Non-destructive entry first, always - and we re-key Schlage, Kwikset, and Baldwin locks on the spot while you watch
You get a price before we start. It does not change when we arrive. No surprises.
Fast, Reliable Rekey Locks Across San Francisco
Rekeying a lock in San Francisco typically costs $85 – $160 per cylinder for a standard Schlage or Kwikset deadbolt, and a full house or apartment rekey usually runs $120 – $260 when multiple locks are done in one visit. Our San Francisco Commercial Locksmith team completes most rekey jobs in under an hour, with a written price agreed before any work starts. If you’ve just taken possession of a new place in the Richmond, the Mission, or Noe Valley and you don’t know who else has a key, call (956) 275-7388. A live person answers 24 hours a day.
We know San Francisco’s housing stock: Victorian flats with original mortise locks, 1950s apartment buildings with mixed hardware, newer condo buildings with standardized Schlage deadbolts. Rekeying means changing the internal pins inside an existing lock so old keys stop working. You keep the hardware. You get new keys. The lock itself doesn’t need to be replaced, which matters when you’re dealing with a vintage door and trim that would be expensive or impossible to match.
Why Ridley Locksmith & Security Is San Francisco’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company
Ridley Locksmith & Security has been part of the Garrison Partners family since 2007, operating to The Garrison Standard. That’s not a slogan. It’s a written code every technician follows: background-checked, uniformed, dispatched in marked vans, with a written price delivered before the first tool comes out. Our Rekey Locks team works the same way in San Francisco as we do everywhere else. No subcontractors. No unmarked vehicles. No tech you haven’t been told about in advance.
San Francisco property managers call us because they know exactly who’s coming through the door. The person we dispatch is the person on the phone record. Drew Kowalski, who leads our San Francisco Bay Area operations, holds every job to the Garrison Code: if the work isn’t right within one full year, we come back and make it right at no charge. That’s the 365-Day Done Right Promise, and it’s a written guarantee on every repair, not a verbal handshake.
We’re trained on the full spectrum of lock hardware: Schlage, Kwikset, Yale, and Baldwin for everyday residential work, plus Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, and Abloy for high-security cylinders. A Victorian flat in the Mission with a 1920s mortise lock is as familiar to us as a new condo in Mission Bay with builder-grade hardware. That range matters in San Francisco, where buildings routinely mix vintage and modern keyways on the same door.
Rekey Deadbolt in San Francisco
Rekey Deadbolt work in San Francisco means resetting the pin stack inside your existing deadbolt cylinder so old keys no longer turn it, leaving the deadbolt itself in place. Most San Francisco deadbolts on single-family homes in the Sunset or Richmond are Schlage or Kwikset, and rekeying one runs $85 – $130. High-security deadbolts such as Medeco or Mul-T-Lock cost more because the cylinders and pins are proprietary, usually $150 – $225 per cylinder.
When You Need a Deadbolt Rekey
If you’ve moved into a new place and the previous owner or tenant’s keys are unaccounted for, rekey the deadbolt before you sleep there. That’s the single most common call we get from new San Francisco homeowners. Rekeying is faster and cheaper than replacing a deadbolt, and it preserves the finish and fit of the original hardware.
Deadbolts on Older San Francisco Doors
Many San Francisco deadbolts sit on doors that have shifted over decades. If the deadbolt doesn’t throw cleanly, the problem might be alignment rather than the cylinder. Our techs check the strike plate and door alignment before and after rekeying, because a perfectly rekeyed cylinder still won’t work properly if the door has sagged out of square.
Rekey House in San Francisco
Rekey House service in San Francisco covers every exterior lock on the property: front door, back door, garage entry, and any side gate or storage door. For a typical San Francisco home with two or three exterior locks, the job runs $120 – $260 and takes under an hour. We key all locks to the same new key, so one key opens everything, unless you want separate keys for different entries, which we can also do.
Batch Rekeys for Rental Properties
San Francisco’s rent-controlled and high-turnover rental stock means a single Victorian flat can pass through three sets of tenants in two years. Property managers here routinely schedule batch rekeys between the 1st and 5th of the month rather than one-off lock changes. Landlords statewide must rekey or change locks at the start of a new tenancy, but no new keys may be handed out until the prior tenant’s keys are accounted for. We schedule these batch jobs efficiently and price them per cylinder, with the full written price delivered before we start.
Mixed Hardware on a Single House
We see houses where the front door is a modern Schlage deadbolt, the back door is an older Kwikset, and the garage has a completely different brand. All of them can be keyed alike in one visit. We stock pins and cylinders for the standard residential brands and can rekey all of them to one key without replacing any hardware.
Trusted Brands We Service in San Francisco
We rekey and service Schlage, Kwikset repair in San Francisco, Medeco, and Abloy hardware on San Francisco doors every week. Because we keep common Schlage and Kwikset pin kits and cylinders stocked in our service vehicles, most rekey jobs are done in one visit, same day. For high-security lines like Medeco and Abloy, we order proprietary pins and cylinders directly, which adds a day or two if we don’t already have the part on hand. The written price still comes before work starts, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise applies to every brand we touch.
Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in San Francisco Homes
- Mortise locks with mismatched keyways: Many Victorian and Edwardian buildings in the Mission, Noe Valley, and Pacific Heights still have original mortise lock bodies that someone fitted with a modern cylinder decades ago. If the pin kit used doesn’t match the keyway, the old key keeps working after a rekey. We identify the keyway before touching the cylinder.
- Prior tenant keys still in circulation: San Francisco rentals change hands constantly, and failing to account for every prior key before issuing new ones is the most common landlord complaint we hear. We verify key counts with the property manager and rekey only after the handoff is confirmed.
- Deadbolts that don’t throw after the door settles: Older San Francisco homes shift. Rekeying won’t fix a misaligned strike plate, and a cylinder that works fine on the bench can bind in a warped door. We check alignment during every rekey and adjust the strike if needed.
- Dispatch bait-and-switch from phone-quote shops: San Francisco’s dense rental market creates pressure to get a cheap phone quote, then have the price change once the van is in the driveway. We give the written price before dispatch and it doesn’t move on site.
Pricing for Rekey Locks in San Francisco, CA
A single deadbolt rekey in San Francisco runs $85 – $130 for standard Schlage or Kwikset hardware. A full house rekey with two to three locks runs $120 – $260. High-security cylinders from Medeco or Abloy run $150 – $225 per cylinder. These are the ranges we quote on the phone, and the written price we give before dispatch is the price on the invoice. No call-out surcharge added on arrival. No teaser rate that jumps when the tech shows up.
What affects cost: the number of cylinders, whether the keyway is standard or high-security, and whether we need to source proprietary pins. Call (956) 275-7388 and we’ll quote the job in dollars before anyone is dispatched.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Francisco
We handle rekey jobs throughout San Francisco and the surrounding cities, including Daly City, Brisbane, Sausalito, and South San Francisco. Same-day scheduling is available in most cases, and the written price applies wherever the job is.
Serving San Francisco, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Francisco area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Rekey Locks in San Francisco
The tech arrives in a marked Ridley van, wearing a uniform, with a name you were given when the job was scheduled. Every technician is background-checked and dispatched directly by us, not through a call center. Call (956) 275-7388 and a live person confirms the tech’s name before they arrive.
In almost every case, it can be rekeyed. Rekeying changes the internal pins so old keys stop working, while the hardware stays in place, which matters for San Francisco doors with vintage trim or non-standard mortise lock bodies. Replacement is only necessary if the lock is damaged or you want a different finish or grade of hardware.
We can rekey the mortise cylinder in place. Most San Francisco mortise locks from the 1920s through the 1950s can accept a modern cylinder rekey, and we do it without replacing the lock body or the door. If the mortise body itself is worn out, we’ll tell you and quote a replacement cylinder before any work starts.
Thirty to forty-five minutes for a typical flat with a deadbolt and a doorknob or mortise lock. If the building has multiple locks or unusual keyways, it can take up to an hour. The written price we quote before dispatch doesn’t change if the job takes longer than expected.
Rekeying is enough for a standard turnover. If you want bump-resistant protection, we can install high-security cylinders from Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, or Abloy, which use restricted keyways and additional pin mechanisms. For most San Francisco rentals, a clean rekey done properly is the right first step. Call (956) 275-7388 for an exact quote, free.
Written by Drew Kowalski, Owner at Ridley Locksmith & Security, serving San Francisco since 2007.







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