Lock Change and Rekey in Wichita Falls, TX
Need your old keys to stop working? That is usually a rekey, not a new lock.
Call (940) 557-5112 and you will be connected with a locksmith professional covering your part of Wichita Falls. Rekeying runs $80 to $150 for the first lock and $20 to $50 for each one after on the same visit. A full lock change runs $100 to $250 per door including hardware. Most houses are finished inside an hour.
Available 24 hours across Wichita Falls, Wichita County and the surrounding towns.
Upfront Pricing, No Surprises
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean diam dolor, accumsan sed rutrum vel, dapibus et leo.
Available 24 Hours
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean diam dolor, accumsan sed rutrum vel, dapibus et leo.
Licensed Texas Locksmiths
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean diam dolor, accumsan sed rutrum vel, dapibus et leo.
Rekey or Replace, Your Choice
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean diam dolor, accumsan sed rutrum vel, dapibus et leo.
The question people ask is whether they need new locks. The answer is usually no. They need the same locks to stop working with keys other people are holding, and that is pins, not hardware.
Rekey or Change the Locks? How to Decide Before You Call
These are two different jobs and the difference is a few hundred dollars across a house.
Rekeying means the cylinder comes out of the lock you already own. The bottom pins get dumped and a new set goes in, cut to match a new key. The lock body stays on the door. The finish stays. The hardware you paid for stays. Only the pins change. Old key goes in, and it does not turn.
Changing the lock means new hardware on the door, which is labour plus the cost of the lock itself.
Rekey when the lock works properly, you like the hardware, and the only thing wrong is who holds a key. That covers the large majority of calls.
Change when one of these is true:
• The deadbolt is loose in the door and shifts when you turn it
• The latch does not throw all the way into the strike hole
• The key has to be wiggled or jiggled to work
• The finish is pitted through and there is corrosion inside
• It is an older builder grade knob with a sealed cylinder that cannot be rekeyed
• You want a different style, a keypad, or a higher security keyway
• The lock was damaged in a break in or an attempted one
The honest version: rekeying a worn lock gets you a worn lock with a new key on it. If a technician quotes replacement on every door in a house, ask which of the reasons above applies to each one. If they cannot answer door by door, get a second opinion.
What Rekeying Costs in Wichita Falls
Rekey, first lock — $80 to $150
Rekey, each additional lock same visit — $20 to $50
Typical three door house, rekeyed and keyed alike — $130 to $230
Lock change, standard knob or deadbolt, hardware included — $100 to $250 per door
Deadbolt added to a door with no bore — $150 to $300
High security cylinder per door — $90 to $200
Keyed alike, added to a rekey — Usually no extra charge
Padlock or gate lock rekeyed to match — $30 to $70
Mailbox lock — $40 to $90
Commercial rekey per cylinder — $25 to $60
After hours or emergency rekey — Call out fee may be higher
The first lock carries the trip. Each one after is cheap, which is why doing every exterior door in one visit costs far less than doing them across three visits. If you are rekeying the front door, do the back door and the garage entry at the same time.
Prices move with the lock type, the condition of the door, and how many doors. Older mortise hardware takes longer than a modern bore. You get a quote before work begins.
Keyed Alike, or One Key for the Whole House
Worth asking for, and it usually costs nothing extra when it is done as part of a rekey.
Keyed alike means every lock in the set opens with the same key. Front door, back door, garage entry, gate, shed, and the mailbox if the cylinder allows it. One key on the ring instead of five.
The requirement is that the locks share a keyway, meaning the shape of the slot the key goes into. Kwikset and Schlage use different keyways and cannot be keyed to one another. A technician can tell you what you have by looking, and where a set is mixed the usual answer is to replace the odd one out so everything matches.
Master keying a house, which almost nobody offers and some people genuinely need. Each door gets its own key while one master opens everything. Useful if you rent a room, run a business out of the house, have a workshop or garage you do not want a cleaner in, or have an ageing parent in a separate unit. Costs a little more in pinning and is worth it in those cases.
Kwikset SmartKey, Because It Behaves Differently
A large share of newer builds in this area came with Kwikset SmartKey hardware, and it is worth knowing what you have because it does not work like a normal lock.
How it works. SmartKey cylinders are designed to be rekeyed by the homeowner using a small tool and a working key, in under a minute, without taking the lock apart. No pins get changed. The internals reset to the new key.
Which means, if you have a working key, you may not need a locksmith at all. The tool came with the lock. If you still have it and the original key, the instructions are on Kwikset’s site and the job takes longer to read about than to do.
Where it gets complicated. The standard reset procedure needs a working key. With no working key, some SmartKey cylinders can still be reset in place, some have to come off the door first, and some are worn past the point where resetting is reliable and replacement is the better call. A technician can tell you which of the three you have, and that is a reasonable thing to pay for.
One caution. SmartKey cylinders have a reputation for wearing out faster than conventional pin tumbler cylinders under heavy use, particularly where they have been reset several times. If yours has been rekeyed repeatedly and is getting stiff, that is the cylinder, not the key.
Texas Law on Rekeying Rental Property
This is the section nobody else in this market has written, and it applies to a large share of homes in Wichita Falls.
The rule. Under Texas Property Code § 92.156, a security device operated by a key, card or combination has to be rekeyed by the landlord, at the landlord’s expense, no later than the seventh day after each tenant turnover date.
What “tenant turnover date” means. The date a new tenant moves in under a lease, after all previous occupants have moved out.
It applies even when the landlord was the only previous occupant. An owner who lived in a house since it was built still has to rekey before leasing it out. The statute does not have a “but I was the only one here” exception.
The rekey can happen before or after move in, as long as it lands within seven days of the turnover date.
Tenants can request more, at their own cost. Under § 92.156(b) a tenant may request additional rekeying or a changed security device at their own expense, and may make an unlimited number of such requests.
Master key rekeying is on the landlord. Under § 92.156(c), if the landlord’s own master key system is the reason for the rekey, the landlord pays.
Interior doors are excluded. § 92.156(d) does not cover closet doors or other interior doors.
Deposit deductions are restricted. Under § 92.156(e), where a tenant breaks a written lease and vacates, a landlord can only deduct the rekey cost from the security deposit if the lease includes a provision authorising it that is underlined or printed in boldface.
There are separate requirements for what hardware has to be there at all. Section 92.153 covers required security devices on exterior doors, including keyed and keyless deadbolts and a door viewer, plus specific requirements for sliding doors and French doors.
If a landlord does not comply, the statute gives the tenant real options, including rekeying and deducting the reasonable cost from the next rent payment, serving written notice and terminating the lease if compliance does not follow, or filing suit for actual damages plus one month’s rent plus $500, court costs and attorney’s fees.
This is a summary of a statute, not legal advice. The text is on the Texas Legislature’s site under Property Code Chapter 92, Subchapter D. If you are in a dispute, read the section yourself or talk to a lawyer. What a locksmith can tell you is what the work costs and how long it takes.
If you have just moved into a rental in Wichita Falls and nobody rekeyed it, ask. It is the landlord’s job, on their money, within seven days.
For Landlords and Property Managers in Wichita Falls
Turnover here runs on two clocks, the Sheppard Air Force Base rotation and the MSU Texas academic year, and both cluster in summer.
Tenant turn rekeys priced per cylinder rather than per visit, which is how the maths works in your favour on a multi unit property.
Volume pricing on jobs of five cylinders or more, typically $25 to $60 per cylinder.
Master key systems for multifamily, so maintenance carries one key instead of forty, with the landlord’s master expense handled as § 92.156(c) requires.
Lockbox installation and code changes between showings.
Itemised invoices per unit, which matters when you have to allocate costs by property and when you want a record showing the seven day requirement was met.
A documented rekey log. Worth keeping. If a compliance question ever arises, a dated invoice per unit is the thing that answers it.
Scheduling around make ready. Rekeying during the make ready window rather than after move in is usually cleaner, and the statute allows it.
When You Should Change Your Locks
You just bought a house. You have no idea how many keys the previous owner handed out over the years, and neither do they. A neighbour, a dog sitter, a contractor, a grown child who moved out. In a city where the median home was built in 1972, some of these houses have had five owners and fifty years of keys. Rekeying every exterior door in the first week is the standard move.
A tenant or roommate moved out. A returned key proves nothing. Any hardware counter copies a standard key for a few dollars, and nobody announces that they did.
After a breakup or separation. Somebody has a key to a place they no longer live. This is a completely normal call and nobody handling it should make it awkward.
After a break in or an attempted one. Rekey or replace the affected locks, and have the strike plates looked at while the technician is there. Most forced entries split the jamb rather than defeat the lock, and a three inch screw into the frame stud does more for that door than better hardware would. Photograph damage first if you are claiming on insurance.
You lost your keys. If your address was on the ring, or anything on the ring identified where you live, treat it as urgent. If you simply mislaid them at home, it is a weekend job.
Your keys were stolen, which is different from lost. A stolen purse or wallet usually contains both keys and an address.
A cleaner, contractor or carer stopped working for you.
The house was listed and there was a lockbox on it. Agents, inspectors, appraisers and buyers all had access to that code.
What Happens During a Rekey
The technician takes the cylinder out of the lock.
On most residential deadbolts that means removing two screws from the interior side.
The cylinder comes apart over a tray.
There is a spring and a pin above each bottom pin, and they are under tension. This is the step where doing it yourself goes wrong, because the springs go across the room.
The old bottom pins come out and a new set goes in,
cut to match the new key. Only the bottom pins change. The springs and top pins stay.
The cylinder goes back together and onto the door.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean diam dolor, accumsan sed rutrum vel, dapibus et leo.
Then both keys get tested.
The new key gets tried in every lock it should open. The old key gets tried too, because the old key is the one that has to stop working, and that is the test that actually matters. A technician who does not try the old key has not finished the job.
Tightening matters.
Too tight and the key is hard to turn. Too loose and the key will not come out of the keyway cleanly. Getting that right is most of the difference between a rekey that feels right and one you notice every day.
Ten minutes a door once the tools are out. A three door house is inside an hour including setup.
Should You Rekey It Yourself?
Sometimes, and here is the honest split.
Worth doing yourself. A Kwikset SmartKey lock where you still have a working key and the tool. That is genuinely a one minute job.
Possible but usually not worth it. A conventional pin tumbler rekey kit for your brand runs $15 to $40 and works if you are patient. The problems are that each kit only covers one brand and keyway, the springs are easy to lose, getting the tailpiece tension right takes a feel you do not have on the first attempt, and a mis pinned cylinder can lock you out of your own house with a key that worked five minutes ago.
Not worth attempting. Mortise hardware, anything on an older door in Floral Heights or the streets near Lucy Park, high security cylinders, and any situation where you need every lock keyed alike across mixed brands.
The arithmetic. If you are rekeying one Kwikset deadbolt and already own the kit, do it yourself. If you are doing four doors, want them keyed alike, and have never taken a cylinder apart, the $130 to $230 for the visit is the better deal and it comes with somebody responsible if it goes wrong.
Coverage
All Wichita Falls ZIP codes, 76301, 76302, 76305, 76306, 76308, 76309 and 76310, including Floral Heights, Faith Village, Country Club, Tanglewood, downtown, the Southwest Parkway, Kemp Boulevard and Call Field Road areas, the Sheppard Air Force Base neighbourhoods, the MSU Texas area and out toward Lake Wichita.
Also Burkburnett, Iowa Park, Holliday, Electra, Henrietta and Archer City.
Rekeying Questions
Get a Range Before Anyone Drives Out
Call (940) 557-5112, say how many doors and what brand if you know it, and you get a range before anyone drives out.
Available 24 hours — Central Time.
Related pages: Lock repair · Emergency locksmith, 24 hours · Commercial locksmith · Our Services