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.
Before
AfterFast, Reliable Rekey Locks Across Sleepy Hollow
Rekeying a lock in Sleepy Hollow typically costs $75 – $160 per lock cylinder when done by a licensed locksmith, and most jobs on Butterfield Road or along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard finish in under an hour. A rekey changes the internal pins inside your existing lock so old keys stop working, without replacing the hardware itself. If you’ve just closed on a house, let go of a contractor, or lost track of a spare key, that’s usually the right move. We work throughout Sleepy Hollow and the surrounding Ross Valley, and our written price is set before anyone gets in a van. Call (956) 275-7388 and you’ll get a live person, not a voicemail.
Why Ridley Locksmith & Security Is Sleepy Hollow’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company
Sleepy Hollow homeowners call us because they’ve been quoted one number on the phone and handed a different invoice at the door. That doesn’t happen here. Ridley Locksmith & Security is part of the Garrison Partners family, and every technician operates under The Garrison Standard: a written price before work starts, a uniformed and background-checked tech on the call, and a written guarantee covering the repair for one full year. That guarantee is the 365-Day Done Right Promise. If the rekey fails inside that window, we come back at no charge. No arguing. No fine print.
We also know this town’s doors. Older Sleepy Hollow bungalows carry mortise lock bodies that newer homes replaced years ago, and a tech who’s only seen modern deadbolts will waste your time figuring it out on the porch. Our crews work both ends of that spectrum, from original 1930s hardware to current Schlage and Kwikset keypad deadbolts. That’s why the Rekey Locks job gets scoped per door, not per house. The price you’re quoted before dispatch is the price on the invoice.
Drew Kowalski runs the shop and holds every job to The Garrison Code. If the work isn’t right, the fix isn’t optional.
Rekey Door Lock in Sleepy Hollow
A Rekey Door Lock job in Sleepy Hollow means pulling the cylinder, swapping the pins, and cutting a new key to match. The lock stays in the door. The housing, the trim, the deadbolt throw; none of it changes. What changes is which keys turn the plug. If you moved into a house on Butterfield Road and don’t know how many copies of the old key are floating around, rekeying the entry doors to a fresh key is the fastest way to close that gap. It’s also cheaper than replacing hardware.
Sleepy Hollow’s housing stock runs from original 1920s bungalows to mid-century remodels, and that dictates the work. An original mortise lock body in a 1930s front door can often be re-pinned in place, but a worn cylinder that’s been through eighty years of fog and coastal air sometimes can’t hold new pins cleanly. In that case the fix is a cylinder swap, not a rekey, and the written quote we give before dispatch already accounts for that possibility. You’re not going to get a call from the porch telling you the price just doubled.
Entry door lock rekey
We rekey Schlage, Kwikset, Yale, and Baldwin entry hardware, including keypad deadbolts. The existing keypads keep working; only the key override changes. Most entry door rekeys in Sleepy Hollow run $75 – $120 per cylinder, and the labor covers testing every old key to confirm it no longer turns.
Mortise lock rekey
Original mortise lock bodies need a tech who’s worked on them before. We pull the mortise cylinder, re-pin it, and reinstall it without pulling the lock body out of the door unless the body itself is failing. Mortise rekeys run $95 – $160 per cylinder, and if the cylinder isn’t serviceable, we quote the replacement before doing the work.
Rekey Service in Sleepy Hollow
A Rekey Service in Sleepy Hollow covers more than a single door. That means bringing every exterior lock on the property to one key, or splitting them into a keyed-alike set and a separate deadbolt key if you want layered access. It also covers rekeying after a tenant turnover, a contractor’s key set, or a divorce where you need certainty about who can still get in. The work itself is the same mechanical job, but the scope is the whole house.
The critical difference here is per-door scoping. A 1950s rancher on the flats might have three exterior doors, all modern deadbolts, all rekeyed in 45 minutes. A 1930s house up near the open space might have an original mortise on the front, a Kwikset on the kitchen door, and a Baldwin on the garage entry. Two doors, three hardware generations. We quote per door because that’s the only honest way to price it. A flat per-house number written before anyone has looked at the door is a number that’s going to move. Ours doesn’t.
Whole-home rekey to one key
We rekey every exterior cylinder, including the garage entry and any gate locks, to a single new key. In Sleepy Hollow, expect to pay $85 – $140 per door depending on hardware type, with the written total confirmed on the phone before dispatch.
Keyed-alike vs. keyed-different
Keyed-alike means one key opens everything. Keyed-different means the front door and the back door use separate keys. We’ll explain the trade-offs and price both options before any work starts so you’re deciding with the full picture, not from a panic call.
Trusted Brands We Service in Sleepy Hollow
We rekey and service hardware from every major residential brand, and we keep common Kwikset and Schlage pin kits on the van so a standard Sleepy Hollow rekey doesn’t wait on a parts run. For higher-security locks, our techs are certified on Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, and Baldwin high-security cylinders. If you bought a house in Sleepy Hollow with a Medeco deadbolt on the front door and a mix of Kwikset on the sides, one visit covers all of it. The same tech who rekeys the front door also handles the back. Not a second appointment, not a second trip charge.
Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in Sleepy Hollow Homes
- Mixed hardware generations on one property. A 1930s front door with an original mortise lock and a side door with a modern keypad deadbolt is common here. Quoting per door, not per house, is the only way to give a real price before dispatch, and that’s how we write every Sleepy Hollow quote.
- Coastal air and old cylinders. Fog from the valley and years of temperature swings corrode older lock internals. Sometimes a cylinder that looks fine from the outside can’t be re-pinned cleanly once it’s pulled. We check for this before quoting, and the price you get reflects what we actually find.
- Fog-chilled hardware that’s stiff to turn. On cold, damp mornings, older Sleepy Hollow locks get tight. A rekey that works on the bench can still feel rough in the door if the cylinder wasn’t lubricated and tested properly after the new pins went in. We test every lock in place, with the actual key, before we leave.
- Unknown old key copies still in circulation. When someone has lived in a house for years, the number of spare keys floating around is always higher than they think. Rekeying to one fresh key, with a controlled duplication record, actually closes that hole instead of just making a new key to the same old cylinder.
Pricing for Rekey Locks in Sleepy Hollow, CA
Standard single-cylinder rekeys in Sleepy Hollow run $75 – $140 per lock, depending on hardware brand and cylinder condition. Mortise lock bodies run $95 – $160. A typical three-door exterior rekey on a Sleepy Hollow home lands between $225 and $400, and the written total is confirmed on the phone before we dispatch. There’s no call-out surcharge on arrival, and no “minimum labor” added after the fact. If a cylinder can’t be re-pinned and needs replacement, we quote that replacement before touching it. Call (956) 275-7388 for a free estimate; the price you hear is the price you pay.
We Also Serve Cities Near Sleepy Hollow
Our Sleepy Hollow crews also handle rekey work in Sleepy Hollow and the surrounding Ross Valley, and we regularly send techs to Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco for larger commercial or multi-door jobs. If you’re just outside Sleepy Hollow, call us and we’ll confirm coverage and a same-day or next-day window.
Serving Sleepy Hollow, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Sleepy Hollow 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 Sleepy Hollow
Yes. We need to know how many exterior doors you have, what brand and type of hardware is on each, and whether any of them are older mortise locks. With that, we give you a written per-door price on the phone before dispatch. That’s the number on the invoice. Call (956) 275-7388 and we’ll walk through it in a few minutes.
Most of the time in Sleepy Hollow, a rekey is all that’s needed. If the lock body itself is worn, sagging, or has loose hardware, or if the cylinder is too corroded to hold new pins, we’ll tell you that plainly and quote the replacement before doing any work. We won’t rekey a lock that’s about to fail, and we won’t sell you a replacement when a rekey does the job.
Every tech we dispatch to Sleepy Hollow is background-checked, uniformed, and driving a branded vehicle. You’ll get the tech’s name and a photo before they arrive. If someone shows up unmarked and can’t produce identification, that’s not us. Drew Kowalski runs this shop, and no one works a Ridley job without going through our hiring and training process.
In most cases, yes. A Schlage and a Kwikset can’t share the same key blank, but we often re-pin a Kwikset cylinder to work on a Schlage key, or vice versa. Some lock models won’t accept that conversion, and mortise locks sometimes need their own setup, but we’ll tell you exactly which doors can and can’t match before we start. One key for everything is the goal, and we’ll confirm it’s achievable before quoting.
A standard modern deadbolt takes about 10 – 15 minutes per door. An older mortise lock takes 20 – 30 minutes, longer if the cylinder is stubborn. A typical three-door Sleepy Hollow exterior rekey is done in under an hour, start to finish, including testing every old key to make sure it stays dead. Call (956) 275-7388 and we’ll give you a straight answer on your specific doors.
Written by Drew Kowalski, Owner at Ridley Locksmith & Security, serving Sleepy Hollow since 2007.