Lock Change VS Re-key

A common mistake many people do when calling a professional locksmith for a lock service is asking to replace the locks instead of just re-keying them. Most of the time, when a person call to request a lock change service it is mainly because he or she feels the security of their home has been compromise because the loss of a key or that it got stolen for example.

Although it is a good practice to call a locksmith for a lock service in such case, re-keying the locks would be the preferred solution over changing them. Re-keying the locks involve changing the pins inside the cylinder to accept a key that will have different cuts than the original one. This will eliminate the chance of a stranger who got a hold of the key to successfully try and use it.

Changing the locks however is recommended in the following scenarios. The locks are getting old and worn out to the point they are not functioning properly anymore and can be opened easily. The existing locks are of a low grade and can be beaten in a matter of seconds by a burglar. In these cases and more, it is recommended changing the locks to a higher security level type.

The bottom line is that it really depend on the type of situation you are in that will determine if a re-key would be recommended or changing the entire lock. Although changing the entire lock will give you a sense of security because of the fresh hardware, re-keying the existing lock essentially will do the same if they don't have a lot of use on them.

For more information about re-key or lock change, contact Premier NorthWest Locksmith Portland.

Re-keying Locks

Changing or re-keying locks are normally done to preserve the security of your home and your peace of mind. Usually re-keying would be the more cost effective solution which will be recommended on doing for the following reasons...

Did you just bought a new house? It can be an exciting time for you. However, like many other people who just moved into a new place, security is not always first priority. However, when moving into a new place, this is the first thing that should be thought about. The main reason is the fact that the previous owner of the house may have made multiple copies of the keys which are probably floating around in the hands of people you may not know.

Keys that were lost - Keys can go missing all the time or even worse, get stolen. In these types of situations it is recommended calling a professional locksmith immediately and not take the chances of having a stranger accessing your home. for the security of your home and peace of mind, get your locks re-keyed!

Hired a contractor lately to do some home renovation? This is a common situation where remodeling would usually take more than a day which will require leaving a key to the contractor or his employees. In this case it is always best to re-key the locks afterward just in case and for your peace of mind.

Living in a shared type situation and one of the roommates just decided to leave? There can be many scenarios where a roommate may decided to leave whether if it was on good terms or bad, changing or re-keying the locks will be a good idea to ensure the security of the rest of the tenants inside the house.

For more information about emergency re-key services, contact Premier NorthWest Locksmith Portland.

Residential Re-key Service

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Kwikset Deadbolt Removal

Residential jobs for the average locksmith technician are not as common as automotive services. However, most of the time they are more rewarding, but takes much longer to do. Normally, when I get a residential type job such as a lock change, lock repair, or re-key, it would usually takes around an hour or even a bit more to do the work. It usually depends on the amount of locks that need service and if I would run into some issues during the process. What would happen if a locksmith technician would run into a job where there a large amount of locks to service and some issues in the process?

Recently I got a call from a real-estate company who owns few apartment complexes in the area. They had an elderly apartment complex property with around 200 units which they needed a re-key done on all of them. This type of job would normally take about almost a week to do for the average locksmith technician and about couple of days for a couple of experienced technicians. I knew I would probably needed to start the job by myself and maybe my Portland locksmith co worker would come during the week to help.

The first thing I did when arriving to the property was determining the type of locks that needed to be re-key which was a Kwikset interconnected lever lock and a deadbolt installed on each unit's door. As I was started doing the work, I noticed that the deadbolts were held by a bolt that had a flat-blade screwdriver in the head of it and had a small sized hole at the center of it. I thought it was kinda awkward since I never seen these types of bolts before. Nevertheless, using my power drill to unscrew these bolt was a nightmare in the first day since they seem to strip very easily because of the their flat-blade head form.

These issues I experienced in the first day seemed to slow me down significantly and when doing a large scale time consuming job such as that, this is the last thing you want to happen as a locksmith technician. I called my co worker the day after to come help and maybe fins a solution to the problem with bolts that were holding the deadbolts. When he got there, I explained him the situation and the issues I had with the bolts and he said that he ran into this type of problem before and luckily had a solution for it. He had a flat-bladed drive bit that was customize to handle these types of flat blade head bolts with the hole in the center. Once we have that issue with the bolts taken care of, we were able to finish the job in a couple of days as planned.

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Why Do a Re-Key?

As a professional locksmith technician I cannot stress enough to customer the importance of having a re-key done when moving into a new place. The fact is, even though the previous owner claim to have given you all the copies of the house keys, you will never know if there might be a relative or other individual that may have an extra key. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

I had a customer the other day who called in for a re-key job to his home. On the phone, the customer sounded a little stressed and I wasn't sure why. I assumed that maybe someone broke into his home and he suspected that individual might have a key to the house in his possession. Once I got to the customer's address, I couldn't help it but to ask about the urgency of the matter and then a laid the story on me.

Apparently, he and his wife just moved into this place about a week before. Aside from the fact the previous owner claimed to have given them all the copies, he neglected to mention other individuals that may have their hands on a key. Few days ago, the customer heard some noises from the kitchen at around 5am. As he went down the kitchen to see what is going on, he saw a stranger digging through his refrigerator. The customer then turned on the light switch and shout at the person asking him who he was and what he was doing there. The person then identified himself as a delivery guy working for one of the dairies in the area. He claimed that the previous owner gave him a key, so he can let himself in to deliver milk to him every week.

At that point, I figured the incident was probably the reason I got called to re-key the locks all over the house, but I was mistaken. Apparently there was a second incident which "broke the camel's back" and led my customer and his wife to realize there may have been other people aside from the previous owner that had keys to the house.

As he continued his story, a couple of days after the "milk delivery" incident, there was another incident in which his wife encountered. When his wife came back home the other day, she noticed a stranger holding up some hangers with clothes. As she was freaking out about the fact there was a stranger in her new home, she came to find it was only the dry cleaning delivery guy delivering the previous owner's load. It seemed as he gave a key to the dry cleaning place as well. At that day the customer said, he and his wife had enough and decided to call a locksmith, so they can get their peace of mind back. The moral of the story is when you are moving into a new place, always change the locks or the least re-key them as you never know who else might have access to it.

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