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 Access Control Systems Across Highlands
Access control in Highlands usually means one of two things: a keypad or card reader on a home, or a full credentialed entry system for a commercial building or rental property. We install and service both, and we’re typically on-site in Highlands within 45-60 minutes for scheduled calls. A live person answers at (818) 390-9007 around the clock, so you’ll always know exactly when we’re coming and what the job will cost before a technician ever rolls a truck.
Highlands has a specific problem most locksmiths don’t talk about: the housing stock. Most homes here were built between the 1950s and 1970s, and the original doors, frames, and lock cylinders are still in place. That shapes everything about how access control gets installed here. You can’t just pop a modern keypad deadbolt onto a door with a non-standard cross-bore and a thermally warped frame. You need someone who knows what’s behind that strike plate. We do.
Why Blackthorn Locksmith & Security Is Highlands’s Preferred Access Control Systems Company
Blackthorn Locksmith & Security has been doing residential, commercial, and access control work since 2008, led by Shane Delaney. The company is an independently owned and operated member of the Cedarwell family of businesses, and every job in Highlands runs under the Cedarwell Care Promise: a written price before work begins, shoe covers and drop cloths inside the home, a photo of the clean-up before the technician leaves, and a 365-Day Done Right Promise covering all completed work. That’s not a slogan. It’s what we hand you in writing.
Our technicians are background-checked and arrive in uniform, so the person at your door in Highlands is someone you can identify before you open it. Every call is answered by a live human, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No voicemail trees. No callback queues at 2 a.m. when a key card reader fails and a tenant can’t get into their unit. For Highlands specifically, our crews know the local streets: Base Line, the older tract blocks south of the 210, the newer apartment complexes near the unincorporated edges. That local familiarity means faster dispatch and fewer wrong turns.
This page is part of our broader Access Control Systems work, but the specifics here are uniquely Highlands. The mid-century doors, the heat-caused lock seizure, the landlord rekeying volume. We’ll get into all of it.
Biometric Access Control in Highlands
Biometric Access Control in Highlands typically means a fingerprint or facial-recognition reader wired into an electric strike, and for most residential installations you’re looking at $1,200-$2,800 installed, with commercial multi-door systems running $3,500-$8,000 depending on door count and software. Highlands commercial owners lean toward biometrics where key card sharing has become a headache – think small medical offices, storage facilities, or any business where you need to know exactly who opened a door and when. Homeowners here ask for biometrics less often, usually for a detached workshop, a gun room, or a home office where a keypad code can be shared accidentally.
Fingerprint Readers for Doors
A single-door fingerprint reader installed on an existing steel or solid-wood door in Highlands runs $900-$1,600, including the reader, power supply, and electric strike. We then program your enrollments and give you a quick training session before we leave. Every quote is written, not verbal, so you’ll see the exact price before we touch a single wire.
Facial Recognition Entry
Facial recognition units cost more – usually $1,800-$3,200 per door in Highlands – and they’re almost always for commercial storefronts or gated entries. They work well in direct sun and heat, which matters here, since a reader mounted on a south-facing wall in July has to survive 110°F surface temperatures without failing to read a fingerprint.
Commercial Access Control Systems in Highlands
Commercial Access Control Systems in Highlands cover everything from a two-door key card setup at a small office near the 210 to a full cloud-managed system across a multi-building apartment complex, and pricing typically starts around $1,800 for a single door with a card reader and electric strike, scaling to $10,000+ for multi-door, multi-tenant deployments. Highlands has a high proportion of rental units, which means landlords and property managers are a constant stream of work for us. Rekeying between tenants, adding a card reader to a common laundry room, converting a mechanical lock to cloud access so you don’t have to drive to the property every time someone loses a fob.
Cloud-Managed Entry for Rental Properties
For a 4-8 unit rental building in Highlands, a cloud access control system means you issue and revoke credentials from your phone. No more cutting new keys every time a tenant moves out. We install the controller, run the wiring, and program your admin account. You get a written scope of work and a flat per-door price before anything is ordered.
Electric Strike Installation
An electric strike lets a keypad or card reader actually release a locked door. In Highlands, the trick is that many commercial spaces still have original 1970s aluminum storefront frames, which sometimes need a retrofit kit rather than a standard strike. We carry those retrofits on the truck, so a job that might take two visits with another company is often done in one.
Trusted Brands We Service in Highlands
We install and service hardware from Schlage, Kwikset, Yale, Baldwin, Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, Sargent, and Abloy. For Highlands customers, that means the same tech who rekeys your front door can also install a Medeco high-security cylinder on a commercial back door, or swap a failed Schlage keypad without ordering parts and coming back next week. Mid-century homes here often have original Schlage A-series or Kwikset Titan hardware that takes standard pins, but some carry obsolete tailpieces that need a specific replacement part. We keep the common ones stocked. Shane Delaney has worked with these systems for years, and our techs carry parts for the brands Highlands homes and businesses actually use, not just the one a manufacturer pays us to push.
Common Access Control Systems Problems We See in Highlands Homes
- Summer lock seizure in original mortise locks. When a 108°F afternoon binds the deadbolt cylinder in a 1950s mortise lock body, the key won’t turn and the bolt won’t retract. This is the single most common call we get in Highlands from June through September, and it’s specific to this housing stock and this heat. We open these doors non-destructively with shims and tension tools, and we rekey rather than replace when the lock body is sound.
- Non-standard cross-bores on original doors. Many 1950s-70s doors in Highlands were bored for 1¾-inch backset locksets that modern smart deadbolts won’t fit without chisel work and re-boring. We’ve re-bored more doors in Highlands than in any other East San Bernardino community we serve. We do the work cleanly, with a jig, and the strike plate gets upgraded to ANSI Grade 1 while we’re in there.
- Freeze-thaw damage to outdoor gate hardware. Highlands sits at foothill elevation where winter nights can dip below freezing after 100°F summer afternoons. That swing dries out lubricants and corrodes exposed padlocks and gate latch hardware faster than down in Redlands or Loma Linda. A gate lock that works in March might be seized by November. We service and replace them, and we use weather-rated lubricants that hold up through the full seasonal range.
- Landlord rekeying volume between tenants. San Bernardino County property crime rates and Highlands’s high rental proportion mean landlords here rekey constantly. We handle master key systems for buildings with several units, so one master opens all common doors while each tenant key only opens their own unit. It’s a service model built around Highlands’s specific rental landscape.
Pricing for Access Control Systems in Highlands, CA
You should know what this costs before you call. A single keypad entry deadbolt installed on an existing Highlands home door runs $275-$550. A key card reader with electric strike for one commercial door runs $1,800-$2,600. A full biometric fingerprint reader runs $900-$1,600 residential, $2,500-$4,500 commercial per door. A cloud access system for a 4-8 unit rental property typically lands between $3,000 and $7,000 depending on door count and wiring runs. There’s no dispatch fee hidden in any of those numbers.
Here’s our rule: the price we quote on the phone is the price on the invoice. Always. You get it in writing before any work starts. If you’re comparing us to another shop in the Inland Empire, ask them if their quote is verbal or written. That’s usually where the difference shows.
Call (818) 390-9007 for an exact quote on your Highlands property. Estimates are free.
We Also Serve Cities Near Highlands
Our crews cover Highlands and the wider region, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. If you manage properties in multiple markets, the same Blackthorn team can handle access control across all of them. One call, one standard of work, one written price.
Serving Highlands, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Highlands 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 About Access Control Systems in Highlands
No, not usually. The mortise lock body on most mid-century Highlands homes is made of solid brass or steel and is still mechanically sound. What fails is the cylinder, the pins, and the strike plate. If you want a keypad or card reader on that door, we can often install an electric strike or a motorized retrofit into the existing mortise pocket without replacing the whole lock body. The honest answer: if the lock body is cracked or the internal springs are shot, replacement makes sense. If the bolt still throws cleanly and the cylinder just binds in summer, rekey it and upgrade the strike. Call (818) 390-9007 and describe your door – we’ll tell you which path fits.
Redlands sits at lower elevation with milder temperature swings. Highlands is at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains where summer days exceed 105°F and winter nights can freeze. That range causes metal door frames, strike plates, and deadbolt cylinders to expand and contract enough to bind a cylinder in a warped frame. It’s a predictable, seasonal failure pattern here, and the fix is usually a combination of re-pinning the cylinder, lubricating with a weather-stable product, and adjusting the strike plate. Call us in spring and we’ll set your doors up for the summer heat.
Yes. We design and pin master key systems for apartment buildings, duplexes, and commercial spaces throughout Highlands. The system gives you one master key that opens every unit door and common area, while each tenant key opens only their own unit. We use Schlage or Medeco cylinders depending on your security level and key duplication control. Pricing depends on cylinder count and whether you want restricted keyways. Call (818) 390-9007 for a written per-cylinder quote.
Yes. We install fingerprint and facial recognition readers on commercial doors across Highlands, usually integrated with an electric strike and a cloud management dashboard. For a small medical office or storage facility, a single-door biometric setup typically runs $2,500-$4,500 installed. You get a written scope of work and a flat per-door price before we order anything. Our techs handle the wiring, the programming, and the enrollment training.
Rekeying means we change the pins inside the existing cylinder so the old keys stop working and new keys do. It costs $75-$150 per lock in Highlands and takes about 20-30 minutes per cylinder. Replacing means we install a new lock body, cylinder, or full hardware set, which runs $150-$450 per door depending on brand and finish. If your existing mortise or cylindrical lock is mechanically sound, rekeying is almost always the better value. If the keyway is worn, the tailpiece is broken, or you want modern features, replacement is the honest call. We’ll show you the condition before we recommend either.
Contact Blackthorn Locksmith & Security in Highlands
If you’re in Highlands and you need access control installed, serviced, or just looked at honestly, call us. A live person answers at (818) 390-9007 24 hours a day. You’ll get a written price before any work starts, shoe covers and drop cloths inside your home, a photo of the clean-up before we leave, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing if anything isn’t right. That’s how we’ve worked since 2008, and that’s how we’ll work on your Highlands property.
Written by Shane Delaney, Owner at Blackthorn Locksmith & Security, serving Highlands since 2008.