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.
Fast, Reliable Lock Installation & Rekey Across Arlington Heights
Lock installation and rekeying in Arlington Heights typically costs $95-$260 per lock, depending on hardware grade, and most jobs are completed the same day. We quote a firm price on the phone before a technician leaves the office, and that price is the price on the invoice. If you’re on Campbell Street, in Scarsdale, or anywhere else in Arlington Heights, call (331) 310-8471 and a live person answers.
We know this town’s houses. We know the 1963 split-level on Douglas Avenue still carrying its original Kwikset deadbolt, and the condo building near Northwest Highway where a tenant copied a key three tenants ago. That’s the work we do here. Lock Installation & Rekey is a trade that rewards knowing the specific bones of a house, and in Arlington Heights the bones are old enough to matter.
Why Novak Lock & Security Is Arlington Heights’s Preferred Lock Installation & Rekey Company
Daniel Novak founded this company in 2002 around one rule that hasn’t changed: the dispatcher quotes a written price, and the technician is not permitted to change it at the door. Haven Standard Clause 1. That rule exists because the locksmith trade has a reputation problem, and the only way to fix a reputation is to show the customer a number before anyone gets in a van. Arlington Heights homeowners read the three-star reviews. They want the price visible before they call. We publish ranges on this page and quote exact numbers on the phone.
Every visit to an Arlington Heights home is handled by a background-checked, uniformed technician. Every job ends with a documented photo record left with the customer, showing what was found and what was done. That’s not an upgrade and not a courtesy. It’s procedure, and it’s been procedure since the beginning. We’ve installed or serviced 60,000+ locks, keys, and systems across the region, each one documented.
We dispatch technicians to Arlington Heights daily. When you call, you’re not routed through a call center queue. A live person answers, takes your address, and gives you a price range for the work described. If you need us in the middle of a January night because your deadbolt won’t throw, that’s what we’re for.
Our Lock Installation & Rekey Services in Arlington Heights
Smart Lock Installation
Smart lock installation in Arlington Heights runs $185-$420 including hardware and labor. The job is different here than in a new construction subdivision. Many Arlington Heights homes have original 1960s door preps that don’t match modern smart lock footprints, so we frequently re-bore or adapt the existing cross-bore to accept a Schlage Encode, Yale Assure, or Kwikset Halo. We also check the door alignment before mounting the lock, because a smart lock’s motorized bolt will burn itself out fast if it’s fighting a swollen wood frame in April. Firm price quoted before we start. Call (331) 310-8471 and we’ll walk through your door prep over the phone.
Keypad Lock
Keypad locks are a good fit for Arlington Heights’s split-levels and ranches, especially for households with kids coming home from South Middle School or Rolling Meadows High while parents are still at work. A keypad deadbolt installation here typically runs $160-$320. The climate consideration is real: we recommend models rated for sub-zero operation, because a cheap keypad lock with exposed wiring can fail when Arlington Heights drops into the negative teens in February. We’re factory-authorized on Baldwin and Schlage keypad hardware, so warranty support goes through us, not a 1-800 number.
Key Duplication
Key duplication in Arlington Heights runs $3-$12 per key for standard Schlage or Kwikset cuts, and $15-$45 per key for restricted or high-security blanks from Mul-T-Lock or Abloy. Here’s what matters: if you live in a condo building on Campbell Street, your building’s keys are probably stamped “Do Not Duplicate” for a reason. We respect key control. We won’t copy a restricted key without written authorization from the owner or property manager. When a tenant leaves and you’re not sure how many copies are floating around, rekeying is the fix, not copying. We’ll explain the cost difference on the phone, in writing.
Biometric Lock
Biometric locks run $280-$560 installed in Arlington Heights, and we install them most often on home offices, gun safes, and interior doors where key control matters. In a house where the exterior frame swells and contracts through the year, a biometric lock on an interior door avoids the weather problem entirely. We’ll tell you honestly if a biometric lock is a good fit for a given door before we quote it. Sometimes the right answer is a Grade 1 mechanical deadbolt, and we’ll say so.
What happens when you call
- 1
A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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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.
Trusted Brands We Service in Arlington Heights
We’re factory-authorized on Baldwin, Mul-T-Lock, Sargent, and Abloy hardware, and we carry parts for Kwikset and Schlage as well. For Arlington Heights customers, that means we’re not ordering parts from a warehouse and making you wait three days. We stock common cylinders, tailpieces, and strike plates for the locks already on most post-war homes in this town. If you have a high-security Mul-T-Lock or Abloy cylinder that needs rekeying, we do the work ourselves rather than sending it out. The full brand spectrum, priced in writing before anyone turns a cylinder.
Common Lock Installation & Rekey Problems We See in Arlington Heights Homes
- Seasonal deadbolt binding from original 1960s hardware. The wood door frames on these post-war ranches and split-levels contract hard in sub-zero weather, pulling the strike plate out of alignment. When the deadbolt won’t throw, the cause is rarely the lock itself. It’s the frame.
- Factories-keyed builder locks that have never been rekeyed. In neighborhoods platted in the late 1950s and 1960s, we regularly find the original Kwikset or Schlage builder cylinders still in place. That means every previous owner, every contractor, every neighbor who ever held a “spare” key still has one. Rekeying stops that.
- Key-control failures in condo and apartment buildings. On Campbell Street and along Northwest Highway, multi-unit buildings change tenants and the keys don’t change with them. One copied key becomes a building-wide problem. Rekeying all common-area locks is the only real fix.
- Congealed lubricant in winter locks. When Arlington Heights drops below 0°F, the graphite or oil inside an old cylinder turns to paste. The key won’t enter, or the plug won’t turn. The right fix is a proper cleaning and a dry lubricant, not more oil on top.
Pricing for Lock Installation & Rekey in Arlington Heights, IL
| Service | Arlington Heights Price Range |
|---|---|
| Standard deadbolt installation (customer-supplied or our hardware) | $95-$180 |
| Rekey standard cylinder (per lock) | $25-$40 |
| Full home rekey (up to 6 cylinders, single key) | $140-$260 |
| Smart lock installation (labor + hardware) | $185-$420 |
| Keypad deadbolt installation | $160-$320 |
| High-security cylinder (Mul-T-Lock or Abloy) supply + install | $220-$420 per cylinder |
| Key duplication (standard / restricted) | $3-$12 / $15-$45 |
These are Arlington Heights market ranges, quoted as firm numbers before a technician is dispatched. The price on the phone is the price on the invoice. There is no additional call-out fee added on arrival. If you have a competitor’s written estimate, bring it to us and we’ll review it at no charge. Call (331) 310-8471 for an exact quote.
We Also Serve Cities Near Arlington Heights
Beyond Arlington Heights, our crews cover Schaumburg, Evanston, Cicero, and Chicago. If you’re just over the border in Palatine or Buffalo Grove and need a locksmith who understands the same freeze-thaw problems, call us and we’ll tell you if we can get a technician out the same day.
Serving Arlington Heights, IL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Arlington Heights 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 Arlington Heights
If the deadbolt throws smoothly when the door is open but binds when the door is closed, the problem is alignment, not the lock, and an Arlington Heights technician can usually fix it by adjusting or replacing the strike plate for $40-$80. If the bolt is worn, the cylinder is loose, or the key turns without moving the bolt, the deadbolt needs replacement, which runs $95-$180 for a standard Grade 2 unit. A technician will tell you which one it is after looking at the door, and the diagnostic is included in the quoted service call. Call (331) 310-8471 and we’ll talk through what you’re seeing.
Yes, in most cases we can. Original Schlage cylinders from that era are rekeyable as long as the cylinder itself isn’t cracked or so worn that the plug spins freely. Rekeying a cylinder runs $25-$40 per lock in Arlington Heights, and you get new keys that render every old copy useless. If the cylinder is too worn, we’ll show you the problem on-site and quote a replacement in writing before any work is done. The 365-Day Done Right Promise covers the result either way.
The answer is rekeying, not replacement, for most Arlington Heights condo buildings. If a previous tenant copied a unit key, rekeying all common-area locks and affected unit locks restores key control without ripping out hardware, and it typically runs $140-$260 for a small building. We’ll provide a written scope and a flat per-lock price before we start, and we’ll document each cylinder with a photo record. Call (331) 310-8471 and ask to speak with Daniel Novak about the building’s key system.
The oil is the problem. When Arlington Heights temperatures drop below 0°F, the oil or graphite you applied in the fall thickens into a paste that jams the pin-and-tumbler stack. The fix is a proper solvent cleaning of the cylinder followed by a dry PTFE lubricant, which costs $35-$60 as part of a service call. After that, the lock should operate through the rest of the winter. If the wood door frame is also contracting and binding the bolt, we’ll address that catch at the same time so you’re not calling back in March.
If your Arlington Heights home still has the original builder-grade deadbolt, you should replace it with an ANSI Grade 1 deadbolt that includes bump-resistant pins, and that upgrade runs $120-$220 installed. Original 1960s Kwikset and Schlage cylinders have standard pin tumblers that are vulnerable to bumping, and after 50-plus years the internal tolerances are loose enough to make it easier. Even with regular use, the upgrade pays off. We’ll show you the wear on the old cylinder before we remove it, and the new deadbolt is covered by the 365-Day Done Right Promise.
Your Locks, Your Keys, Your House
We got called to a split-level on Douglas Avenue where the original 1964 Kwikset deadbolt wouldn’t throw after a January cold snap. The wood door frame had contracted enough to bind the bolt, and the worn pin-and-tumbler cylinder was gummed with congealed lubricant. We did a non-destructive entry, rekeyed the cylinder to a new cut, and installed an ANSI Grade 1 Schlage deadbolt with a reinforced strike plate. No drilling, no damage to the door the owner had been told to replace. That’s the job we do every week in Arlington Heights.
In the mature residential neighborhoods platted in the late 1950s and 1960s, we regularly find homes that have never been rekeyed since original construction. Factory-keyed builder Kwikset or Schlage hardware still in place decades later. The average job ticket here skews toward full hardware upgrades rather than simple lockouts, a pattern you don’t see as often in the newer master-planned subdivisions of Palatine or Buffalo Grove. If you bought one of these Arlington Heights houses, the right question isn’t “Can you rekey it?” It’s “What’s actually on my door?” We can answer that question with a photo record and a written scope.
If you need lock installation, rekeying, key duplication, or a second opinion on a quote, call (331) 310-8471. A live person answers. The price you’re told is the price you’ll pay. Daniel Novak and the whole Novak Lock & Security team are ready to walk you through it.
Written by Daniel Novak, Owner at Novak Lock & Security, serving Arlington Heights and the surrounding communities since 2002.
Lock Installation & Rekey in Nearby Areas
