Lock Rekeying for Tampa Homes, Rentals & Businesses

Rekeying changes which key opens a lock without changing the lock itself. We change the pins in each cylinder to fit a new key (on Kwikset SmartKey locks, the cylinder is reset with Kwikset's tool instead), cut your new keys, and try every one before we leave. Your hardware stays where it is, and every key made for the old pins stops working, from the spare a former neighbor still has to copies you never knew about.

What a rekey can't reach is anything electronic. A keypad code still works after the cylinder is re-pinned, and so do smart-lock app accounts, garage door remotes and HOA or condo fobs, until each one is reset or shut off. Our move-in guide covers resetting codes, garage remotes and fobs.

Rekeying is the right fix when the locks still work and the problem is who holds keys. A lock that sticks, wobbles or has started to corrode has a hardware problem, and replacing it makes more sense; our guide on whether to rekey or replace your locks explains how to tell.

Often, yes. Locks can share a key only when their cylinders take the same key blank, which is set by each lock's keyway. In practice that usually means the same brand: Kwikset locks can be rekeyed to one Kwikset key, and Schlage locks to one Schlage key. Tell us the brand on each exterior door when you call (look on the key or the lock), and you'll know which doors can match before we quote.

A house with a Kwikset front door and a Schlage back door can't share a key as the locks stand. The fix is a new cylinder or a new lock on the odd door out, in the keyway the rest of the house uses. Kwikset now makes SmartKey locks in the SC1 keyway, the blank many Schlage house keys are cut on, and says you can use your existing SC1 key with them (Kwikset).

Keyed alike means every lock takes the same key, which is what most homes want. Rentals and businesses usually want the opposite: each door on its own key, plus a master that opens a group of them. That's a master key system, planned on a keying chart, and not every lock can join one; Kwikset, for one, says its SmartKey cylinders can't be master-keyed (Kwikset).

A rekey doesn't stop copies, either: standard keys can be duplicated at most hardware stores and kiosks. Restricted keyways close that gap, because copy shops don't carry the blanks. We work with authorized Mul-T-Lock and Medeco hardware, bought direct; our guide to high-security locks explains what they add.

When an employee, a manager or a cleaning crew leaves with a key, you don't need every lock in the building changed. We rekey only the locks that key could open, cut fresh keys for the staff who stay, and update your keying chart if you keep one. If the key that walked out was a master, everything under that master gets rekeyed as well.

Glass storefront doors run on their own mortise cylinders, covered on our storefront door locks page. For tiered keys by role, see master key systems; for keypad, key card or fob entry, see commercial access control.