Lock Rekeying in Oakland
Old keys stop working, hardware stays, $21 to $36 per cylinder plus the service call.
$21–$36 per cylinder
Typical price
24 min
Avg. arrival
24/7
Availability
Rekeying is the right call whenever a key is out there and the locks are still good: closing on a Rockridge house, a roommate moving out of a Grand Ave apartment, a Temescal landlord turning a unit between tenants, a short-term rental host who has handed too many copies to too many guests. Estuary Lock & Key repins the cylinders you already own so the old keys stop working and the door looks exactly the same.
Each cylinder comes apart on the van, gets new pins to match a fresh key, and goes back into the same door. Kwikset, Schlage, Weiser, Baldwin and builder-grade brands rekey in minutes; Craftsman and Victorian mortise cylinders from Yale and Corbin take longer and usually still rekey. The tech counts the cylinders, groups them by keyway, and says which doors can share one key. New keys are cut on site, and every old key is tried against every rekeyed lock to prove it fails.
The rate is $21 to $36 per cylinder. A single-family house with four cylinders is $84 to $144; a studio with one deadbolt and one knob is $42 to $72. The $89 service call is applied toward that work, so the smallest jobs bill at $89 and a four-cylinder house absorbs the call entirely into the per-cylinder total. Mismatched keyways that cannot share a key are pointed out before any work, with the option of swapping the odd cylinder priced under lock replacement.
Describe the doors and locks on the call and the per-cylinder rate is locked. A text with the tech's name, van and window follows. On site the tech confirms the cylinder count, rekeys, cuts keys, tests old and new keys on every door, and takes card or tap. Property managers get a receipt listing each door for the turnover file.
“I manage a twelve-unit building on Lakeshore and had a move-out on a Tuesday morning. Three cylinders rekeyed at $26 each plus the $89 call, $167 on the receipt, exactly what the call said. The tech keyed the mailbox to match without me asking and emailed the invoice while still in the hallway. That receipt went straight into the tenant file.”
Every job is quoted from the list below. The rate you hear on the call is locked, written on the work order and repeated on the receipt.
- Daytime (7am–8pm)standard rates
- Evening (8pm–12am)+$35
- Overnight (12am–7am)+$70
FAQ
Lock Rekeying: quick answers
I manage a twelve-unit building on Lakeshore Ave. Can you rekey between every tenant?+
Yes, and turnover rekeys are the most common call from the lake. Unit doors are rekeyed at $21 to $36 each, mailbox locks are swapped, and the building master, if there is one, is preserved. Receipts carry the unit number so each rekey lands in the right file.
Should I rekey my short-term rental after every guest?+
Rekeying after every stay gets expensive. Most hosts rekey once, then add a smart lock with per-guest codes so a physical key never leaves the property again. Either way, rekey now if a key has been handed out and not returned.
Rekey or replace on a 1920s Rockridge house?+
Rekey, if the mortise mechanism still works. Original hardware on College Ave houses is worth keeping, and a rekey ends the previous owner's keys without touching the trim. The tech says so at the door if a lock is worn enough that replacement makes more sense.
Related
More residential services
24/7 — nights, weekends & holidays
One call, one locked rate, anywhere in Oakland
Calls answered 24/7. Quoted from the list, locked on the call, unchanged on the receipt. The $89 service call is applied toward the work.