24-hour emergency locksmith service across Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau & Baker counties · (904) 827-7496

The Keys Maker — home

Lock Rekeying in Jacksonville & St. Johns County

Rekeying changes what key opens your lock without changing the lock. The Keys Maker rekeys homes and businesses across Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau, and Baker counties for $85 for the first lock and $45 for each one after, two fresh keys included. Call (904) 827-7496 for your number before we drive.

It is the cheapest honest answer to a key you no longer control — a move-in, a lost keyring, a contractor who never gave one back, a roommate who left on bad terms.

24-hour emergency service
The price on the phone, before the drive.

Licensed & Insured

St. Johns County Lic. B.L1101834 · Hiscox insured

Background-Checked Techs

Every technician screened before wearing the name

Price Before the Drive

The phone quote is the price at the door

24-Hour Emergency Service

Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau & Baker

Rekeying Work We Do

New-home rekey. The single most useful thing you can do the week you close. Builders, agents, cleaners, and the last owner’s brother-in-law all had keys to that house.

Keyed-alike sets. Front door, back door, garage entry, and the shed all turning on one key. Most homes with three or four exterior doors are carrying three or four different keys for no reason.

Rental turnover. Between tenants, on a schedule, without buying new hardware every time. This is where rekeying pays for itself over and over.

After a lost or stolen key. Especially when the keyring had anything on it identifying the address.

Office and storefront rekeys. Staff changes, ex-employees, a key that walked. For anything with several doors and several people, ask about a master key system instead.

Rekey after a break-in. Usually alongside repairs to whatever was forced. See emergency service if it just happened.

Mailbox and cluster box locks. Different hardware, same idea. Covered on our mailbox lock page.

High-security and restricted cylinders. Rekeyed where we’re authorized to hold the blanks for that system.

Rekey Lock Cylinder in Orange Park, FL
Cylinder rekey — Orange Park

Rekey or Replace? The Honest Answer

Rekey when the lock is fine and only the key is the problem. The cylinder gets new pins, the old keys stop working, and you keep hardware that already fits and matches your door. For most homes this is the right call and the cheaper one.

Replace when the hardware itself has failed or isn’t enough. A cylinder that’s worn loose, a knob rusted through by beach air, a builder-grade lock on a door you actually care about, or a spring latch where a deadbolt belongs. Then you’re buying security, not just a new key, and lock change and installation is the page you want.

We’ll tell you which one you’re looking at when we see it, including when the answer is the one that bills less. A rekey that should have been a replacement is a call you make again in six months, and that helps nobody.

What you get either way

Two working keys with the first lock, extras cut on the spot, the old keys rendered useless, and every lock in the set turning on the same key if that’s what you asked for. Work happens at your address — the vans carry the pinning kits and the key machines.

Why This County Rekeys So Much

St. Johns County has been one of the fastest-growing counties in Florida for years, and the paperwork shows up in our schedule. Closings in Nocatee, Julington Creek, and the developments along CR 210 mean a steady run of new-owner rekeys, most of them on identical builder hardware installed by the same crews.

Add the rental market. Jacksonville Beach, Southside near the Town Center, Riverside, and the student-heavy pockets near the universities turn over constantly, and every turnover is a key somebody kept.

Military moves are their own category. Naval Station Mayport and NAS Jacksonville put families on orders with short fuses, and both the family leaving and the family arriving usually want the locks answering to them and nobody else.

Then there is the beach-air problem. On barrier-island and near-coast homes, we sometimes open a cylinder to rekey it and find corrosion that makes replacement the honest recommendation. You’ll hear that before we do anything.

How a Rekey Goes

1

Count your doors. Tell us how many locks and whether you want them all on one key. That’s enough to give you a firm price on the phone.

2

We come to you. Cylinders come out, get repinned to a new key, and go back in. Most homes are done in well under an hour.

3

You test every door before we leave. New key in, new key out, every lock, with you watching. Old keys are dead the moment the cylinder is back in the door.

Rekeying Questions, Answered Straight

$85 for the first lock and $45 for each additional lock, with two keys included. A typical three-door home lands around $175. You get the exact figure on the phone once you tell us the door count. Full list on our rates page.

Against the risk most people are actually worried about — someone out there holding a key — yes. Repinning kills every old key completely. What rekeying can’t do is upgrade a weak lock. If the hardware is builder-grade or worn, rekeying leaves that exactly as it was.

Yes, as long as the locks are compatible brands and keyways, which most residential hardware is. Mixed brands sometimes need one cylinder swapped to bring it into the set, and we’ll price that before doing it.

It’s the standard recommendation, and this county gives you plenty of reasons. Between the builder, the agents, the cleaners, the previous owner, and whoever they lent a key to, nobody can tell you how many copies exist.

Roughly ten to fifteen minutes per lock once we’re at the door. Most three- and four-door homes are finished inside an hour.

Yes — those are the everyday ones here, along with Assa Abloy hardware. Restricted and high-security systems can be rekeyed where we’re authorized to hold the blanks. Tell us the brand on the phone and you’ll get a straight yes or no.

Someone entitled to authorize the work does. For a rental, that’s normally the owner or the property manager, and we’ll want it in writing if the unit is occupied.

If it has a physical key cylinder, usually yes. The codes and the app are a separate matter from the pins — our smart lock page covers that side of it.

Get Every Old Key Retired Today

Call (904) 827-7496 with your door count and you’ll have the price in under a minute. $85 for the first lock, $45 for each one after, two keys included, and every old key dead before we pull out of the driveway.

Searching for a locksmith near me in Jacksonville, St. Johns, or anywhere across Duval, Clay, Nassau, and Baker counties? The Keys Maker is the local, licensed & insured answer — one call, a real price, and a van that’s actually from here: (904) 827-7496.

Frequently Asked Questions

Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau, and Baker counties: Jacksonville and its neighborhoods, Julington Creek, Fruit Cove, Nocatee, Ponte Vedra, the CR 210 corridor, St. Johns, St. Augustine, Yulee, Callahan, Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, and Macclenny. If you’re near the edge of that map, call — we’ll give you a straight yes or no.

As fast as the nearest van allows, and you’ll get the honest ETA on the phone. Inside northern St. Johns and south Jacksonville, that’s usually quick; we don’t quote fantasy minutes just to win the call.

You describe the job, we quote it, and that quote is the price you pay. If the job turns out bigger than described, work pauses and you approve the new number first. No trip-fee surprises, no upsell at the door.

Yes — The Keys Maker LLC is a licensed and insured Florida business (St. Johns County Business License No. B.L1101834), and every technician is background-checked. Worth knowing: Florida has no statewide locksmith trade license, which is exactly why you should ask any locksmith what stands behind the word. Ours is above — verify it with St. Johns County yourself.

Yes, for most makes and model years — cut and programmed on site from the vehicle itself, including transponder and proximity keys. No tow to a dealer required.

Rekeying keeps good hardware and changes which key works it — the right move after a move-in or lost keys. Replacement is for worn, damaged, or low-grade locks. We’ll tell you which one your door actually needs, and rekeying is usually the cheaper answer.

Yes — supply, install, and configure, or install one you already bought. We’ll also tell you honestly when a smart lock is the wrong fit for a door or a household.

Check the other doors, then call (904) 827-7496. Don’t break a window — the glass usually costs more than the locksmith. You’ll get a price and an ETA on the same call, at 2 PM or 2 AM.

Warning signs: a $19 or $29 phone quote that triples on arrival, an unmarked car, no company name on the phone, cash-only pressure, and drilling as the first suggestion. A real local shop gives a firm quote, shows up marked, and can prove who they are.

After the work is done, at the quoted price. Card or cash both work. You’ll never be asked to pay before you’re back inside.

No — emergencies are the loud half. The quiet half is scheduled work: rekeys, lock upgrades, smart locks, master key systems, and new-home lock changes, booked at your convenience, evenings and weekends included.

Yes. One key for the owner, limited keys for staff, and a plan for what gets rekeyed when someone leaves. We build it around how your business actually runs.

Usually not. The fragment comes out with extraction tools, the lock gets checked, and in most cases you just need a fresh key. Don’t dig at it with tweezers — that’s how a cheap fix becomes a replacement.

Rarely. Non-destructive entry is always the first approach; drilling is the last resort for certain high-security cylinders, and you’ll approve it — and the replacement cost — before it happens.

He’ll confirm he’s from The Keys Maker and the price you were quoted. Ask for the company name before you open up — any honest tech expects the question. If anything feels off, call us back on (904) 827-7496 and we’ll confirm who’s standing there.

Salt air corrodes pins, springs, and finishes from the inside out — beach-side hardware can age a decade in a few summers. A yearly clean and graphite lubrication helps; when a coastal lock starts grinding, replace it before it seizes on a Sunday night.

Tips for Getting the Best Locksmith Service

Get the price on the phone — and treat a refusal to give one as your answer. Photograph your keys while you still have them; a picture speeds up any replacement. Keep one spare outside the house — with a person you trust, not under the mat. Rekey on move-in day, because you never know how many copies the last owner handed out. Save our number before you need it: (904) 827-7496 reads a lot better from inside the house.

Let's Talk About Your Security

One call covers it: a straight answer, a real price, and a technician who works your county every day. Emergency service runs 24 hours a day; scheduled work is booked at your convenience, evenings and weekends included. Shop visits by appointment.

Serving Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau & Baker Counties

Jacksonville · Julington Creek · Fruit Cove · Nocatee · Ponte Vedra · St. Johns · the CR 210 corridor · St. Augustine · Mandarin · San Marco · Southside · Orange Park · Fleming Island · Yulee · Callahan · Fernandina Beach & Amelia Island · Macclenny — and the neighborhoods in between. Area pages are coming online one by one; until yours is live, the phone works everywhere: contact us or call (904) 827-7496.

The Keys Maker LLC · Licensed & Insured · 35 Durbin Station Court, Unit 105, St. Johns, FL 32259 · 24-hour emergency locksmith service across Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau & Baker; shop visits by appointment. About us.

Locksmith Work Van in Front of Keys Maker Office 35 Durbin Statio in St. Johns, FL
Our van covers five counties — Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau & Baker