Whether you just moved into a Vancouver apartment, lost a key, or ended a tenancy — here's how to figure out which option makes sense and what each one actually costs.
Rekeying is almost always the right first move when the locks themselves are in good condition. It's faster, it costs less, and the result is exactly the same: every old key stops working. A full lock change makes sense when the hardware is worn, damaged, cheap, or you want to upgrade to something better. In Vancouver's older housing stock — the 1970s walk-ups in Kitsilano, the heritage doubles in Mount Pleasant, the wood-frame lowrises across Fairview — you encounter a wide range of lock quality, and knowing which category yours falls into saves money.
Inside every pin-tumbler lock (the kind on virtually every residential deadbolt and knob set in BC) is a stack of spring-loaded pins. The key you use lifts those pins to a precise height, which lets the cylinder rotate. Rekeying means a locksmith removes the cylinder, replaces those pins with a different set, and now only the new key opens it. The lock body stays. The hardware on your door stays. Nothing visible changes.
This is why rekeying is so common after a move. In a dense city like Vancouver — where a pre-sale condo in Yaletown might have had a developer key, a stager key, a realtor key, and two or three sets given out to tradespeople — rekeying on move-in day is straightforward good sense. You don't know who has copies, and you don't need to.
Rekey when the lock is working properly and you simply want to invalidate old keys. The most common situations in Vancouver:
If the lock turns smoothly, the bolt seats properly, and the door fits the frame well, there's no reason to replace it. A rekey gets you to the same place for significantly less.
Sometimes replacement is the correct answer, and trying to cut corners by rekeying a failing lock just delays the inevitable. Change the lock when:
In strata buildings and older rental stock across Vancouver, we often find builder-grade deadbolts that have been in continuous use for 15 or 20 years. At that point, rekeying is fine mechanically, but it's also a good moment to ask whether the lock is doing its job. A Grade-1 ANSI deadbolt is a meaningful step up and not dramatically more expensive when combined with the service call you're already making.
If you've had a break-in or attempted forced entry, always change the lock — do not just rekey it. Even if the cylinder looks intact, the strike plate, doorframe, and lock body may have absorbed stress. We've seen cylinders that look fine but no longer engage the bolt correctly under pressure. After any forced entry, the hardware should be replaced and the frame inspected. This applies across all Vancouver neighbourhoods, though the Commercial Drive and Hastings-Sunrise areas do see a higher rate of break-in calls through our dispatch.
Prices vary based on lock brand, number of doors, and time of day, but the gap is real. A rekey typically runs $30–$60 per cylinder on top of the service call, while a full lock swap with new hardware runs more — hardware alone for a quality deadbolt can be $60–$150 before labour. If you have four exterior doors and solid existing hardware, rekeying all four is going to be considerably cheaper than swapping everything. If two of those locks are clearly tired, it may make sense to rekey the two good ones and replace the two bad ones in the same visit.
A good locksmith will tell you honestly which category each lock falls into. We do that on every call — if rekeying is the right answer, that's what we'll say.
One practical benefit of calling a locksmith rather than buying off-the-shelf replacement locks: we can key all your exterior hardware to the same key during the same visit. Pre-packaged locks from a hardware store are keyed to that box's key, so if you replace the front door deadbolt with one brand and the back door knob with another, you end up with two keys. A mobile locksmith can rekey both to match, or supply and install matched hardware from the start. For Vancouver homes with a front door, back door, and garage entry, this is usually worth doing.
Practical locksmith guides for Vancouver homeowners, renters, and strata managers.