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 Sterling Heights
Lock installation and rekeying in Sterling Heights typically runs $25-$45 per cylinder for a standard rekey, and $95-$220 for a new deadbolt installed on an existing door, quoted in writing before we dispatch. We serve every subdivision in Sterling Heights, from the brick ranches off Dodge Park Road to the tri-levels south of 17 Mile. When you call (331) 310-8471, a live person answers, takes the address, and gives you a firm price on the phone. That price is the price on the invoice. No dispatch surcharge added at the door, no “discovered damage” upcharge mid-job. Founded in 2002 and led by Daniel Novak, our team handles everything from a single Kwikset rekey to a full-house keying plan that includes the detached garage, the gate, and both vehicles.
Why Novak Lock & Security Is Sterling Heights’s Preferred Lock Installation & Rekey Company
Sterling Heights calls us because we treat a rekey on a 1968 brick ranch the same way we treat a deadbolt install on a new construction off Schoenherr: we name the part, name the price, and document what we found. Our technicians work to The Haven Standard, the same written quality framework we’ve used since 2002. Haven Standard Clause 1 says the price on the phone is the price on the invoice. Not an estimate that can drift. A price.
The city is dense with hollow-core steel entry doors that still carry their original first-generation deadbolts. Those locks are now 40 to 60 years old. We see them every week. A background-checked, uniformed technician arrives in a marked van, and you get a written scope before any cylinder turns. After the job, you get a documented photo record of the work. That’s standard procedure, not an add-on.
We answer the phone 24/7. If you’re locked out of the house on a Tuesday evening near Lakeside Mall, you aren’t leaving a voicemail. You’re talking to a dispatcher who can route a tech to Sterling Heights within the hour on most calls. Daniel Novak built the company around a simple rule: a real name on the van, a written price before work starts, and a record when the job is done.
Our Lock Installation & Rekey Services in Sterling Heights
Our Lock Installation & Rekey team covers the full range of residential hardware, but in Sterling Heights three services keep coming up more than any other: keypad entry, smart lock installation, and key duplication. The reason is local. This is a city of working households, many of them tied to shift schedules at the Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly Plant. A keypad on the side door means a teenager home from school doesn’t need to carry a house key. A smart lock on the front means a second-shift parent can check the door from a phone. And key duplication here is rarely one copy. It’s a house key plus two Ram 1500 keys plus a spare for the mailbox lock.
Smart Lock Installation
Smart lock installation in Sterling Heights runs $180-$320 depending on the hardware and whether we’re retrofitting an older door. Most of the brick ranches in this city were built between the late 1950s and mid-1980s. The doors are hollow-core steel with original bolt holes that don’t always match a modern smart lock tailpiece. We ream and align the hole, shim the mounting plate, and set the deadbolt so the bolt throws fully without binding. If the strike plate has drifted from freeze-thaw racking, we fix that too, because a smart lock won’t respond correctly if the bolt rubs. We install and program Schlage Encode, Yale Assure, and other major platforms, and we walk you through the app before we leave.
Keyless Entry and Keypad Lock Installation
A keypad lock install in Sterling Heights runs $140-$250 on a standard entry door. These are the most common lock we put on detached garages, workshop doors, and side entries. For households with a long service drive and a workshop set back from the house, a keypad means you can enter the shop with a code instead of digging for a key that’s frozen in your pocket. We stock mechanical and electronic keypads, and we match the finish to your existing hardware. If the door is an older hollow-core steel unit, we’ll check the deadbolt alignment before we mount anything, because a keypad on a misaligned door will eat batteries and frustrate you within a week.
Biometric Lock Installation
Biometric lock installation in Sterling Heights runs $320-$550 typically, including the fingerprint module, the deadbolt, and the labor to retrofit the door. These make sense on a home office, a gun room, or a workshop with tools worth more than the truck in the driveway. We’re direct about the tradeoffs: fingerprint readers work well indoors but struggle when a finger is cold, wet, or greasy. If you work in the yard or the garage and come back with oil on your hands, the reader may not recognize you on the first try. We install biometric locks from Yale and other manufacturers, and we show you the mechanical override key before we leave. Daniel Novak’s rule is simple: every biometric lock we sell has a physical key backup, and we cut those keys on site, not “ships in two weeks.”
Key Duplication
Key duplication in Sterling Heights is usually not just key duplication. It’s “cut me two house keys, a padlock key for the gate, and a transponder key for the Ram.” We cut standard keys on-site for $3-$8 per key, and we can duplicate most residential hardware store keys in under ten minutes. For high-security brands like Medeco and Mul-T-Lock, duplication requires the owner’s card, and the keys are cut in our shop, not out of the back of a van. If you need a transponder or proximity fob programmed for a Stellantis-platform vehicle, we can often do it in the same visit as a residential rekey.
What happens when you call
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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 Sterling Heights
We’re factory-authorized for Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, and Baldwin, and we service everything from entry-grade Kwikset to high-security cylinders that can’t be picked or bumped by standard tools. For the average Sterling Heights homeowner, the honest answer is that a properly installed Schlage deadbolt is the right value. For a homeowner with a detached workshop full of tools, a Medeco or Mul-T-Lock cylinder on that side door is worth the $85-$145 per cylinder it costs. We stock common Kwikset and Schlage parts in the van, which means most rekey and deadbolt replacement jobs in Sterling Heights finish in one trip. No waiting for a “call back once parts arrive.”
Common Lock Installation & Rekey Problems We See in Sterling Heights Homes
- Seized cylinders in January and February. Southeast Michigan winters drive temperatures below 0°F with wind chill. Moisture inside a lock freezes solid, and the key won’t turn. We see a spike of de-icer emergency calls across Sterling Heights every January, especially in the neighborhoods along Mound Road. In most cases we can thaw and lubricate the lock in one visit; if the cylinder is too far gone, we rekey or replace it on the spot.
- Misaligned strike plates every March and April. The city’s brick-framed ranches shift with seasonal freeze-thaw racking. When the ground settles, the door frame shifts, and the strike plate no longer lines up with the deadbolt. Owners force the bolt, which damages the cylinder and sometimes the smart lock motor. We realign the strike, shim it if needed, and save you a $200 replacement on a lock that was never actually broken.
- Partially rekeyed properties after a key loss. A homeowner loses a key, rekeys the front door, and forgets that the detached workshop, the side gate, and the garage all use that same key. The old key is still out there. We walk the full property, inventory every cylinder, and key everything alike in one visit. For acreage properties with outbuildings, this is the single most common security gap we find in Sterling Heights.
- Smart locks that jam on older hollow-core steel doors. Those original doors drilled in the 1960s and 1970s have bolt holes that shift over time. A new smart lock installs fine, then the bolt binds within weeks. We see it regularly in the grid-planned subdivisions off 15 Mile and Dodge Park. The fix is usually a strike plate realignment and a hole enlargement, not a new lock.
Pricing for Lock Installation & Rekey in Sterling Heights, MI
Here’s what you should expect to pay in Sterling Heights right now:
- Standard rekey (per cylinder): $25-$45, including new keys. Most Sterling Heights homes have 3-5 cylinders to rekey.
- Deadbolt installation (existing door): $95-$160 for a standard Schlage or Kwikset deadbolt. $180-$260 for a smart deadbolt with app control.
- Keypad lock installation: $140-$250, depending on the door and the keypad model.
- Biometric lock installation: $320-$550, including hardware and door retrofit.
- Key duplication: $3-$8 per standard key. $40-$90 for transponder keys, depending on the vehicle and whether programming is needed.
- Full-house rekey (house, garage, workshop, gate): $120-$240 for four to six cylinders keyed alike, depending on cylinder condition and key difficulty.
The price we quote on the phone is the price on the invoice. We don’t add a dispatch fee when the tech arrives, and we don’t renegotiate at the door. If you have a written estimate from another company, bring it to us and we’ll review it at no charge. The estimate is free. The review is free. The phone call to (331) 310-8471 is free.
We Also Serve Cities Near Sterling Heights
Our service area reaches from Sterling Heights into Warren, Royal Oak, Clinton Township, and Roseville. Our scheduling and dispatch are coordinated from our Detroit office, and our crews serve these cities daily. A rekey in Warren might take 30 minutes; a smart lock install in Royal Oak with an older door could take two hours. Whatever the job, the price is set before we send the van. We cover the full metro area, but this page is for Lock Installation & Rekey in Sterling Heights - the houses we roll up to every week. If you’re in one of the surrounding cities, we’ll route the nearest available tech to you, with the same documented record when we leave.
Serving Sterling Heights, MI - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Sterling 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 Sterling Heights
Yes. We routinely rekey a full Sterling Heights property - house, detached workshop, side gate, and garage - to a single key in one visit, usually 60 to 90 minutes. The cost for four to six cylinders keyed alike runs $120-$240. This is one of the most common jobs we do for acreage owners in the city’s grid-planned subdivisions, where outbuildings sit far from the house and haven’t been rekeyed in decades. Call (331) 310-8471 and tell us how many doors you have. We’ll quote a firm price before we dispatch.
It’s almost always freeze-thaw racking. Southeast Michigan’s winter ground freeze and spring thaw cause the ground under your foundation to shift slightly. That shifts the door frame, which moves the strike plate out of alignment with the deadbolt. Your lock isn’t broken. When you force the bolt, you damage the cylinder and eventually the lock internals. We fix this by realigning the strike plate and shimming it if needed - a $45-$80 repair, not a $200 lock replacement. March and April are our busiest months for this exact call in Sterling Heights.
Yes, in most cases. Sterling Heights was built out primarily between the late 1950s and mid-1980s, and many of those brick ranches still have their original hollow-core steel doors. A smart lock install on these doors usually requires enlarging the bolt hole and aligning the strike plate, which we do on-site for the standard install price of $180-$320. If the door frame is badly warped or the door itself is rusted through at the bolt hole, we’ll tell you before we start and give you a written price for a replacement door prep or a new steel door. We don’t push a new lock when a strike plate fix is all you need.
Yes. This is a distinctly Sterling Heights situation. The Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly Plant puts a high density of Ram 1500 and Dodge vehicles in driveways along the Mound Road-15 Mile corridor. We regularly arrive to rekey a house and end up programming a spare proximity fob for a late-model Ram in the same visit. A residential rekey plus one transponder key program typically runs $160-$300 combined, quoted before we start. We carry the equipment to program encrypted Stellantis transponders, not just cut-and-clone keys that may not start the truck. Tell the dispatcher you have a Ram that needs a spare key when you call (331) 310-8471.
A rekey does not change the vulnerability of the cylinder. Kwikset cylinders, especially the originals from the 1970s and 1980s that we still see across Sterling Heights, can be bumped or picked with standard tools. If you want bump resistance, you need a new cylinder or a new lock. We recommend a Schlage B60 deadbolt for entry doors - it runs $95-$160 installed and uses a cylinder that resists common bumping and picking. For a detached workshop or a door on a long service drive away from the house, we recommend stepping up to a Medeco or Mul-T-Lock high-security cylinder at $85-$145 per cylinder. We’ll give you the straight comparison and a written price before we touch anything.
One Visit, Everything Keyed Alike
In Sterling Heights, a single lock installation or rekey call often turns into something bigger because of how this city is built. Acreage properties with detached workshops, gates set back from the street, and long service drives mean that the “front door lock” is rarely the only lock that matters. The Stellantis plant puts hundreds of Ram 1500s in driveways along the Mound Road-15 Mile corridor, and a key lost in the plant parking lot means a house rekey and a spare transponder key, not just one deadbolt.
We rolled out to a brick ranch off Mound Road near 15 Mile where a 1970s-era Kwikset deadbolt had seized in the cold and the strike plate was pulling loose after another freeze-thaw cycle. Our tech rekeyed the existing pin and tumbler cylinder to a fresh key, set a bump-resistant Schlage B60 deadbolt, and realigned the strike on the hollow-core steel door. Then he programmed a spare proximity fob for the owner’s 2023 Ram 1500 before leaving. One appointment, documented from start to finish, with a photo record left with the homeowner.
That’s the job we do in Sterling Heights, and we do it with a written price before we start, a uniformed and background-checked technician on the van, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise behind every lock we touch. If it’s not done right, we make it right, at no charge. No fine print. No dispatch fee. No renegotiation at the door.
Call (331) 310-8471 for a free estimate on lock installation, rekeying, or any lock and key work in Sterling Heights. A live person answers. You’ll get a firm price on the phone. Then we’ll send the van.
Written by Daniel Novak, Owner at Novak Lock & Security, serving Sterling Heights and the surrounding metro area. Founded in 2002. Independent and locally operated under The Haven Standard.