When to Rekey vs Replace Commercial Locks

When a key event hits a business — an employee leaves, keys go missing, a break-in attempt is reported — the question that lands on the manager’s desk is the same as for homeowners: rekey, or replace? The answer is mostly the same too, but commercial-grade hardware and master key systems add a few wrinkles.

When to Rekey

Most of the time, rekeying is the right call.

• Employee turnover. Anyone who held keys leaves the company — rekey the cylinders they had access to. Fast, cheap, and any keys they kept stop working immediately.
• Lost or stolen keys. Same logic. You don’t know where the lost key is, and the cost of rekeying is far less than the risk of someone walking back in.
• End of a contractor or vendor engagement. A cleaning crew, a contractor, a temporary vendor — when they’re done, rekey the doors they had access to.
• Suspicious activity. If something feels off — a found door unlocked, a missed inventory item — rekey and review.

A standard small office rekey is usually finished in a single visit with minimal disruption. Most cylinders take 5-10 minutes each to repin.

When to Replace

Replace instead of rekey when:

• The hardware is worn. Sticking, sloppy, or hard-to-turn cylinders aren’t worth pinning new pins into. Replace the cylinder, the deadbolt, or the whole lockset.
• You’re upgrading grade. Builder-grade or basic commercial hardware on a high-traffic door wears out fast. Move to commercial Grade 1 hardware (Schlage commercial, Medeco, Sargent, Mul-T-Lock).
• You’re upgrading to electronic access. Time to add keypad locks, prox readers, or cloud-based credentials. See electronic access and smart locks.
• The lock was forced. Even if it still turns, a forced lock’s housing and internals may be compromised.
• You’re adding a master key system. Existing non-system cylinders may not be the right base for a new keying plan. We can sometimes adapt; sometimes new cylinders are simpler.

The Master Key Wrinkle

If your business already has a master key system, rekeying is more involved than swapping pins. You have to:

• Preserve the master key’s ability to open the lock (or intentionally remove it)
• Update the pin chart for the new individual key
• Issue new individual keys without compromising the master system

We handle this routinely — but it’s why “let me just rekey it” is harder for a business with a master system than for a home with five identical cylinders.

Interchangeable Cores Make Both Faster

If your business has any volume of key turnover, talk to us about interchangeable core (IC) cylinders. With IC cores, rekeying doesn’t mean opening up the cylinder and repinning. We just swap the whole core in 30 seconds with a control key. Initial cost is higher, but ongoing rekey cost drops to nearly nothing.

Best for: any business with monthly or quarterly key turnover (property managers, multi-tenant buildings, fast-moving offices).

Downtime and Disruption

A small-office rekey (4-6 cylinders) is usually a single 90-minute visit with no downtime. A larger building (15-30 cylinders) typically runs as a half-day visit, scheduled around your operations. We coordinate so that doors are out of service for minutes at a time, not hours.

Get a Phone Quote

Call (256) 906-3375 with door count and the reason you’re rekeying. We’ll quote a phone estimate and schedule a visit. For the full commercial range, see commercial locksmith.