What I do on a house lockout
First, I pick your lock open. Nine times out of ten that’s what happens, no damage, no replacement, you’re back inside for the price we agreed on the phone.
The method depends on what you’ve got:
- Yale-style night latch (most Victorian and Edwardian front doors): picked open with standard locksmith tools. 2–10 minutes depending on age and condition.
- 5-lever mortice lock (older wooden doors, often alongside a Yale): picked or bypassed with a curtain pick. Allow 10–20 minutes.
- Euro cylinder (UPVC doors, composite front doors): picked first; if it’s genuinely unpickable we’ll talk about the drill option before anything happens.
- UPVC Euro cylinder (the barrel your key goes into on a UPVC door): picked open non-destructively in most cases. If the cylinder is genuinely damaged, replaced with a BS Kitemark 3★ anti-snap for a flat £120. If the issue is actually a failed handle mechanism (handle lifts but door won’t lock), that’s a specialist UPVC-gearbox repair I don’t cover, ring the original door fitter for that side of things.
If picking fails, which is rare, usually 1 in 5 jobs and almost always a high-security cylinder or one that’s already been tampered with, I’ll tell you before I drill anything. The drill job is a flat £120 including a BS Kitemark 3★ anti-snap cylinder and a 12-month warranty. That’s an upgrade: the replacement cylinder is more resistant to snap attacks, drill attacks and pick attacks than whatever was on your door before.
What to have ready when you call
- Your postcode, lets me give you an honest response time rather than a guess.
- A rough idea of the lock (wooden door with two locks? UPVC with a big handle? composite front door?), doesn’t matter if you don’t know.
- Photo ID if you’ve got it to hand. I’ll usually ask to see something with your address on it before I open the door, for obvious reasons.