How Much Does It Cost to Rekey a House in Adelaide?

Rekeying a house in Adelaide typically costs $30 to $90 per barrel plus a callout fee, so a standard 3-door home (front, back and a side or garage entry) usually lands somewhere between $150 and $330 all up. The exact number depends on how many barrels you rekey, the brand and age of your locks, and whether you want them all keyed alike.

What a barrel actually costs to rekey

A "barrel" is the pin cylinder inside the lock, the part that actually changes when a locksmith rekeys it. The locksmith picks the existing pins out, drops in a new combination, and cuts you fresh keys to match, all without swapping the lock hardware itself. In the jobs we see across Adelaide, a single barrel runs $30 to $90, with the spread coming down to cylinder type (a basic pin tumbler is cheap, a high-security or patented cylinder costs more to source pins for) and how many keys you want cut on the day.

On top of the per-barrel price, expect a callout: $90 to $180 during business hours, or $150 to $330 after hours, weekends and public holidays. Some locksmiths fold a small callout into the first barrel price and only charge extra barrels at the flat rate, others itemise it separately. Either way, ask for the total out-the-door figure before anyone starts work.

A whole-house worked example

Here is a realistic breakdown for a typical Adelaide 3-bedroom house with a front door, a back door and a garage-to-house entry, all fitted with standard pin tumbler deadlocks:

Add or remove a barrel and the total moves accordingly, a 2-door unit comes in under that range, a house with 4 or 5 external doors, a side gate lock or a shed pushes above it. If any of the existing cylinders are worn, seized or an obsolete profile the locksmith cannot source pins for, they may recommend a full lock replacement on that one door instead, which runs $120 to $350 including the new hardware. That is a call the locksmith makes on site, not something you can price accurately over the phone.

The keyed-alike add-on

Most Adelaide homeowners want one key that opens every external door, not a different key for each. That is called keyed-alike, and it is done at the same time as the rekey for a small premium per barrel, usually an extra $10 to $20 on top of the individual barrel price, because the locksmith has to match every cylinder to the same pin combination rather than setting each one independently. For a 3-door home that typically adds $30 to $60 to the total above.

It is worth paying for. Juggling 3 separate keys is the kind of thing that ends with someone locked out of the laundry door at 10pm because they grabbed the wrong bunch. If you want the full picture on how keyed-alike works and when it makes sense over a master key system, read our keyed-alike breakdown.

What pushes the price up or down

• Number of external doors: the main driver of the total, more barrels means more line items.
• Lock brand and cylinder type: common brands are quick and cheap to rekey, high-security or European cylinders take longer and cost more in pins.
• Time of day: after-hours and weekend callouts add to the base fee, a daytime booking is the cheapest way in.
• Condition of the existing lock: a seized or damaged barrel sometimes needs replacing rather than rekeying, which changes the quote on the day.
• Keyed-alike: a small per-barrel add-on that is almost always worth it for a house with more than one external door.

Rekey or replace: which is cheaper

Rekeying is cheaper than replacing when the hardware is sound, since you are only paying for the internals, not new cylinders, handles or deadbolts. Replacement makes more sense when a lock is old, damaged, or you want to upgrade to a higher security rating. If you are weighing up which applies to your place, our rekey vs replace calculator walks through your specific locks and gives you a ballpark for each path, and the full comparison is in rekey vs replace: which costs less.

A common trigger for rekeying the whole house is moving into a new property, since you have no idea how many copies of the old keys are floating around. If that is you, our rekeying and lock changes service page covers what to expect on the day, and if security across multiple properties or a larger household is the goal rather than just cost, have a look at master key systems in Adelaide.

Get an exact price for your house

Every home is different, and the only way to get a number you can rely on is to have a vetted Adelaide locksmith count your doors and check your cylinders. Ranges above are a starting point for budgeting, your quote may differ once someone has actually looked at your locks.