Locksmith in Mableton, GA: Rekeys, New Locks and Car Keys, 24/7

Call from anywhere in Mableton, GA and the locksmith who shows up works for 4Keys Locksmith: mobile, open 24/7, holding NASTF VSP authorization, ALOA-trained, carrying insurance with The Hartford, and set up as 4Keys Locksmith LLC through the Georgia Secretary of State. The business has no walk-in counter, so every van leaves Brookhaven stocked with pins, spare cylinders, deadbolts, a key cutter and a programmer (the model described in how a mobile locksmith works), and the dispatcher gives the arrival time for a Mableton address on the call.

At a house, one decision comes before any other: keep the lock and rekey it, or take it off the door and fit a new one. That choice is explained below part by part, since it is what decides the visit and the bill. The same trip can take care of the car in the driveway too, whether it needs a spare key, a push-button fob or an ignition that has started to bind.

Nothing is dispatched until you have heard the price for your job over the phone, and the rate card itself is public on the 4Keys price list. Talk to us in English or in Spanish; Spanish readers can also start at Cerrajero en Atlanta.

A pin tumbler cylinder has two parts that matter here: the plug, which turns, and the housing around it. Drilled across both is a row of pin stacks. The lower pin in each stack, the key pin, rests on the blade, and its length matches one cut of the key. Above it sits a driver pin pressed down by a spring. With no key in the lock, the driver pins straddle the gap between plug and housing, called the shear line, so the plug cannot rotate. The correct key lifts every stack until each split between key pin and driver pin sits exactly on that line, and the plug turns.

Rekeying changes those lengths. The cylinder comes out of the lock, the plug comes out of the cylinder, and the old key pins are swapped for a new set that matches a newly cut key, with springs and drivers replaced where they are worn. The plug goes back in, the new key is tried, and every earlier copy now leaves at least one stack off the line. The lockset, the bolt, the strike and the trim never move. Some brands shorten the work: a Kwikset SmartKey cylinder is rekeyed with a tool instead of loose pins, but Kwikset requires the current working key for that, so a lock whose only key is gone takes the ordinary route.

Changing the lock replaces all of it, and it wins in specific cases: the lock wobbles in the door or the bolt drags, the cylinder is worn or corroded so new pins will not seat cleanly, the hardware was damaged in a break-in, or you want something the old lock cannot do, such as a keypad, a restricted keyway or a deadbolt on a door that has none. Rekeying wins everywhere else, because in those cases the lock is fine and the one open question is who holds a key: a lost key, a roommate who moved out, a contractor's copy. The moving-day version of the decision has its own page for Decatur.

Two details change the answer. Doors meant to share one key must share a keyway, so a house with two lock brands may need one new cylinder before everything can be keyed alike (Virginia-Highland covers keyed-alike planning). And a cylinder in a master-keyed building carries an extra spacer pin in some stacks, which creates a second shear point for the master key; its rekey follows the building's key chart rather than a fresh set of pins. A rekey is also a chance to ask about security pins, spool or serrated drivers that make the cylinder harder to pick. On the pricing page rekeying is listed by the cylinder and a lock change adds the new hardware, which is why the dispatcher first asks how many doors there are and what you want on them.