Non-destructive entry first, always - and we re-key Schlage, Kwikset, and Baldwin locks on the spot while you watch
You get a price before we start. It does not change when we arrive. No surprises.
Lock Installation & Rekey in Marietta, GA: What It Costs and How It Works
Lock installation and rekeying in Marietta typically runs $65-$180 per cylinder for rekeying and $120-$320 per lock for full replacement, depending on the hardware grade and whether you’re dealing with a mortise lock on the Square or a builder-grade deadbolt in East Cobb. We quote the full price on the phone before anyone is dispatched, and that number is the number on the invoice, every time. Lock Installation & Rekey is the core of what we do, and in Marietta it means carrying hardware for three distinct eras of home construction on every truck.
Call (331) 310-8471 for a written estimate. No dispatch fee, no call-out surcharge, no price change at the door.
Why Marietta’s Housing Stock Makes Lock Work Different Here
Most metro Atlanta locksmiths treat Marietta like a suburb of Atlanta. That’s a mistake, and it’s one you’ll feel in your invoice if the technician shows up without the right parts.
Marietta spans well over a century of construction. Around Marietta Square, pre-1920 commercial and residential buildings still run mortise lock sets, cast-iron bodies threaded into the door itself. A rekey on those is a cylinder job, not a knob swap, and it takes someone who’s worked on them before. In the established in-town neighborhoods, the 1950s-70s brick ranch homes still have original knob-and-single-deadbolt setups, and their wooden door frames swell in August humidity until the deadbolt binds. Then there’s the East Cobb corridor: large 1980s-2000s colonials where builder-grade Kwikset and Schlage B-series deadbolts are now 20-30 years old, worn loose, and failing key control.
That three-tier split means the same dispatch radius produces completely different service tickets. We stock for all of it.
The Dobbins ARB Effect: Why Landlords Here Run Standing Rekey Accounts
Dobbins Air Reserve Base sits inside Marietta city limits, and it generates a rental market pattern you won’t find in Kennesaw or Smyrna. Base personnel move on a 2-3 year PCS cycle, which means landlord-owned single-family rentals near Powder Springs Road and the northwest corridors turn over tenants constantly. Smart landlords rekey between every tenant, not every few tenants, because key control is the only way to know who holds a working key to a property.
That volume creates something rare in residential locksmithing: standing rekeying accounts. A few local locksmiths here, including our team, carry the property manager’s spare keys on file and function as an on-call maintenance vendor rather than a one-off service call. The manager calls, we rekey, we leave a documented photo record with the invoice, and the property is ready for the next PCS family. That’s not a marketing line. It’s the operating reality of locking hardware near a military installation.
If you’re a landlord in Marietta managing one rental or forty, call (331) 310-8471. We’ll set up a rekey schedule that matches your turnover cycle.
Our Lock Installation & Rekey Services in Marietta
Smart Lock Installation
East Cobb homeowners replacing 1990s deadbolts with smart locks is the single most common upgrade call we run in Marietta. The question isn’t whether the lock mounts, it’s whether it integrates. We install smart locks from Schlage, Yale, and August, and we check the door alignment, the existing deadbolt bore, and the strike plate before we ever wire anything. In older Marietta homes with swollen frames, a smart lock requires a realigned strike plate or it will burn through batteries fighting the bolt.
Keyless Entry and Keypad Locks
Keypad locks are the workhorse of the Dobbins rental market. Landlords near Powder Springs Road want a code they can delete when a tenant moves out, and a deadbolt that doesn’t cost them a rekey every two years. We install commercial-grade keypad deadbolts rated for high cycle counts, because a rental door gets used more in a year than a residential front door gets used in five. For a single-family home in Marietta, a keypad lock usually runs $180-$280 installed, depending on the grade.
Biometric Locks
Biometric locks, fingerprint and fingerprint-plus-code, are a niche product we install carefully. They work well on interior doors, home offices, gun rooms, and secondary entries, but Marietta’s high summer humidity can interfere with capacitive fingerprint sensors on covered but unconditioned exterior spaces. We’ll tell you where a biometric lock works and where it doesn’t, in writing, before you spend the money.
Key Duplication
Standard Schlage and Kwikset keys are cut while you wait. But if you have a restricted or patented key system, from Mul-T-Lock or Medeco, you can’t walk into a hardware store and copy it. That’s the point. Key duplication for restricted systems requires the owner’s authorization and a signature card on file. We manage duplication for restricted systems across Marietta, including the high-end properties in East Cobb and the commercial buildings around the Square.
What happens when you call
- 1
A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
- 2
You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
High-End Properties in Marietta: Restricted Systems, Safes, and Multi-Point Locks
Marietta’s upper end, particularly the East Cobb corridor and the newer builds near Kennesaw Mountain, has a security profile that a standard locksmith call can’t serve. These homes have tall doors, multi-point locking systems, integrated alarm panels, and smart-home hubs that talk to everything except the locks. That gap is the problem.
We see restricted or patented key systems installed without coordinating the existing alarm or smart-home setup, leaving the property with two separate security systems that don’t communicate. The homeowner has a high-security lock on the front door and an alarm panel that doesn’t know the door is unlocked. We fix that by specifying a system that works with the existing infrastructure, whether that’s a Mul-T-Lock restricted cylinder on a smart deadbolt or an Abloy profile cylinder matched to a multi-point lock on a tall entry door.
For Marietta homes with safes and vaults, we service dial and electronic safe locks, including combination changes and lock replacement. No drilling unless the safe is already locked out and you authorize it in writing.
Sargent and Baldwin hardware also appears throughout Marietta’s older high-end homes, and we carry service parts for both. If you bring us a competitor’s written quote for a high-security installation, we’ll review it at no charge. Haven Standard Clause 1: the price on the phone is the price on the invoice.
What We See in Marietta Homes: The Failure Modes That Matter
We’ve been doing Lock Installation & Rekey work in Marietta long enough to know what’s behind most service calls. Here’s what we actually find:
- Worn builder-grade deadbolts in East Cobb colonials. The 1980s and 1990s Kwikset and Schlage B-series locks installed when those homes were built are now failing key control. A worn cylinder lets a bump key or a worn duplicate turn the plug. We replace these with ANSI Grade 1 deadbolts that actually resist bumping.
- Swollen door frames in older brick ranch homes. Marietta’s August humidity swells wooden door frames enough that deadbolts bind against the strike plate. People think the lock is broken. Usually the lock is fine and the door has moved. We realign the strike plate and, if needed, mortise the frame slightly, and the binding stops.
- Historic mortise locks near Marietta Square. These are not disposable. A mortise lock body from the 1920s is often better made than anything you can buy at a big box store today. We rebuild and rekey these rather than replace them, unless the body is beyond service. The original hardware stays.
- Restricted key systems installed without smart-home integration. We covered this above, but it bears repeating: a high-security lock that doesn’t coordinate with the alarm panel or smart hub is a security gap, not a security system.
A Field Note from East Cobb
We rekeyed a 1987 builder-grade Schlage B-series deadbolt on a colonial off Lower Roswell Road in East Cobb after the homeowners moved in. The lock cylinder had 30 years of pin wear, and the door frame had swollen from Marietta humidity so badly the deadbolt was binding in August. We replaced the cylinder with a bump-resistant ANSI Grade 1 deadbolt, re-pinned it to a new key, and realigned the strike plate so the bolt throws clean. The homeowner didn’t need a new door. They needed someone who knew the difference between a lock problem and a frame problem. That’s the job.
Pricing for Lock Installation & Rekey in Marietta, GA
Here’s what you can expect to pay in Marietta, in writing, before we dispatch:
| Service | Typical Marietta Price Range |
|---|---|
| Rekey a standard Schlage or Kwikset cylinder | $65-$110 per cylinder |
| Rekey a mortise lock cylinder (Marietta Square area) | $85-$150 per cylinder |
| Supply and install an ANSI Grade 1 deadbolt | $150-$260 |
| Smart lock installation (existing bore, no frame work) | $120-$280, plus the lock itself |
| Keypad lock installation (standard deadbolt replacement) | $160-$280, plus hardware |
| Restricted or patented key system, per cylinder | $180-$350, depending on system |
| Key duplication, standard key | $3-$8 per key |
A few things affect the final number. Door alignment work, mortise lock rebuilds, and restricted key systems with multiple authorization cards all add time. But the estimate you get on the phone at (331) 310-8471 is the price on the invoice. No call-out surcharge gets added when the technician arrives, and no bait figure gets “adjusted” after the work starts.
We Also Serve Cities Near Marietta
Our Marietta crews regularly run calls in Smyrna, Kennesaw, Atlanta, and Mableton. The housing stock changes, the humidity doesn’t. If you’re in one of those cities and need the same written-price standard, call (331) 310-8471.
Serving Marietta, GA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Marietta area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Lock Installation & Rekey in Marietta
Yes, and we do it regularly. Mortise lock bodies in pre-1920 buildings around Marietta Square are usually serviceable; we remove the cylinder, re-pin it to a new key, clean and lubricate the lock body, and reinstall the original hardware. We only recommend replacement when the internal springs or the deadbolt itself are physically broken. Call (331) 310-8471 for a written quote on mortise lock rekeying in Marietta.
Dobbins ARB’s 2-3 year PCS cycle means rental properties near Powder Springs Road and the northwest corridors change tenants constantly, and rekeying between every tenant is the only way to maintain key control. Landlords set up standing accounts so they can call, schedule a rekey, and have a documented photo record and invoice left at the property without re-quoting every time. We manage several of these accounts in Marietta. Call (331) 310-8471 to set one up.
Yes. Restricted key systems, like those from Mul-T-Lock and Medeco, use patented keyways and authorization cards. A hardware store kiosk cannot cut these keys, and no locksmith will cut them without the owner’s signature card on file. In East Cobb, we install these systems on single-family homes and coordinate them with existing smart-home or alarm infrastructure so you’re not running two disconnected security systems. Expect $180-$350 per cylinder, quoted in writing before work starts.
High summer humidity swells the wooden door frames in Marietta’s older brick ranch homes, shifting the strike plate and binding the deadbolt against it. The lock itself usually isn’t broken. We realign the strike plate, and sometimes mortise the frame slightly, to give the bolt clearance. A quick fix when you know what to look for. Call (331) 310-8471 and we’ll quote the alignment work on the phone.
Yes, and this is the single most common mistake we correct in East Cobb homes: a smart lock installed without coordinating the alarm panel or smart hub. We check compatibility before installation, wire the lock into the existing system, and leave you with a written record of the integration. Smart lock installation in Marietta typically runs $120-$280 for labor, plus the lock itself. Call (331) 310-8471 for an exact quote.
Call Novak Lock & Security for Lock Installation & Rekey in Marietta
We’re Daniel Novak’s team at Novak Lock & Security. We’ve been installing and rekeying locks since 2002, and in Marietta we work across the full spectrum: mortise locks on the Square, builder-grade deadbolts in East Cobb, keypad locks on Dobbins rental properties, and restricted key systems on high-end homes. Every job gets a written price before we start, a documented photo record when we finish, and a 365-Day Done Right Promise if something isn’t right. Call (331) 310-8471 and you’ll talk to a live person, not a voicemail queue.
Written by Daniel Novak, Owner at Novak Lock & Security, serving Marietta since 2002.