Published 2026-04-28 · Quick Keys Vegas

How Much to Rekey a House in Las Vegas: Real Costs vs Replacement

Rekeying vs replacing: which one makes sense

The most common confusion in residential locksmith work is the difference between rekey and replace. They sound similar. They are very different jobs. A rekey changes the pin configuration inside your existing lock cylinder. The hardware stays where it is. The new key works. The old keys don't. A replacement pulls the entire lock body out, installs new hardware, and gives you whatever key the new hardware came with. Rekey is fast and cheap. Replace is slower and more expensive but lets you upgrade the hardware.

For 80% of Vegas home situations, rekey is the right answer. New homeowners moving in. Roommates who moved out. Lost or stolen keys. Tenant turnover for a rental property. Service-person access that's no longer needed. In all those cases, the existing hardware is fine. The problem is just that keys are floating around unaccounted for, and the fix is to make those keys stop working.

Replace is the right answer when the hardware itself is the problem. Worn cylinders that don't turn smoothly. Damaged locks after a break-in attempt. Low-grade builder-installed hardware (common in mid-2000s and early-2010s Vegas tract construction) that you'd want to upgrade anyway. Smart-lock retrofits where the homeowner wants new capability. Aesthetic upgrades. In those cases, you're spending the money on hardware improvement, not on the access change.

Real Las Vegas rekey pricing for 2026

Scenario	Cost	Time on site
Per-cylinder rekey (existing standard hardware)	$20-$40 + service call	10-15 min each
Full home rekey (4-6 cylinders, standard)	$150-$300	45-75 min
Larger home rekey (7-10 cylinders)	$250-$450	75-120 min
High-security cylinder rekey (Medeco / Mul-T-Lock)	+$25-$75 per cylinder	15-25 min each
Master-key system (residential, small)	$250-$500	90-120 min
Master-key system rebuild (existing system)	$300-$700	2-3 hours
After-hours premium	+$50-$100	same

The standard 4-6 cylinder full home rekey is the most common job. Most Vegas suburban homes have a front deadbolt, a front knob, a back patio door, a garage-to-house entry, sometimes a side gate keyed alike, and occasionally a casita or guest house entry. That's 4-6 cylinders for most properties. Larger Summerlin or Anthem custom homes can run 7-10 cylinders, with the higher count driving up the total.

What the rekey actually involves

The process at your house takes 45-75 minutes for a standard 4-cylinder job. Here's what happens:

1. Verification. The tech checks your photo ID against a recent piece of mail or the property deed. For a rental, the lease and landlord authorization work.
2. Hardware survey. The tech walks the property and identifies every cylinder. This catches surprises (a side gate everyone forgot, a casita door, a basement access).
3. Disassembly. Each cylinder is removed from the lock body. For knob locks, that means popping the knob. For deadbolts, removing the thumb-turn side.
4. Repin. The old pin stack is dumped. New pins are loaded to match the new key configuration. All cylinders get the same configuration so one key works everywhere.
5. Reassembly. Cylinders back into lock bodies. Lock bodies back into doors.
6. Key cut. Fresh keys cut to the new configuration. Usually 2-3 keys included in the base price, more for $5-$10 each.
7. Test cycle. Every door tested with the new key plus the existing handle action.

High-security hardware in Vegas

Some Vegas neighborhoods skew heavily toward high-security cylinders. The Ridges in Summerlin, certain Anthem and Seven Hills custom homes, and the Lake Las Vegas residential corridor all run substantial Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, and Schlage Primus hardware. These cylinders use additional pin systems (sidebar, rotating, or finger pins) that prevent bumping and resist picking. They cost more to rekey because the pin kit is more expensive and the disassembly takes longer.

For a Medeco rekey, expect $25-$75 added per cylinder over standard pricing. The pins themselves are about $4-$8 each instead of $0.50 for standard pins. Mul-T-Lock is similar. Schlage Primus is the most affordable of the three. None of these are exotic. Any competent Vegas locksmith has the pin kits in the truck. Just expect the price to reflect the harder job.

Rental property rekey patterns in Vegas

Spring Valley and parts of Paradise and central Las Vegas have a heavy concentration of rental housing. Property managers in those zones rekey on tenant turnover. The economics work because per-cylinder rekey at $20-$40 is much cheaper than buying new hardware every time a tenant moves out. For a property manager running 50+ units, that's the difference between $1,000 a turnover (rekey) and $4,000 a turnover (replace). The hardware doesn't care.

For Vegas landlords, the right move is to set up keyed-alike cylinders across the property for management access, then rekey the tenant-facing locks on each turnover. That gives you a single management key that works on every unit (locked separately from the tenant key) plus fresh tenant access per move-in. The setup cost is higher up front. The ongoing turnover cost is much lower.

Frequently asked

Need a rekey in Las Vegas?

Call (725) 712-7424 for mobile rekey service across Clark County. See the rekey service page for full details. For new homeowners, the deadbolt upgrade guide covers the hardware step beyond rekeying.

Last updated: 2026-04-28.