Home Rekey & Lock Change

New York City has millions of rental turnovers every year, and the hard truth is that landlords are not legally required to change your locks between tenants — they are only required to provide a working lock. That means a previous occupant, their dog-walker, their ex-partner, or a building contractor could still have a working key to your door. Rekeying reconfigures the internal pin tumblers of your existing lock cylinder so that every old key becomes useless overnight, without replacing the entire hardware unit. It is faster, generates less waste, and preserves decorative or high-end hardware you may want to keep. Our technicians carry the tooling and replacement pin kits to rekey most Schlage, Kwikset, Baldwin, and Medeco cylinders on the spot.

When the lock itself is worn, damaged, or simply not up to the security demands of your building, a full lock change is the right call. A door knob lock on an exterior door, for example, offers far less resistance to forced entry than a deadbolt or a properly installed mortise lock. We will assess your existing hardware honestly and recommend only what your specific door and frame genuinely need — not the most expensive option on our truck.

The mortise lock is the gold standard for New York City exterior doors, and for good reason. Unlike a surface-mounted deadbolt, a mortise unit is set into a pocket cut directly into the door edge, integrating the deadbolt, latch, and often a cylinder for both sides into one robust assembly. Pre-war buildings along Riverside Drive, Central Park West, and throughout Brooklyn's brownstone belt were originally built with mortise lock hardware as standard equipment. Over decades, some of those units have been patched, bypassed, or replaced with inferior hardware. Our skilled technicians are specifically trained in mortise lock service — sourcing, fitting, and aligning replacement bodies from brands like Emtek, Marks USA, and Ilco so the new unit sits flush and operates smoothly without enlarging the mortise pocket.

Emergencies don't schedule themselves. A lost key at 2 a.m. in Washington Heights, a snapped key in Astoria, or a lockout after a late shift in Midtown — our emergency locksmith dispatch operates around the clock because New York never stops. When you call 646-793-9435, a live team member picks up, takes your address, and routes the nearest available technician to you. We provide an exact up-front price before work begins, so there are no surprises on the invoice regardless of the hour.

Staff turnover, a terminated employee who kept a key, an office relocation, or a break-in attempt — each of these events signals that a commercial lock change is overdue. Retail storefronts on Broadway, restaurants in Hell's Kitchen, offices in Midtown, and warehouses in Long Island City all share the same vulnerability: a single unreturned key can compromise an entire access system. Our commercial locksmith team handles high-security cylinder upgrades, master key system re-pinning, panic hardware installation, and ADA-compliant lever replacements for commercial doors. We work around your business hours — including nights and weekends — so your operation does not need to shut down for a security upgrade.

We also handle keypad and combination resets for popular hardware lines. If you need a Defiant lock change code updated after a personnel change, or you have inherited a Honeywell door lock and need the Honeywell door lock change code reset to a new combination, our technicians can walk through the process on-site and confirm the new credentials are functioning before they leave. Similarly, a master lock change combination service is available for padlocks used on storage units, gates, and loading dock chains throughout the five boroughs.

We do not publish flat-rate pricing because lock work in New York is not flat-rate work. A straightforward rekey on a standard Kwikset deadbolt in a ground-floor apartment is a very different job from supplying and fitting a new mortise lock body in an ornate pre-war door with a non-standard pocket depth, or arriving at 3 a.m. to handle an emergency locksmith call in a building with elevator access restrictions. The factors that shape your final quote include: the type and brand of lock involved, whether parts need to be sourced from our stock or ordered, the time of day, your location relative to our current dispatch point, and the number of cylinders or doors being serviced. What never changes is our commitment to stating that exact price before any work begins — you confirm it, then we start. No after-the-fact additions. Call 646-793-9435 any time to get a firm quote for your specific situation.

Our trained and insured technicians arrive fully equipped to handle: residential deadbolt rekeying, mortise lock body replacement, mortise lock cylinder rekey, door knob lock replacement, double-cylinder deadbolt installation, single-cylinder deadbolt installation, high-security Medeco cylinder installation, Schlage cylinder rekey, Kwikset SmartKey rekey, master key system design and implementation, master key system re-pinning, commercial lock change on storefront doors, office suite cylinder swap, panic bar and push-bar hardware installation, ADA-compliant lever handle installation, padlock re-combination, Defiant lock change code update, Honeywell door lock change code reset, keypad lock programming, electronic access control rekeying, cabinet and mailbox lock replacement, sliding door lock upgrade, chain lock and surface bolt installation, broken key extraction prior to rekey, and lock repair for misaligned or stiff cylinders. Every one of these services is performed at your location — we come to you.