When to call a locksmith

This is a piece I really should not have to write, but all too often, people call me out for reasons that could easily be avoided or they have called me out too late for an expensive repair, when avoiding the problem was possible.

Common reasons to avoid using a locksmith:

A C Locksmiths Norfolk

So, let’s start with cars. If you are going to lose your car keys, or lock them inside your car, the chances are, you are going to do it when your spare key is stuck back home at the opposite end of the country.  I have done a fair few jobs now where people have been on holiday/visiting distant relatives/doing distance work, etc and they leave their spare car key at home rather than bring it with them to leave in their temporary accommodation. Car entry is not cheap, and it might mean you lose a half day waiting for the auto locksmith to arrive, which will put a downer on your holiday, or might mean you have to see those distant relatives for longer than you wanted, or that you lose the sale you travelled halfway across the country to get. At the same time, please remember to actually remove the spare key from your car when you arrive at your destination. If you are locked out of your vehicle, having the spare in the glove box is no help.

The next common one with cars, is not having a spare. When I am cutting keys at local boot sales, people ask me about prices and sometimes, the spare key is as nearly as much as their second hand car cost them in the first place. But why buy a car with only one key, especially when that key is on its’ last legs? A bargain vehicle only remains a bargain if you can drive it. I also get to see some very sorry looking remote fobs for cars. Cloning a remote fob before it gets to be useless can be a lot cheaper than generating a complete new key from scratch, especially with Fords that must always have two separate keys programmed when starting from new. And, as I said above, a spare is useless if you keep it in the glove compartment.

Never, never, never put your car keys down in your boot area. So many people open their boot at the supermarket, put the keys just inside the boot and then load the shopping. They then close the boot, having not unlocked the rest of the car and are now locked out, often with the spare in the glove compartment! (Have I mentioned that common mistake?) If you are approaching your car, when you unlock your boot, make it a habit to unlock the doors as well. And do not put your keys down anywhere in your vehicle. It might not be cool to hang your keys from a belt loop, but it might just save you the cost of a weekly family shop if you don’t have to call the locksmith. When in and around your car, only let go of the keys when they are in the ignition, and you are sat comfortably ready to drive.

People make just as many mistakes in the home. Children should never be given keys to play with. Besides the whole hygiene issue, they have a nasty habit of sticking keys into keyholes that they were not built for, thus breaking the key and often the lock as well. While on the subject of kids, if you have a bathroom lock that is getting a bit stiff, have it repaired or replaced before a small child locks himself/herself in and you are faced with hours of panic waiting for the locksmith to arrive. I recently went to a job where a toddler had locked himself in the bathroom and the lock disintegrated, with the broken bits obstructing the bits that needed to move. You can imagine the stress that poor child was under when I came along with my noisy drills and hammers, taking my time to ensure nothing flew open into the child’s face.

Got a night latch (Yale type latch lock)? Don’t trust the snib to hold that latch back even if you are just popping into the garden for a few minutes. Take your key. Pets and children are very good at closing doors with enough vibration to release the latch and lock you out with themselves on the inside and pans on the cooker (it can and does happen).

If you have a door with a multipoint locking system, oil it twice a year. Make it part of your routine when you change the clocks in spring and autumn. Use a good quality lubricant and squirt it everywhere you can see moving parts (lift the handles up and down with the door open to see) and then, when you hold the handles down to retract the latch, you will see a small gap the allows you squirt more lubricant into the heart of the mechanism. Give this about a five second squirt and work the handles up and down a few times to get the lubricant into those moving parts. This simple exercise can save you a very expensive visit from your locksmith.

Lubricate all other locks as well. They get full of grit. Insects make nests behind handles and in lock cavities. Regular lubrication will keep your lock clean and lasting longer.

Finally, I get a lot of calls from customers telling me their key works on one side of the lock (Chubb/mortice locks), but not the other. My first reaction is to tell them to try a different key and more often than not, that sorts out the problem. They have just managed to bend a prong on the key itself. Always check other keys before thinking your lock is broken. Not all locksmiths will give you a free solution over the phone.

 

If you have any questions regarding the information above, or have any other issues, please get in touch via my contacts page.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

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admin October 9, 2017

auto locksmith Norfolk / Lost car keys / stolen keys / Who you gonna call? A C Locksmiths /

Post Winter Lock Maintenance

Damaged doors & lock maintenance

Spring is finally upon us and now is the time when we need to think about all the damage the wet weather has been doing to our doors and locks.
Spring house

Wooden doors will start contracting, as the moisture dries out of them and they may start to bang around in the breeze. Taking note of the problems of a recent customer, please be aware of the potential pitfalls of buying a draft excluding weather strip. If the weather strip is too thick, it can put strain on a mortice (chubb) lock and if you are having to push or pull the door when you turn the key, this will put undue pressure on the levers inside, which will inevitably break, locking you out at the worst possible time. A simple re-positioning of the lock keep in the door frame can alleviate the problem.

Wooden doors with multi-point locking mechanisms need extra attention. Over the winter, the swollen door will have been squeezing all the working parts and holding moisture around the metal, leading to rust. At the very minimum, these mechanisms should be oiled, however, calling your local locksmith to take the whole thing out of the door for a thorough examination might cost his call out fee, but could save you a lot more if the need for a complete new mechanism can be averted.

And with multi-point mechanisms in mind, many of us will be starting to use our patio doors now that things are warming up. These too, should be oiled now and at the end of summer. As a rule of thumb, double glazed doors where you have to lift the handles before turning key, should be as easy to operate with the door closed as they are when the door is open. So open the door and lock it, then close the door and lock it. If it is significantly more difficult to lock when the door is closed, you need to call your local locksmith to make the necessary adjustments. Again, a labour cost now is far better than the cost of a new mechanism.

If you own a holiday let property, now is the best time to have your locks looked at as the last thing you want is to have your locks fail when paying customers are using it. At best, you have to compensate the customer. At worst, you lose the business of that customer and all the potential recommendations they provide. What’s more, this is a business cost, so can be offset against your tax bill at the end of the financial year. What’s best – paying the tax man or having something to show for your money?

Experience has taught me that another time locks seem destined to fail is when pet owners go on holiday, leaving a friend or family member to come in daily to feed Tiddles, or water the plants. Most of us already feel we are burdening our neighbours when we ask them to do this, so how much worse will you feel if your lock breaks while they are in charge. Can they afford to pay for a locksmith in your absence? Will they have to take time off work waiting for a locksmith to come? While maintenance is not a guarantee that this will not happen, it certainly reduces the risk. Age of the lock and badly cut spare keys are the biggest contributors here, but poor maintenance is very high on the list of problems.

Should you have any questions regarding the above, please feel free to get in touch via any of the methods on my contacts page.

Thanks for reading.  

admin April 14, 2016

Door & lock maintenance /

When do you need a locksmith?

When do you need a locksmith?

Locksmith superhero

Firstly, let me say that I am not trying to do myself out of work, but I have attended a surprising number of jobs where I was not actually required at all. I thought I’d give you two examples – and maybe they could help others save some money:

The first was to a sliding patio door that was double glazed. Everything worked fine in the open position, but when the door was closed, the mechanism just would not lock. I immediately started looking for all sorts of things around the locking part of the door, but all seemed to be in good working order. Then I did what I should have done from the start. I stood back and looked at the whole door. The answer was obvious. My customer had an insect curtain made up of lots of thin wispy strands that hung down. A few of these wispy strands had got caught between fixed section and sliding section of the door, and were stopping it from going the last millimetre that would allow the door to lock. In just a few seconds I had everything working again, but this highlights that before calling a locksmith, a quick look at your door for any obstuctions could save you money.

The second case needs a little explaining. Among the many types of insect curtain around at the moment, are magnetic ones that magically close themselves behind you as you pass through. They are great, and can be obtained quite cheaply. At night, you simply tie them back like curtains. But, if you have a double glazed door, when you tie them back, you are moving the magnets closer to the metal keeps in the frame, and here is where danger happens. My customers had tied back their insect curtain and shut the door, not knowing one of the magnets had attached itself to the door frame. As they engaged the locking mechanism, the magnet was torn from its place in the curtain and pushed into the hole where one of the mechanism hooks slid into place. Somehow, the magnet managed to get on top of the hook, and wedged, making the door un-openable. Not knowing any of this until I found the magnet, made the job very frustrating as there was no apparent reason for the door not to work.
So, if you have a magnetic insect curtain, be sure it is not stuck to the frame in any place before you lock the door.

 If you have any questions about the above, or if you do run into lock problems and cannot find an obvious cause, or you simply need help with them, please do not hesitate to get in touch via any of the ways on my contacts page.

Thanks for reading

admin August 13, 2015

Checking your locks / saving money /