Is Rekeying Enough Security, Or Do I Need More?
Rekeying solves exactly one problem: it stops old keys working. It does not make the door harder to kick, and most break-ins are not key-based. If you want the door to be genuinely harder to get through, the strike plate and frame matter far more than the cylinder, and they cost about thirty dollars.
People finish a rekey and feel secure. Reasonable — something was done, the old keys are dead, the box is ticked.
The awkward part is that the thing which was fixed and the thing most people are actually worried about are not the same thing.
Two different problems
| The key problem | The force problem | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Copies you cannot account for | Somebody putting a shoulder or boot to it |
| Fixed by | Rekeying | Strike plate, screws, frame |
| Typical cost | Locksmith visit | About $30 of parts |
| Fixed by a better cylinder? | n/a | No |
| Fixed by a smart lock? | Codes help | No |
Rekeying is the correct and complete answer to the left column. It does nothing at all for the right one, and nobody tells you that at the time.
How doors actually fail
Residential forced entry is usually a boot near the handle, and what gives is not the lock. It is the strike plate tearing out of the jamb, because the jamb is thin trim and the screws that came in the box are about three quarters of an inch long. They stop in the trim and hold nothing.
The deadbolt is still locked. It is still attached to the door. The frame is in pieces.
That is why a Grade 1 deadbolt fitted with box screws fails about as fast as a Grade 3 one. The grade rates the lock. Nothing rates your frame.
What actually helps, in order
- Three-inch screws through the strike plate into the wall stud behind the jamb. A few dollars. Biggest single improvement available to most houses.
- A reinforcement plate that spreads the load across a wider area of frame instead of one small plate.
- Longer hinge screws too — the hinge side fails as often as the latch side and almost nobody thinks about it.
- Then, if you want it, a Grade 2 or Grade 1 deadbolt with a full one-inch throw. Worth doing, but fourth on this list rather than first. Lock grades explained.
So when is rekeying enough?
When the risk you are addressing is keys. Which, to be fair, it usually is:
- You just bought the house
- A tenant moved out
- A relationship or housemate situation changed
- You lost a key
- A contractor or cleaner had one
In every one of those, the concern is a key in somebody’s hand, not a boot. Rekeying is the right and sufficient answer. Nothing further is needed unless the hardware itself is worn.
When rekeying is not enough
- After an attempted break-in. The frame took the load and may be damaged even if it looks fine. Rekeying addresses nothing here.
- If the hardware is wobbling or pitted. That is a worn lockset, and rekeying a worn cylinder buys months. Why does my door lock feel loose.
- If it is a hollow builder deadbolt on an exposed street-facing door. Rekey it by all means, and put the screws in the same afternoon.
- If a key was stolen along with something identifying your address. Rekey urgently, and treat the frame as the next job rather than a someday job.
Does a high-security cylinder change this?
Medeco, Mul-T-Lock and Abloy are genuinely excellent. Patented keyways mean keys cannot be copied at a kiosk, and the cylinders resist picking and drilling in ways ordinary hardware does not.
None of that stops a boot. A six hundred dollar cylinder on a frame held by box screws is an expensive way to protect the one attack method almost nobody uses on houses. Fit the screws, then buy the cylinder if you still want it. Detail in high security locks.
The Kenner version of this
Frames here are already under stress. The metro is sinking somewhere between 0.2 and 0.8 inches a year and slabs settle unevenly, so jambs rack slightly out of square and fixings work loose over the years. A frame that was marginal when it was built is weaker now.
Which cuts both ways: it makes the screw upgrade more valuable here than in most places, and it means a lot of Kenner doors would fail sooner than their owners assume.
What to ask for
When you book a rekey, ask whether the strike plates have long screws. It takes the technician ten seconds to look and it is the most useful question you can ask on the day. If the answer is no, it is a small addition to a visit that is already happening.
Ranges are on the prices page, rekeying detail is on rekey locks in Kenner, and deadbolt installation covers the hardware side.