Keyed Alike Locks in Redlands: How They Work and How to Get Them

Keyed Alike Locks in Redlands: what to expect

The word 'alike' hides a decision, because very few households want every lock on one key. Take a typical house: a front deadbolt, a back-door deadbolt, a garage entry knob, a side-gate padlock, a shed padlock and a casita door. Keying all six alike gives you one key and the widest exposure. Keying them in groups is usually smarter: front, back and garage entry alike for the family, the gate and shed alike for the gardener and pool service, and the casita on its own key for a renter or relative. On key charts this shows up as alike-by-group, with symbols like AA for one group and AB for the next. Add a master key, which opens every group while each group keeps its own key, and you have a small master key system. In Redlands we plan the groups with you before pinning anything, because it's much easier to decide on paper than to re-pin a second time.

Work included on a typical visit

• Rekeying locks you've just bought. Bought two or three deadbolts that each came with their own key? Don't swap them out. We pin the extra cylinders to match the first one, or to a fresh combination for all of them, so the set becomes keyed alike right at your door in Redlands. We test every key in every lock before the old keys go in a drawer.
• Matching existing locks to a key you already carry. Your front door key is the one you actually use, so we make it the pattern for the group. We read its cuts, then re-pin the back door, garage entry and any other same-keyway locks to match. Nothing is replaced, nothing is drilled, and the locks you've already paid for keep working.
• Alike by group, different between groups. Most Redlands households want a short list of keys, not a single one. We pin the family's daily doors to Key A and the shared spaces to Key B, so a dog walker or gardener never touches the house. We label both sets and write down which locks belong to which group.
• Shops, offices and back-of-house doors. Small businesses usually want two tiers: staff keys that open the working doors, and an owner's key that opens everything. That is a master key system in miniature. We'll show you how adding a master level changes the security profile before you commit, then document the keying so future locks join cleanly.
• Smart locks, keypads and backup cylinders. Kwikset SmartKey deadbolts reset themselves with a learn tool, so a whole set can be taught the same key without taking anything apart. We'll set up a group of them, but note that a SmartKey cylinder and a conventional pin cylinder don't usually share a key, even from the same maker.

How Redlands shapes the job

Near campuses in Redlands, shared student houses suit keyed alike exterior doors so every roommate carries one key. They also turn over every year, and each returning or departing key becomes a copy at large. We re-pin the exterior doors to a new combination each lease cycle, which keeps the one-key convenience without letting last year's tenants in. If a house adds or loses a roommate mid-lease, one short visit resets the whole group.

Family homes in Redlands usually have a front door, back door, garage entry and side gate, and a household of people with different needs. Keyed alike on the daily doors makes life easy for school bags and busy pockets. A separate key for the garage tool cabinet or the shed keeps small hands and visiting contractors away from what shouldn't be touched.

Older Redlands homes carry a lifetime of replaced hardware: a mortise set at the front from the 1950s, a deadbolt added in the nineties, a brass knob at the back. Their keyways rarely match, so the first job is mapping them. We re-pin what shares a keyway to one bitting, swap a cylinder where an old mortise body can take a modern one, and replace the oddballs, keeping original handles wherever we can.

Common situations

• A buyer closes on a newly built house near San Bernardino County Museum. The front deadbolt and handleset share a key, the back slider and garage entry use two others, and the builder's crews carried copies of all three. We re-pin all four cylinders to one new combination, take the construction keys out of play, and cut the family three new keys, so nobody from the build crew can still walk in.
• An older couple in a 55-plus community in Redlands fumble with a ring of five similar keys. We pin their front, patio and garage locks to a single large-head key and put the storage unit on a separate one. Arthritic hands notice the difference: the key is easier to find, and there are fewer keys on the ring.
• The owner of a small retail shop in Redlands carries five keys for three doors and a cash room. We key the front, back and stockroom alike, put the office and cash room on a second key, and tag each set with a code. Opening shifts get one key, the owner keeps the second, and a former manager's stockroom key stops working.
• A host with a short-term rental wants guests to have one key for the front and patio doors, and nothing else. The owner's storage closet and the side-yard gate get a second key that stays with the host and the cleaner. We pin both groups, cut spare guest keys and show the host how to track them between stays.

From your call to the finished job

1. Tell us what you have and what you want alike. Call (951) 903-3193 and list your locks: deadbolts, knobs, handlesets, padlocks, anything with a keyhole. Photos of each lock's edge and brand name help. Tell us which ones should share a key and which should stay separate. We use that to quote the job and bring the right pins and blanks.
2. Confirm you're authorized. Under California's Locksmith Act, a locksmith is expected to know who they're working for. We'll ask for photo ID and proof of residence or ownership, and for rentals, landlord approval if you're the tenant. It takes a minute. Our license, LCO7891, can be checked at search.dca.ca.gov before we arrive.
3. Choose the grouping and the key. This is where the plan gets drawn. Family doors in one group, shared spaces in another, maybe a master key over both. We sketch it on paper, name the keys A, B and so on, and confirm the quote. Changing this later means re-pinning, so it's worth five minutes now.
4. Re-pin or match each cylinder. Knobs, deadbolts and handlesets each come apart differently, but the principle is the same: expose the plug, swap the pins, reassemble. We work over a cloth-covered tray so nothing rolls into the grass. Padlocks and gate locks get the same treatment, or a same-make replacement when they won't open up.
5. Test every key in every lock. A keyed alike job has one pass-fail test: the same key must turn every lock smoothly. We run it a dozen turns per lock, in both directions, and try the spare keys too. Locks that bind get a dry lubricant, a screw tightening or a strike adjustment.
6. Label, cut spares and record the key. Keys are cut to code, checked in every lock and handed over with a simple record. Store the record away from the keys. If a key is lost, the whole group can be re-pinned in one visit, since every cylinder in it follows the same bitting.

Pricing factors

• Brand and keyway compatibility. Schlage, Kwikset, Yale and others each use their own keyways, and some carry several, though sister brands sometimes share one. Matching inside one family is simple. Crossing families means replacing hardware, which is why a plan priced from a phone description sometimes changes at the door. We try to catch those cases from photos.
• Groups and master levels. The grouping you pick shapes the quote more than people expect. A household with two groups and no master is a modest job. A rental building with units, common areas and a manager's master is a small system. We quote by structure, then by cylinder count, so there are no surprises.
• Hardware condition, access and timing. Stiff, corroded or loose cylinders take longer to rekey than clean ones, and some can't be re-pinned reliably. We assess condition at the door; if replacement is smarter, we say so and quote it separately. Easy access to every door keeps the visit short.

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 Redlands.

Practical tips before you call

• Decide your zones first. Keep the doors your household uses every day alike, and put anything a cleaner, contractor, tenant or pool service can reach on its own key. Zoning costs almost nothing at the planning stage and is expensive to undo later, so spend five minutes on paper before pinning anything.
• Match padlock sets by model, not just by brand. Different models from the same maker often use different keyways, so two padlocks can carry the same name and still not share a key. Buy the set as sold, or ask us to match them before you commit to a pile of mismatched ones.
• Test the key in every lock before you install anything. Unbox the new locks, slide the key into each one and turn it, making sure the bolt throws and retracts. A defective cylinder or a mixed-up pack is far easier to exchange before the door has been drilled and painted.
• Ask what rekeying will do to old copies. If we match your locks to an existing key, every old duplicate still works. If we choose a new combination, those copies become useless. After a breakup, a move or a tenant change, the second option is almost always the right call.

Mistakes to avoid

• Matching new locks to an old key without asking who has copies. The key that opened the house for ten years may also sit in a former roommate's drawer. If copies are unaccounted for, keying alike to that key preserves the exact problem you're trying to avoid.
• Putting everything on one key, including areas other people reach. A cleaner, contractor or tenant with access to the shed and the pool gate shouldn't also open your front door. Zone the property, then key alike inside each zone rather than across the whole place.
• Assuming any two locks from the same brand can be keyed alike. Keyways vary within a brand, and Kwikset SmartKey and conventional Kwikset cylinders don't share keys. Check the keyway first, or have us identify it, before you buy a second lock expecting it to join the first.

Getting to Redlands

Redlands is about 19 miles from our San Bernardino base, roughly 25 minutes in light traffic via Belmont Ave and Palm Ave to I-215 South. When you call, you get an arrival estimate based on where the technician is and the traffic at that moment.

Traffic matters more than mileage. We check conditions on SR-210 and its connecting routes before quoting you a time, and we don't pretend a long drive through heavy congestion is a short one.

About Redlands: The A.K. Smiley Public Library opened in a Moorish-style building in 1898, and the Lincoln Memorial Shrine stands on the grounds behind it.

Planning a rekey in Redlands?

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.