Chances are that you may have heard people talk about changing all the locks in a building many times. In most cases they may not have been aware of the option of re-keying the locks or may have been under the impression that re-keying will not fully protect them from those who may still be able to gain access using the old keys.
Actually re-keying is enough and one does not need to incur the much higher expense of changing the entire hardware and installing new locks. It is an unnecessary expense when re-keying is possible.
Resource: www.chandlerlocksmithpros.net
So what exactly is re-keying? What does it mean to re-key a lock?
Simply put this is the process of altering or making adjustments to a lock so that it stops using the old key and starts using a new designated key. It is a very simple procedure that will take an experienced locksmith only a few minutes to complete but it is as good as changing the lock because old keys will no longer work.
The way it is done is that the interior chamber of a lock usually has a series of upper and lower pins. All the key does is to push this pins into alignment and the door opens. Now what the locksmith does when re-keying is to replace the lower pins in the chamber so that the ridges fit into the new key when it is inserted into the key hole. Thus only the new key will open and the old key will now be useless.
This process also means that countless number of locks can be adjusted (re-keyed) in exactly the same way so that they all use the same key. In this case one master key will open all the locks.
Re-keying is the best option and beats changing locks because the former costs only a fraction of what it would take to remove and replace entire locks.
Another Great Article On Rekeying:How To Rekey A Door Lock
