Your First Day in a New Home, a Lock Checklist

When you get the keys to a house, you get the keys you were handed. You do not get a list of everyone else who ever had one. Past owners, tenants, relatives, agents, cleaners, contractors and neighbors may all have used a copy at some point, and some of those copies may still exist in a drawer somewhere.

That is not a reason for alarm. Most people who held a key mean no harm and forget about it. It is simply a reason to treat the lock as unknown until you have made it yours. The day you move in is the easiest time to do that, because the house is nearly empty and nothing of yours is inside yet.

Think of it as setting a clean baseline. Once the locks are yours, every key that exists is one you know about. That one step does more for peace of mind than almost any gadget you could buy.

If you can, schedule the lock work for the day you receive the keys, or the day before you move boxes in. A house with a bare floor and no belongings is a calm place to work, and the locksmith can move freely through every room without stepping around furniture. It also means no gap exists between taking possession and securing the doors.

Start at the kitchen counter with every key and fob you received. Count them, and try each one in each lock. It sounds basic, but plenty of people find on the first night that the back door key does not work, or that the shed key was never handed over. Better to learn that with daylight left.

Label each key with a small tag or a dab of paint on the bow, writing a short code you will remember: F for front, B for back, G for garage entry, and so on. Avoid writing the address on the tag. A lost key with an address on it is an invitation, and a plain letter code is private.

Make a note of any door that has a lock but no key at all. Interior doors, closets, a cellar, a gate or a side entrance sometimes turn out to be locked with nobody holding the key. A locksmith can often make a key for a lock on the spot or remove and rekey the cylinder, and our residential locksmith crew handles this type of puzzle often.

Keep the old keys in an envelope until the lock work is done, then decide what to do with them. Some people hand them back to the seller or landlord, some recycle the metal, and some keep one as a reminder of the first night. The point is that they should not sit loose in a drawer where they could be mistaken for the new set.

The cleanest fix for the unknown key problem is to change what fits the lock. Rekeying alters the internal pins in a cylinder so old keys stop working and new ones are cut. The lock body stays in the door, the hardware looks the same, and the old keys become paperweights. Replacing swaps the whole lock for a new one. Both approaches work, and the right one depends on the age and condition of what you have.

If the existing locks are solid, rekeying is usually the practical option, and our rekeying page explains how it works. If the locks are worn, loose, badly installed or of a grade you do not trust, replacement makes more sense. Our walk through rekeying or replacing lays out how to decide.

Either way, ask for all exterior doors to be keyed to the same key, so you carry one instead of four. This is a standard request and it makes everyday life much simpler. We cover the idea in more detail in our page on lock installation, which also talks about fitting new deadbolts where none exist.

With the doors open, look at the hardware itself. A deadbolt should throw smoothly into the frame and extend well beyond the edge of the door. A latch should click into the strike plate, and the door should close without being lifted or shoved. If you have to lean on the door to lock it, something is out of line, and it is better to find that now.

The strike plate and the frame behind it carry a lot of the load when someone pushes on a door. A thin plate held by two short screws is a weak link even beside a strong bolt. Longer screws that reach the stud in the wall, and a reinforced plate, make a real difference. Our page on strike plates and door frames explains why.

Check the grade of the deadbolt as well. Lower cost builder hardware can feel the same as sturdier hardware in the hand and behave very differently under force. Our guide to choosing a deadbolt grade describes what the grade labels mean in simple terms.

Hinges deserve a glance as well. The screws that hold a hinge into the frame are often short, and a door hung on short screws can be forced more easily than one hung on long ones. Swapping the top hinge screws for longer ones that bite into the framing is a small job with a visible payoff, and it can also stop a door from sagging over time.

The garage is one of the most overlooked entrances in a home. Clear the memory of any wireless keypad or remote that came with the house, and set a new code where the opener allows. Previous owners may have given the old code to friends or workers, and the remote clipped to a visor in a car you do not own may still open your door.

Look closely at the door between the garage and the house. It is often a lightweight interior grade door with a plain knob, and it may not have a deadbolt at all. If your garage is the place where tools, bicycles and a car live, that interior door is part of your front line. See our notes on garage entry door security.

If you have a side door to the garage, a gate to the yard or a service door, apply the same checks. Count the keys, try the locks, test the latch and think about who might still hold a copy.

If the garage door opener is an older model with a fixed code, it may be worth asking a garage specialist about upgrading to a rolling code type. That is outside our own work, but we mention it because the lock on the entry door is only as useful as the main door beside it. A good lock behind a poor opener leaves a gap you may not notice.

Walk the whole house and test every ground floor window and sliding door. A window that does not latch, a sliding door whose track is bent, or a latch that has been painted shut can all be easy fixes that wait years for attention. Open and close each one and note which ones feel loose.

For sliders, look at the track and the roller. A door that lifts easily out of its track can be defeated from outside. A pin or bar in the track adds protection. Our guide on sliding glass door locks lists what is available.

For windows, especially in older homes, the latch may be a small thing that has loosened from the frame. Tightening it can help, or replacing it with a newer type. See window locks for older homes for ideas that fit older frames.

In the North State, ground floor windows near the back of a house, especially those facing a hillside, trees or a quiet side yard, are the ones to prioritize. They are hidden from the road and from neighbors. A sound latch and, where suitable, a secondary stop on those windows adds real resistance for very little cost in time.

A neighborhood cluster mailbox or a private mailbox has its own key, and the post office may need to be told you are the new resident. A mailbox lock you do not have a key for is a problem you want to solve early, since mail can include bank statements and documents. Our page on mailbox and cluster mailbox keys describes the usual steps.

Do not forget the shed, the workshop, the gate and any padlocks on the property. Previous owners often leave padlocks in place with their own keys, and some of them may hold a key you do not know about. Replace those padlocks with ones you control. Our guides on barn, shop and outbuilding locks and gates and padlocks on rural property go into more depth.

If you moved into a rural property near Cottonwood, Palo Cedro or Millville, the outbuildings may matter as much as the house. Equipment, tools and vehicles often live there, and they are the first thing people look at from the road.

If the house came with a keypad lock, a smart lock or an alarm panel, assume the old codes are still stored. Find the reset procedure for each device, and set new codes right away. Many devices keep a master code that the old owner set and may have shared with friends or service workers.

Make sure the Wi Fi connection on a smart lock is yours and not still tied to the previous owner's account. Ask for the manual or look up the model, since the reset steps vary. Be wary of any device you cannot reset, and replace it if you must. Read our notes on smart locks, promises and practical limits for a sensible view.

Keep the batteries in mind. A keypad that is nearly out of power will not warn you until it fails, so replace the batteries on day one and mark the date. That tiny habit prevents the sort of lockout where a perfectly good lock fails because nobody changed a battery.

Take photos of device labels, serial numbers and manual pages, and keep them in a folder on your phone. When a code needs resetting a year from now, you will be glad you wrote down the model name. Also write down when each battery was changed. A simple note in a calendar app gives you a reminder before the lock gives you a surprise.

Once the locks are changed, decide where the spare lives. A spare key should be somewhere you can reach when you are locked out, but not somewhere a stranger could guess. A trusted friend or relative is a reliable choice, as is a lockbox mounted out of sight and set with a code that is not obvious.

Do not hide a key in the usual spots, such as under the mat, in a flower pot or on top of the door frame. Everyone looks there. Our notes on hiding a key outside and storing spare keys safely go through better options.

Also get a spare cut now. A copy made from a key you already have is simple. A key made after you lose the only one can be a longer process. Having two or three on hand before move in day is over saves a headache on a wet evening.

Think too about the key rings people carry. A single, tidy ring with the house key, a car key and perhaps a mailbox key is easier to look after than a jumble of old ones. Remove keys that open nothing you own. A smaller ring is less likely to be lost, and easier to replace if it goes missing.

If you need locks changed, we can come to the house, work on the spot and leave you with working keys. We work across Shasta and Siskiyou counties, from Redding to the small towns along Interstate 5 and Highway 97. Tell us what you have, and we will plan the visit around it.

If you find yourself locked out on moving day with a truck waiting, our house lockout service and our 24 hour emergency locksmith help are there at any hour. We try to get you inside without damage, and to leave the door working as it did.

You can reach us through the request form while our phone line is coming soon. Tell us the town, the number of exterior doors and whether you would like rekeying or new hardware. A short note up front helps us bring the right parts to the door.

• Count and test every key and fob you were handed.
• Rekey or replace exterior locks so old keys stop working.
• Check the deadbolt throw, the latch and the strike plate.
• Reset garage openers, keypads, alarm codes and smart lock accounts.
• Replace padlocks on sheds and gates with ones you control.
• Cut spare keys and decide where they will live.