Rekeying Your House in Ontario: What a Full Rekey Covers

What to know first in Ontario

The age of a house shapes its rekey. Homes from the 1920s through the 1940s may still have mortise locks, some of them warded skeleton-key locks that can't be rekeyed in any meaningful way and are better retired in favor of a proper deadbolt. Mid-century ranch houses often have early Schlage knobs that still rekey well, if paint and grime haven't sealed the trim. Tract homes from the 1970s through the 1990s tend to mix brands, Kwikset, Schlage, Weiser and Weslock, so keying the house alike may mean swapping a cylinder or two to a common keyway. Houses built since 2000 usually arrive with builder-grade Kwikset SmartKey or Schlage locks on matching keys, which makes a house rekey quick. Custom homes may have Baldwin or Emtek handlesets whose decorative trim needs careful removal. Telling us when your house was built, and roughly what's on the doors, helps us bring the right pins and the right replacement cylinders to Ontario.

What we can do on-site

• 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. Original hardware on a vintage house is worth keeping when it works. We take extra care with painted-over trim, aged set screws and brittle parts, rekey the cylinders that can be rekeyed, and tell you honestly which locks offer little real security, so you can decide whether to upgrade them or simply add a deadbolt.
• Keypads, smart locks and garage codes. A Kwikset Halo, Schlage Encode or Yale Assure with a key cylinder gets re-pinned like any deadbolt, and retrofit locks such as August or Level keep your existing deadbolt cylinder, which we rekey normally. The codes and app users are separate, and we'll help you clear them during the house rekey.
• Household key plan and spares. Keep the key plan simple: one main house key, a separate casita or workshop key if needed, and a written list of who holds each. We'll cut and test every key during the visit. Keys for children can go on distinctive rings, without address tags, so a lost one doesn't point back to the house.

How Ontario shapes the job

Inland sun is hard on exterior hardware, and a house rekey in Ontario is a good chance to see how yours has aged. West-facing doors and side-gate padlocks bake, finishes crack, lubricant dries and cylinders stiffen. We clean and relubricate with a dry graphite or PTFE product instead of oil, which collects dust. Electronic locks have their own heat problem: batteries wear out sooner, so we check them and suggest replacing them before they fail.

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 Ontario 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.

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.

Example situations

• Picture a 2006 two-story off I-10 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.
• For example, an executor handling a late parent's house books a rekey before the cleanout crew starts. She brings ID and the court's letters showing her authority. Several relatives, a caregiver and a neighbor had keys over the years. We rekey every exterior lock, cut keys for the executor and the cleanout company, and note which doors share a key for the eventual buyer.
• 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.
• For example, owners who rented their house out for six years are moving back in. Several sets of tenants, a property manager and maintenance vendors all had keys. We rekey every exterior lock, the side gate padlock and the garage entry door, help them reset the garage opener, and suggest swapping the worn back door deadbolt for a new one keyed to match.

From your call to the finished job

1. Walk your house before you call. Pull out every key you own and try each one in each lock during your walk. You'll learn which doors share a key already, which locks have no working key, and whether a mystery key opens something you forgot. Share that with us when you call (951) 903-3193.
2. Gather proof the house is yours. Someone else meeting us? A spouse or co-owner on title can show their own ID with proof of ownership. If a relative or property manager is meeting us instead, send written authorization ahead of time and have them bring their ID. We'll tell you exactly what's needed when you book.
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. One key for the whole house is the most common choice, and it's usually possible with a cylinder change or two. A second key makes sense where a tenant, a home business or valuable tools are involved. We write the plan on the work order so it's clear what was keyed to what.
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. The final step is about everything without a keyhole. Garage remotes, keypad codes, alarm codes, smart lock users and lockboxes can all outlast the old keys. We go through them with you so the house rekey actually closes every way in, not just the ones a key operates.

Pricing factors

• Hardware mix built up over the years. A key only fits locks that share a keyway, so a mixed house costs a little more to put on one key than a house built with matching hardware. Some locks accept a new cylinder in another keyway; others are cheaper to replace outright. We'll show you both options for each odd lock.
• Age and condition of the locks. Older locks can take longer. Paint-sealed trim, corroded screws and gritty cylinders slow disassembly, and worn pins sometimes need replacing beyond the usual set. If a lock is too far gone to rekey sensibly, we'll recommend a replacement and price it before touching it.
• Extras around the property. Gates and outbuildings vary widely. Some padlocks have removable cores that re-pin easily; some gate latches use standard cylinders; others are better swapped for a weather-resistant lock. We'll give you a line-by-line price for every extra, so the decision stays with you.

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 Ontario.

What to do before we arrive

• 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.
• 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.
• Photograph every lock face on your house before you call, front and back. The brand name stamped on the cylinder or the key bow tells us the keyway, and the photos let us bring the right parts, especially for an older house with a mix of locks from different decades.
• Think about sliders while you're focused on locks. A standard sliding door latch isn't keyed, so a house rekey won't touch it, but a secondary pin lock or a bar in the track adds real protection. It's an inexpensive fix to handle the same week as the rekey.

Common errors that cost time and money

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Getting to Ontario

Ontario is about 25 miles from our San Bernardino base, roughly 33 minutes in light traffic via I-215 North to the I-15 junction at Devore. When you call, you get an arrival estimate based on where the technician is and the traffic at that moment.

Homes and businesses just off SR-60 are routine stops for us. Give the suite or unit number and any gate instructions, and say whether the van can park out front or should pull into a side lot.

About Ontario: Euclid Avenue, the Chaffeys' divided boulevard with a wide grassy median, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 from Philadelphia Street in Ontario north to 24th Street in Upland.

Planning a rekey in Ontario?

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.