Commercial Lock Rekeying
Retiring a key that is out in the world, without buying a single new lock.
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Rekeying a commercial cylinder means taking the plug apart and re-pinning it so it answers to a different cut. The lock body, the latch, the strike and the door prep all stay exactly as they are. Only the small brass stack inside the plug changes, and with it the list of keys the door will accept.
On a business the decision is rarely about one door. Cylinders in a building are usually tied together by a key plan, so re-pinning one of them without knowing what else that key opens can quietly break a master or leave a supervisor standing outside a stockroom. The work starts with reading the system, not with the first cylinder.
What is established before anything is taken apart
- Which keys the cylinder currently accepts. A cylinder inside a master system answers to at least two keys, and both have to be accounted for.
- The cylinder format — a mortise cylinder threaded into the lock case, a rim cylinder behind an exit device, a key-in-lever, or an interchangeable core that pulls out with a control key.
- Whether interchangeable cores are fitted, because that changes the job from re-pinning at the door to swapping cores and pinning on a bench.
- Whether the keyway is a common commercial profile or something the building's original installer used and nobody has stocked since.
- Which doors must stay on the old key. A partial rekey is normal, and the usual aim is to isolate one lost credential rather than to disturb the whole building.
Useful to gather beforehand
- One key of every type currently in circulation, grouped by what each one opens.
- A list of doors including the interior ones people forget: server closets, stockrooms, riser cupboards and roof access.
- Who held the key that went missing, and everything that key reached.
- Whether the building uses interchangeable cores, which have a distinctive figure-eight shaped face.
- Whether the landlord or a property manager controls exterior door hardware.
If the cylinders themselves are worn out — keys that need jiggling, plugs that drag, a lever that no longer springs back — re-pinning puts a fresh key into a failing lock and the symptom returns. see commercial lock repair.
Common questions
Can rekeying happen without closing the business?
Usually. Re-pinning takes a door out of service for a short window rather than a day, and doors can be worked through one at a time around trading hours. Interchangeable cores are the easiest case, because a pre-pinned core is swapped in moments and the old one is re-pinned afterwards.
We lost a master key rather than a change key. Is that different?
Very. A change key opens one door; a master opens everything it was cut for. Recovering from a lost master means re-pinning every cylinder that master reaches and reissuing keys to everyone who holds one, which is the scenario restricted keyways exist to make less likely.
Can our doors keep the same key after rekeying?
Not the same key, but the same arrangement. A new cut is chosen and every cylinder set to it, so staff go back to carrying one key. What changes is the bitting, which means every existing copy of the old key stops working at the same moment. That is the entire point of the exercise.
Does rekeying apply to electronic locks?
Only to their mechanical parts. An electronic lock with a key override has a cylinder that can be re-pinned like any other, but the cards and codes are managed inside the lock's own programming. When somebody leaves, both sides need attention or the door is only half retired.
Related locksmith services
Describe the lock or key problem
A short description of what happened gets the right tools on the vehicle.
Call (408) 418-0044