Rekey in Irvine: Every Door Accounted For

House Rekey in Irvine: what to expect

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 Irvine, we walk through that list with you, so the only way into your house is the way you intend.

How we can help in Irvine

• Front entry deadbolt and handleset. Most visitors only see the front door, and most keys out in the world were made for it. That makes it the first lock we rekey and the one we test hardest: inside and out, door open and shut, every new key. We also check that the strike plate screws bite into framing, not just the door jamb.
• Garage-to-house door. This door is often solid-core or fire-rated with a self-closer, which is why we rekey rather than replace it whenever the hardware is sound. If it has only a knob, adding a deadbolt keyed to the rest of the house is a common upgrade. We make sure it still closes and latches on its own afterward.
• Back, patio and French doors. Patio doors raise the most questions during a house rekey. A standard slider latch isn't keyed, so there's nothing to rekey, but a secondary lock or a sturdy bar in the track matters more than most people think. French doors with a keyed handleset join the house key like any other door.
• Side gates and yard padlocks. Side gates hold back pets and guard the route to your back door. Padlocks can sometimes join the house key if they have rekeyable cylinders; laminated hardware-store padlocks usually get replaced. Keyed gate latches can often be re-pinned. We'll sort through them as part of the house rekey.
• Older-house and mortise locks. Many mid-century houses in Irvine 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 Irvine

Townhomes with their own street entrance count as houses for this purpose, but shared walls and common areas change the plan. Your front door, garage entry and any private patio gate are yours to rekey in Irvine. The building's shared entry, garage gate and mail room usually belong to the association. Check your CC&Rs before swapping exterior hardware, because some specify handleset styles. A rekey keeps the original hardware in place, which sidesteps most of those rules.

A house built in the last twenty years usually has one brand on every door, often Kwikset SmartKey or Schlage, which makes a house rekey in Irvine quick and easy to key alike. The question is who had access while the house was finished: framers, painters, flooring crews, warranty staff and the listing agent. If you were the first owner, rekey before you finish moving in, and reset the garage opener and keypad the builder installed.

Behind a community gate, the house itself is still your responsibility. A house rekey in Irvine covers your front door, garage entry, side gate and patio doors, but not the guard gate, clubhouse or mailbox cluster, which the association controls. Check your rules before changing exterior hardware that shows from the street, since some associations specify handleset finishes. Gate remotes and visitor codes live outside the key system, so they need clearing separately through the association.

Situations this covers

• Imagine a house near William R. Mason Regional Park 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.
• A typical call: an adult son moves out of his parents' house and takes his key and a garage remote with him, with no hard feelings, but the parents would rather start fresh. We rekey the front, back and garage entry doors, cut new keys for the household, and help clear the opener's memory so the old remote no longer lifts the door.
• Picture a 1930s Spanish-style house in Westpark with its original mortise lock on the arched front door. The cylinder on the outside is threaded into the lock body and can be re-pinned, so the door keeps its character. The interior skeleton-key locks don't matter for security, and the back door gets a modern deadbolt keyed to the front cylinder.
• Picture a 2006 two-story off Culver Drive 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. Verification is quick when the papers are ready. Keep your ID and one document tying you to the address near the front door. If the house is newly purchased and your license still shows an old address, escrow or closing documents with your name on them do the job.
3. Walk-through and label every door. When we arrive, we walk the house with you and confirm every opening on the list. This is where the forgotten locks surface: a screen door, a padlock behind a trash can, a door from the garage into a side yard. Each one gets a label on the work order and a line on the quote.
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 work through the house in a logical order, usually front door, garage entry, back doors, then gates and outbuildings. Keys are cut to code on our machine and checked in every lock they should open. Anything unexpected, such as a seized cylinder, is explained and quoted before we continue.
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

• Age and condition of the locks. Condition is the factor you can't see from a photo. A lock that looks fine can hide a cracked plug or a loose tailpiece. We tell you what we find once each lock is open, and any repair or replacement is a separate line you approve, not a surprise on the final bill.
• Separate key zones. Zones change the key count more than the pinning work. A main house key plus a separate casita key means two sets of keys to cut and track. If an owner needs a key that opens both, ask about it; on some hardware that requires master pins, which takes more planning.
• Missing keys and stuck cylinders. Stuck locks are common on rarely used doors such as garage side doors and back gates. Freeing them up takes time and sometimes reveals a cylinder that's past saving. You'll get a clear explanation and a price before we go further, so the house rekey never turns into an open-ended bill.

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 Irvine.

What not to do

• Putting the new spare key back under the same rock. If old keys were a concern, the hiding place was probably part of the problem. Give the spare to someone you trust, or use a keypad, rather than hiding a fresh key where everyone already knows to look.
• Leaving the screen doors and gate padlocks on old keys because they're "just the outer layer." They still control access to the doors behind them and the backyard. If a former key holder can open the screen or the gate, the house rekey left a gap.
• Forgetting codes and remotes. A rekey doesn't touch the garage opener, the garage keypad, smart lock codes or the alarm. Former residents and helpers who knew those codes can still get in until you clear the opener's memory and change every code.

Advice before you book

• Leave address tags off key rings, especially kids' keys. A key with a tag or a school ID showing your street is a key that leads straight back to your house. Use a colored key cap or a distinctive ring so family members can tell the house key from the rest.
• 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.
• Clear your garage door opener's memory after any rekey prompted by keys that walked away. On most openers you hold the Learn button on the motor unit until its light goes out, then re-pair the remotes you're keeping. Change the outdoor keypad code at the same time.
• Treat the garage-to-house door as an exterior door. Anyone with an old remote or a known keypad code can reach it, so lock it at night and when you're away, and include it in the house rekey. If it has only a knob, ask about adding a deadbolt keyed to match.

Reaching Irvine

Irvine is about 58 miles from our San Bernardino base, roughly 62 minutes in light traffic via I-215 South to SR-91 West in Riverside, SR-91 West through Corona and Santa Ana Canyon. When you call, you get an arrival estimate based on where the technician is and the traffic at that moment.

Our path into Irvine depends on where the previous job wrapped up. Sometimes that's a straight run via I-5; other times it's surface streets the whole way. Either way, you get a heads-up call when the technician is close.

About Irvine: The University of California, Irvine, opened in 1965 on ranch land provided by the Irvine Company, and the surrounding city was planned around the campus.

Planning a rekey in Irvine?

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.