Home Rekey Service
Moving into a new apartment on Vanderbilt Avenue, ending a relationship, or discovering your keys are missing — each of these moments leaves you with the same unsettling question: who else might have a copy of your key? In Brooklyn's dense, fast-moving rental market, where buildings in Prospect Heights and Crown Heights regularly turn over tenants, the odds that a previous occupant, an ex-partner, or a stranger still has access to your home are higher than most people want to admit. Rekeying your locks is the smartest, most cost-effective step you can take to restore full control over who comes through your front door.
Open 24 hours, 7 days a week · Licensed, bonded & insured
Prospect Heights Locksmith Brooklyn is a 24/7 mobile locksmith operation serving all of Brooklyn, NY 11238 and the surrounding neighborhoods. Our trained, insured technicians come directly to your address — no shop visit required — and rekey your existing locks on the spot, including high-security mortise lock hardware, standard door knob locks, and deadbolts. Whether it is a Sunday night panic after a breakup or a weekday morning before work, we are available around the clock. Call (718) 568-7195 and a live person will answer, confirm your address, and dispatch a technician to you.
What we do
Available 24/7
Day, night, weekends and holidays — a real local locksmith answers and rolls a fully-stocked van.
Fast local response
Based in Brooklyn, we reach the Brooklyn area in well under an hour.
Insured & background-checked
Vetted technicians, up-front pricing, and no surprise add-ons when we arrive.
Damage-free entry
We pick and bypass locks the right way, so most lockouts are solved without drilling anything.
Why Brooklyn Renters and Homeowners Rekey Their Locks
Brooklyn's housing stock is one of the most varied in the country, from pre-war brownstones with original mortise lock systems on Lafayette Avenue to modern condominium buildings with electronic keypads near Barclays Center. In all of them, the pattern is the same: keys get duplicated over years of tenancy, given to dog walkers and house cleaners, handed to partners who are no longer in the picture, or simply lost on the G train. Unlike replacing the entire lock hardware — which is more disruptive and more expensive — rekeying re-pins the existing cylinder so that every old key becomes permanently useless while a fresh set of new keys works perfectly. It is a damage-free process in the vast majority of cases, preserving your door hardware and your landlord's finish.
The three most common triggers our technicians respond to in Brooklyn are move-ins, relationship changes, and lost or stolen keys. Each situation has its own urgency. A move-in rekey should ideally happen before you bring in your first box, because you cannot know how many copies of the old tenant's key are floating around the neighborhood. A post-breakup rekey is a personal safety measure that also brings genuine peace of mind. A lost-key rekey is simply responsible security hygiene — once you cannot account for a key, rekeying is far faster and less invasive than waiting to see if it turns up.
Our Home Rekey Service: Mortise Locks, Deadbolts, and More
Our home rekey service covers every common residential lock type found in Brooklyn homes and apartment buildings. The mortise lock — a rectangular lock body that sits inside a pocket cut into the door edge — is the dominant hardware type in the borough's older brownstones and pre-war multi-family buildings. These locks require specific expertise to rekey correctly without damaging the door or the mechanism, and our technicians are trained on the full range of mortise lock configurations, including single-cylinder, double-cylinder, and combination lever-and-deadbolt units. We carry the pin kits, follower tools, and replacement springs needed to complete the job cleanly on-site.
Beyond the mortise lock, we rekey standard door knob locks, single and double deadbolts, padlocks, sliding door locks, and mailbox cylinders. If your building uses a master key system — common in larger rental properties across Flatbush, Park Slope, and Bedford-Stuyvesant — we can rekey your unit to remove it from the master system entirely or create a new sub-master configuration, depending on your lease and your landlord's agreement. We also rekey or replace smart lock cylinders and work with popular hardware brands including Schlage and Kwikset. Every job ends with a function test of every lock we have touched and a new key set handed directly to you.
What Determines Your Rekey Quote — and How We Price It
Transparency about cost matters, which is why we never start work until you have confirmed an exact, up-front price. There are no surprise charges added after the job is done. Several factors shape that final number: the type and brand of lock hardware involved (a high-security mortise lock with a restricted keyway takes more time and specialized pins than a basic door knob lock), the number of cylinders being rekeyed in one visit, whether any pins or springs need replacement due to wear, the time of day your call comes in, and the travel distance to your specific Brooklyn address. A 24/7 emergency locksmith dispatch at 2 a.m. is priced differently from a scheduled afternoon appointment — we are straightforward about that difference before we confirm the booking.
If your locks are old, worn, or incompatible with rekeying — which occasionally happens with severely damaged cylinders in buildings that have not been maintained — our technician will tell you immediately and explain the options, which may include a full lock replacement. We stock a range of residential-grade hardware on our mobile units so that in most cases we can handle a replacement in the same visit without a second trip. The goal is always to solve your security concern completely in one stop, at a price you have already agreed to.
Same-Day and Emergency Locksmith Response Across Brooklyn
Being locked out or suddenly insecure after a key loss does not wait for business hours, and neither do we. Our emergency locksmith team operates around the clock, every day of the year, including holidays. When you call (718) 568-7195, you reach our dispatch team directly — not a call center that relays messages — and we give you an honest estimated arrival window based on current technician location and Brooklyn traffic. We know the borough well: we navigate the one-way grids around Prospect Heights, the dense parking situations near Grand Army Plaza, and the longer travel times that come with reaching the southern end of the borough during rush hour.
Beyond pure emergency calls, we handle same-day scheduled appointments for planned move-in rekeying, post-construction lock changes, and commercial locksmith needs for small businesses, retail storefronts, and office suites throughout Brooklyn. Our commercial locksmith work includes rekeying mortise lock hardware in commercial doors, installing grade-1 deadbolts, and setting up master key systems for multi-suite buildings. Whether you are a property manager overseeing a dozen units in Crown Heights or a homeowner in Prospect Heights wanting to rekey before a new tenant moves in, our mobile team comes to you — no drop-off, no waiting room, no wasted half-day.
Services We Provide on Every Residential and Commercial Call
Our Brooklyn mobile locksmith team is equipped to handle a wide range of residential and commercial security needs in a single visit. The following services are available 24/7 across the borough: residential lock rekeying, mortise lock rekeying and repair, door knob lock rekeying, deadbolt rekeying, padlock rekeying, mailbox lock rekeying, master key system setup, master key system removal or modification, high-security cylinder installation, Schlage keyway rekeying, Kwikset keyway rekeying, restricted keyway cylinder installation, smart lock cylinder replacement, double-cylinder deadbolt installation, single-cylinder deadbolt installation, sliding door lock replacement, storm door lock rekeying, garage side-door lock replacement, full residential lock replacement, commercial lock rekeying, commercial mortise lock repair and replacement, office suite master key configuration, grade-1 commercial deadbolt installation, post-construction rekey service for new builds and renovations, and tenant move-out rekey service for landlords and property managers. Every service is performed by trained, insured technicians using professional-grade tools, with a damage-free approach wherever the hardware allows.
Frequently asked questions
How is rekeying different from replacing my locks entirely?
Rekeying changes the internal pin configuration of your existing lock cylinder so that all previous keys stop working and a new key set is cut to match. The lock hardware — the knob, the deadbolt body, the mortise lock cartridge — stays exactly where it is on your door. Lock replacement, by contrast, removes the entire hardware assembly and installs new equipment. Rekeying is appropriate when your hardware is in good working condition and you simply need to invalidate old keys. Replacement makes sense when the lock is damaged, worn beyond reliable function, or when you want to upgrade to higher-security hardware. Our technician will assess your locks on arrival and recommend the right approach.
How many locks should I rekey when I move into a Brooklyn apartment?
At minimum, rekey every exterior-facing cylinder: the front door deadbolt, the front door knob or mortise lock if separate, any rear or side entry doors, and the building door if your landlord permits it. If your unit has a door to a shared basement or roof access, those should be included too. In older Brooklyn brownstones and multi-family buildings, it is common to find two or three separate cylinders on a single door — a mortise lock body, a separate rim lock, and a surface-mounted deadbolt — so the count adds up quickly. Our technician does a quick walk-through of all exterior entry points when they arrive so nothing is missed.
Can you rekey a mortise lock, or does it have to be replaced?
Yes, mortise locks are fully rekeyable in almost all cases. The cylinder — which is the oval or round plug that the key enters — can be removed from the mortise lock body, re-pinned to a new key code, and reinstalled without disturbing the rest of the hardware. This is one of the most common tasks our technicians handle in Brooklyn, where pre-war brownstones and older rental buildings are filled with original mortise lock hardware. The process requires specific tools and knowledge of the different mortise cylinder formats, which vary by manufacturer and era. We carry the tooling and pin kits for the most common Brooklyn mortise configurations.
What information do I need to provide when I call for a rekey?
When you call (718) 568-7195, have your full address ready, including the apartment number and any gate or building access notes that will help our technician find you quickly. It also helps to know roughly how many locks or cylinders you want rekeyed and whether any of them are mortise locks, smart locks, or high-security cylinders, since that affects what parts our technician brings. We will ask for basic ownership or tenancy verification — a lease, utility bill, or ID matching the address — before beginning any work. This protects you as much as it protects us and is standard practice for any responsible locksmith service.
Does rekeying work the same way for commercial doors as for residential ones?
The core process is the same — the cylinder is removed, re-pinned, and reinstalled — but commercial doors in Brooklyn storefronts and office buildings often use heavier-duty mortise lock hardware, grade-1 deadbolts, and more complex master key systems than typical residential locks. Commercial mortise locks also tend to have different cylinder formats and require specific follower sizes and pin kits. Our commercial locksmith technicians carry the equipment for these jobs and are experienced with the range of commercial hardware found in Brooklyn's retail corridors and office buildings. If you manage multiple units or storefronts, we can rekey them all in a single visit and set up a new master key system if needed.
What factors affect how much a rekey service costs?
Several variables come together to determine your final price, and we confirm that exact number before any work begins. The main factors are the type of lock hardware involved — a high-security mortise lock or restricted keyway cylinder takes more time and specialized parts than a standard door knob lock — the total number of cylinders being rekeyed in one visit, whether any pins, springs, or worn components need to be replaced during the process, the time of day (a 24/7 emergency locksmith response at an off-hour is priced differently from a scheduled daytime appointment), and your location within Brooklyn relative to where our nearest technician is dispatched from. There are no hidden fees added after the job — the price you confirm on the call is the price you pay.
Locked out or need a lock fixed? We are on the way.
Open 24 hours, 7 days a week · Insured, background-checked technicians · Up-front pricing
(718) 568-7195