Moving Into a New Home? A Lock and Key Checklist

This is the single most important item, and it is inexpensive. Rekeying changes the internal pin combination so every key that existed before yours stops working, while keeping the hardware already on the door. One visit covers the whole house.

Do the front door, back door, side doors, garage entry door, basement door and any exterior storage. Ideally book it for the day you take possession. See lock rekeying.

While the locks are open, have them keyed alike. Carrying one key rather than four is not just convenience: households with a simple key are far more likely to lock the back door and the garage entry consistently.

Where a lock uses an incompatible keyway, replacing that single cylinder is cheap and brings it into the same system.

Walk each exterior door and test it closed, not open. The bolt should extend fully into the strike with no lifting, pulling or shoving. If you have to help it, the bolt is not fully seated and the lock is not doing its job even when "locked".

That is usually a strike or hinge adjustment rather than new hardware. See lock repair.

Open each door and look at the strike plate on the frame. If it is a thin plate held by short screws, that is the weak point of the entire door: forced entry almost always tears the strike out of the jamb rather than defeating the lock.

A reinforced strike with three-inch screws into the framing behind the jamb is a small cost with an outsized effect. See deadbolt installation.

Back doors, side doors, garage entries and basement doors frequently have nothing but a knob latch. A spring latch can be shimmed with a card and retracts under force, so those doors are the obvious way into an otherwise secure house.

Adding a deadbolt is straightforward even where there is no existing hole. See lock installation.

• Garage. Reset the opener code and delete any remotes you were not given. Check the service door beside the garage.
• Mailbox. Often overlooked, and mail theft is identity theft. Locks can be replaced or rekeyed.
• Sheds, gates and outbuildings. Padlocks with unknown key histories are worth swapping.
• Windows and patio doors. Check that sliding door latches engage and consider secondary locks.
• Smart locks left behind. Factory reset them and delete every existing code and paired account. See smart lock installation.

Cut enough keys for everyone in the household plus one spare kept off site with someone you trust. Not under a rock or above the door frame, because those spots are checked first.

Same logic applies to your vehicles: a spare car key made while your original works costs a fraction of an all-keys-lost replacement. See car key replacement.

We handle new-owner visits across Birmingham and Jefferson County, usually rekeying every exterior lock, keying them alike and reinforcing the strikes in one appointment. Call (205) 259-8892.