Buying a house in Tradition? Tenant just turned over a Magnolia Lakes rental? Lost the only set of keys to your Sandpiper Bay condo? Rekeying is faster, cheaper, and just as secure as replacing every lock - we'll finish the whole house in about 30 minutes, on-site.
Lock rekey in Port St. Lucie matches every cylinder in your home to one new key. We pop the cylinders, swap the pins to a new combination, and re-key them all the same. Old keys stop working immediately.
Average PSL home with 4-6 cylinders (front deadbolt, front knob, side door, garage entry, back slider, mailbox): $140-220 all-in including 3 new keys. Most jobs are done on-site in 30 minutes.
Brands we rekey on the regular: Schlage, Kwikset, Defiant, Weiser, Yale, Master, plus high-security Medeco and Mul-T-Lock (those cost more because they require restricted-keyway pinning).
Rekey changes the working key. Replace changes the entire lock. Different choices for different situations.
Rekey when:
Replace when:
We'll walk every lock on the property when we arrive and tell you which ones we'd rekey vs replace. About 70% of the homes we touch get rekeyed wholesale; 20% get a mix; 10% get full lock replacements because the hardware is too old to bother rekeying.
Most PSL houses we touch have 2-4 different keys before we get there. Front door is one Schlage key, side door is the Kwikset key the prior owner installed, garage entry is whatever the builder put in, back slider has a separate cylinder. Family is juggling a keyring with 4-6 keys on it.
After we rekey: one key works every door. We do this by swapping the pin stacks inside every cylinder so they all accept the same cut. The locks themselves stay - same brand, same finish, same physical hardware - they're just keyed differently.
If the original locks are different brands (some Schlage, some Kwikset), we still match them - we cut a key that satisfies both keyway profiles. Worst case we replace one or two cylinders with matching ones so the whole house runs on a Schlage C keyway or a Kwikset KW1.
Three new keys come with every rekey job. Extras are $4-$8 each, cut on-site.
Kwikset SmartKey (the bright orange-marked locks at Home Depot) - we rekey those too. The branding makes it sound like a homeowner DIY tool, and technically it is, but the rekeying procedure requires the original key and a programming tool that 90% of homeowners don't have on closing day. We do it in about 30 seconds per lock.
SmartKey has a security weakness that's been public since 2013 - the side-bar mechanism can be bypassed with a paperclip-and-screwdriver technique that takes about 30 seconds for someone who's watched the YouTube video. We tell every Kwikset SmartKey owner this, and most owners decide to keep them (the bypass isn't widespread in the wild) or upgrade to Schlage B60 / Kwikset Signature Series ANSI Grade 2 hardware.
Schlage Encode, Yale Assure, and August smart locks aren't rekeyed in the traditional sense - they have physical key backups, and we can rekey those backup cylinders to match a master key system if needed.
| Service | Typical Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Single deadbolt rekey | $25 - $40 | Plus the service call - so single-lock jobs are usually bundled with another service. |
| Small home, 4 cylinders | $120 - $160 | Includes service call + 3 keys. |
| Average home, 5-6 cylinders | $140 - $220 | Most PSL single-family. Includes 3 keys. |
| Larger home, 7+ cylinders | $180 - $300 | Some Magnolia Lakes / PGA Verano. Includes 4 keys. |
| High-security rekey (Medeco / Mul-T-Lock) | $60 - $90 per cylinder | Restricted-keyway, signed key authorization required. |
| Kwikset SmartKey rekey | Same as standard | Programmed not pinned. Faster. |
| Extra keys | $4 - $8 each | Cut on-site. High-security $20-40. |
| Question | Rekey | Replace all locks | Move-in + change locks DIY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average cost for typical PSL home | $140-220 | $320-680 | $120-240 hardware + 2-4 hours |
| Security level after | Same as existing locks | Whatever you buy | Whatever you buy |
| Old keys stop working | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Match every door to one key | Yes | Only if all new locks are same brand/keyway | If you buy a 4-pack |
| Time to complete | 30-45 min | 1.5-3 hours | 2-5 hours DIY |
| You keep your existing hardware? | Yes | No | No |
Real person on the phone in under 2 rings. Locksmith on-site in 15-30 minutes. Honest price before any tools come out.
Call (772) 284-5142Most PSL single-family homes have 4-6 cylinders that need to be rekeyed - front deadbolt, front knob, side door, garage entry, sometimes a back slider or shed. All-in cost ranges $140-220 including the service call and 3 new keys.
Bigger homes (Magnolia Lakes, PGA Verano, the larger Veranda Bay lots) with 7-10 cylinders run $180-300. High-security locks (Medeco, Mul-T-Lock) are priced per cylinder at $60-90 because the keyway is restricted.
Almost always cheaper to rekey - usually about half the cost of full replacement and twice as fast. The exceptions are when the existing locks are below ANSI Grade 2 (cheap builder-grade Defiants, Master deadbolts that fail under a swift kick), or when there's mechanical damage from prior break-ins. We'll tell you which category you're in on-site.
Yes - we rekey SmartKey locks at the same price as standard cylinders. They use a programming tool instead of pinning, so it's actually faster (about 30 seconds per lock). One thing we always mention: the SmartKey mechanism has a known bypass that's been public since 2013. Most homeowners decide to keep them anyway, but if security is a high priority we suggest upgrading the front-door deadbolt at minimum to a Schlage B60 or Kwikset Signature Series.
Yes - if you bring the existing key, we pin the new cylinder to that cut. This is common when someone adds a side door or garage entry and wants it on the same key as the front. Or after a partial-house break-in when only the breached door needs new pins but the rest of the house should stay on the old key.
About 30 minutes for the average 4-6 cylinder PSL house. The pinning itself is fast - 4-7 minutes per cylinder. Most of the time is walking the property, popping each cylinder, testing each lock with the new key, and cutting keys on-site. We do everything in your driveway so there's no waiting on a return visit.
Rekeying gives every cylinder one new key combination - the keys are identical. Master keying is more advanced - it gives each cylinder its own unique key (the change key) AND lets a master key open all of them. We do master keying for residential portfolios, small businesses, and commercial buildings - it's a separate service with a different pricing structure (typically $80-150 per cylinder depending on the system depth).
Rekey jobs are scheduled across all of PSL, with the highest demand in Tradition, St Lucie West, Magnolia Lakes, Sandpiper Bay, and PGA Verano during peak real estate season (Jan-April). We also do tenant-turnover rekeys for property managers in River Park, Southbend, Prima Vista, and Clover Park.
Last updated: 2026-05-17