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 Winters
If you’ve just closed on a house near downtown Winters, ended a lease, or realized an old roommate still has a key, you need a rekey – and not in three days. We dispatch locksmiths to Winters homes and businesses the same day you call. The work itself usually takes under an hour. You get a written price before we touch the lock, and that’s the price on the invoice. No dispatch fee surprises, no bait number that balloons at the door. Call (956) 275-7388 and tell us what’s on your door. We’ll tell you what it costs.
Why Ridley Locksmith & Security Is Winters’s Preferred Rekey Locks Company
We’re a Garrison Partners locksmith, which means every technician we send into Winters runs on The Garrison Code: a written standard covering how the job gets priced, performed, and guaranteed. The tech doesn’t get to improvise at your door. That’s important in a town like Winters, where a lot of the rekey work happens on rental turnovers near Main Street and Railroad Avenue, and where the person paying the bill is often managing a property from Sacramento or Davis. You’re not there to watch. The written price and the written guarantee are your proof of what happened.
Drew Kowalski leads our team, and every crew member we dispatch to Winters is background-checked and uniformed. You’ll know who’s at your door before they touch your hardware. We’ve rekeyed front doors on Edwards Street, deadbolts on apartment units off Grant Avenue, and back doors on older homes along Baker Street. The hardware profile here runs from Schlage and Kwikset deadbolts to older mortise cylinders that need more patience than parts. We keep both on the truck.
The Garrison Standard, Applied to Winters
Every residential and commercial lock we service in Winters carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise. If the rekey fails within one full year – a cylinder binds, a key stops turning, the new pins don’t seat – we come back and make it right at no charge. That’s not a verbal assurance. It’s a written document laying out exactly what’s covered and what we’ll do if something goes wrong. The independent shop up the road might wave it off. We don’t. The Garrison Standard applies to every job, full stop.
Keyed Alike in Winters
Keyed alike in Winters means exactly what it sounds like: every exterior lock on your property works from one key. The job requires rekeying each lock’s cylinder so all of them accept the same key cuts. A landlord on Main Street with a duplex doesn’t want three keys for three doors. A homeowner with a front door, back door, and garage side door doesn’t want a keychain that jingles like a janitor’s belt. One key, every door, done.
For a standard home with two or three Schlage or Kwikset locks, keyed-alike rekeying in Winters typically runs $75 to $160, depending on the number of cylinders and whether we’re cutting keys on-site. Commercial or multi-unit work goes higher because of the cylinder count. We’ll quote the full number on the phone before we roll.
When It Makes Sense
Rental turnover is the big one. If a tenant just moved out of a unit near the downtown grid and you’re not sure how many copies of the old key are floating around, rekeying every exterior cylinder to a fresh key restores actual key control. You don’t need new hardware. That’s the point.
The other common case is a homeowner who bought a Winters house and later discovered the previous owner’s cousin still has a key. We rekey everything that opens from outside – front, back, side garage door – to one new key. The old keys die that afternoon.
Rekey Deadbolt in Winters
A rekey deadbolt in Winters is the most common single-lock job we do. The outside cylinder gets opened, the old pins get pulled, fresh pins go in, and a new key is cut. The old key stops working immediately. The bolt, the faceplate, the strike – all the hardware stays. You’re not replacing a $40 lock with another $40 lock. You’re changing the combination inside for a fraction of replacement cost.
For a standard single-cylinder deadbolt – Kwikset, Schlage, or Baldwin – rekeying in Winters runs $45 to $85 per lock, including the new keys. If we rekey two or three locks in one visit, the per-lock price drops. If your deadbolt is older or we’re matching it to an existing key instead of cutting fresh, we’ll walk you through the number before work starts.
Why Homeowners Do It
Lost keys. Used keys. End of a relationship. Home sale. Any time you can’t account for every copy of a key, a rekey deadbolt is the low-cost fix that actually closes the gap. A property manager on Main Street called us after a tenant turnover near the downtown core: the previous renter still had a working key to a Kwikset deadbolt on the front door. Our tech rekeyed the existing cylinder instead of selling new hardware – pulling the pin and tumbler stack, swapping in fresh pins, and cutting two new keys – so the old key stopped working that afternoon for a fraction of replacement cost. We also rekeyed the matching back-door lock to the same key so the unit stayed keyed alike.
Trusted Brands We Service in Winters
We work on the hardware Winters homes actually have on them. Schlage and Kwikset account for most of the deadbolts and entry sets we see, with Baldwin showing up on newer builds and some of the better-kept Victorians off First Street. We also service Medeco and Abloy high-security cylinders for commercial accounts and homeowners who’ve upgraded. We don’t tell you to replace working hardware because it’s not a brand we know. Most common cylinder types are rekeyed on-site, same visit. If your lock is outside the standard pinning range, we’ll tell you that in the quote, not after we’ve taken it apart.
Common Rekey Locks Problems We See in Winters Homes
- Landlords paying for whole new deadbolts when a rekey would do. A handyman without lock training sees a tenant leaving, and reaches for a new Kwikset box. You get a mismatched key set, a cheap bolt, and a higher bill. The existing cylinder was fine.
- Old mortise and vintage cylinders downtown. Much of Winters’ older in-town housing stock sits in a small downtown grid where rentals turn over between UC Davis ag students, so the same front-door lock cylinder often gets rekeyed season after season rather than replaced. Some of those cylinders predate modern pin kits, and a tech who doesn’t carry the right depth pins will either force a bad rekey or quote one number and then “discover” it’ll cost more.
- The teaser quote problem. You call, a dispatcher says “$29,” then the guy at your door on Grant Avenue says the lock is “commercial grade” and now it’s $200. We quote the real number before dispatch. If we haven’t seen the lock, we’ll walk you through identifying it on the phone.
- Rekeying only the front door. The back door off the kitchen still opens with the old key, and the garage side door still turns for whoever had it before. Key control was never actually restored. We rekey every exterior cylinder to one key unless you tell us otherwise.
Pricing for Rekey Locks in Winters, CA
Here are the real numbers for Winters. A single deadbolt rekey runs $45 to $85, including new keys. A full home keyed-alike rekey – front door, back door, garage entry, typically two to four cylinders – runs $75 to $160 on a standard Schlage or Kwikset setup. Older mortise cylinders or unkeyed high-security locks cost more because the labor is different. You’ll know the exact figure before a truck leaves the shop, and we don’t add a call-out charge when the tech arrives. Call (956) 275-7388 for an exact quote. The estimate is free.
We Also Serve Cities Near Winters
Our Rekey Locks service covers Winters and the surrounding towns, including Dixon, Davis, Vacaville, and Woodland. If you manage rentals in more than one of those cities, one call sorts the scheduling. We run Winters jobs daily, so response times are short and we know the hardware profile of the area.
Serving Winters, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Winters 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 Winters
We rekey whatever you tell us to rekey, but our standard recommendation for a home or rental in Winters is every exterior cylinder – front door, back door, and any garage or side entry – keyed to one new key. Rekeying only the front deadbolt leaves the back door on the old key, which means anyone who had a copy still gets in. The labor cost for each additional lock is modest, and key control isn’t real until every outside door is on the new key. Call (956) 275-7388 and we’ll give you a per-lock number before we dispatch.
Yes. Mortise cylinders and older entry sets on homes near Main Street and the downtown grid take more care and the right pin kit, but we do them on-site. The key difference from a standard Kwikset or Schlage deadbolt is the cylinder type and sometimes the depth spacing on the pins. We’ll ask what’s on your door, tell you what it’ll take, and give you the real number before we send a tech. If the hardware is worn past reliable rekeying, you’ll know that on the phone, not at the door.
Rekeying changes the pin stack inside the cylinder. The old pins come out, new pins sized to a new key go in, and the old key stops turning. The lock body, bolt, and faceplate are not replaced. This is why a rekey costs less than new hardware and takes less time. For a standard deadbolt in a Winters home, the whole operation is typically done in under an hour per lock. The lock looks the same from the outside. The key is the only thing that changes.
Yes. That’s keyed-alike rekeying, and it’s one of the most common jobs we do in Winters for both rental units and owner-occupied homes. Each exterior cylinder gets rekeyed to the same key code, and we cut as many copies as you need on-site. The cost for a typical Winters home with two or three standard locks runs $75 to $160. You get the exact number before we dispatch, and it’s the number on your invoice. Call (956) 275-7388 for a free quote.
Because we tell you before dispatch exactly who’s coming, and because every technician we send to Winters is background-checked, uniformed, and operating under The Garrison Standard. The van is marked. The tech identifies themselves, and the written price is in your hand before work starts. You’ll also have a written guarantee covering the work for one full year. If you get a knock on the door from someone in an unmarked vehicle saying they’re “the locksmith,” that’s not us.
Written by Drew Kowalski, owner at Ridley Locksmith & Security, serving Winters with rekey and lock service under The Garrison Standard since 2007.