Door Keying for Residential Doors

Understanding how the keys and key cylinders work for residential door keying remains a mystery for many. For others, ordering new door hardware for a remodel or new construction home can be overwhelming and some people forget to even address the issue of residential door keying when ordering hardware. Ideally, a homeowner has only one key required to open all locking doorknobs, handlesets, or deadbolts to enter the home. This can be planned for upfront when ordering new hardware so you don't have to deal with many different keys or pay to have your doors keyed alike after your hardware is installed. Or worse, realize the locksets you bought are not compatible and cannot be keyed alike even by a locksmith. 

A locksmith can come to your home and re-key compatible hardware and there is a time when doing so is your best option. However, when ordering a door hardware package from Direct Door Hardware, we can arrange to have all of your locksets shipped to you already keyed alike so they are ready to install out of the box. There are many different types of keyways and keying systems out there especially for commercial doors, but for the purpose of simplicity, we will talk now only about the most common residential keying types. 

The keyway of a lock cylinder is the size and shape of the keyhole used to insert the key into the tumbler to operate the pins and locking mechanism that allows you to rotate the cylinder and lock or unlock your door hardware. Characteristics like the key length and the number of cuts or grooves alongside the key all determine compatibility.

There are also many different types of keyways that are mostly proprietary from brands such as Weslock, Kwikset, Weiser, Schlage, etc. Think of it like phone chargers. If you have an Apple iPhone, you need an iPhone charger to properly charge the battery on your phone. You wouldn't be able to use an iPhone charger with a Samsung phone. Likewise, you wouldn't be able to order locksets from different brands and expect them to all be able to be keyed alike. This is the case with most keyways, although there are several hardware manufacturers that use a common and widely used cylinder called a Schlage keyway.  

Let's first talk about which locksets are not compatible. Weslock products are the only ones to use a Weslock keyway. If you like a Weslock handleset for example and having only one key is important enough to you, you would need to also select only Weslock hardware for other exterior doors to your home. 

Kwikset is another popular keyway that is not widely used outside of the Kwikset Brand. Certain Baldwin and Weiser products use a Kwikset keyway because of the affiliation between these brands. Kwikset has a standard keyway and another type of keyway called Smartkey. Smartkey is a clever way Kwikset came up with that allows you to key your own Kwikset locks alike at home without the help of a locksmith. All Kwikset brand hardware comes standard with Smartkey keyways. Sure-Loc hardware also uses the Kwikset standard keyway.

Schlage keyways are standard for many other manufacturers of door hardware. Emtek, Schlage, Baldwin Estate Series, Deltana, and EZSet all use the standard Schlage keyway. There are alternate keyways available for some of them but unless requested otherwise, they will all ship with Schlage Keyways.

Once you know you have hardware with compatible keyways, you can have the locksets keyed alike by us or a locksmith. This is a technical process that involves changing the pins inside the tumbler to different lengths so they match the key desired. The cuts on your key determine what is called a key code. This 5-digit number is usually stamped or etched into your original keys that come with a new lockset. If you already own hardware but are needing to buy additional locksets and wish to have them both keyed alike, all you need to do is provide the keycode found on your existing keys. If you make a copy of your original keys, the code likely will no longer be there.

 If you have a key with no 5-digit code stamped on it, a local locksmith can gauge your key and tell you what your keycode is. When ordering online through our website, you can type this code and keying request into the "keying/comments" box at checkout.

We understand that dealing with residential door keying can be challenging. As always, we are here to help if you have any questions about ordering the correct hardware or keying. You can also see a visual representation of this process to find out more about How to Get Your Door Locks Keyed Alike. Give us a call at 307-886-9449 and we’d be happy to help you out! And if you need additional help with other hardware aspects, check out our door hardware help, warranty and contact information.