Guides
Guides worth reading before you spend anything
Four write-ups covering the questions we answer most often on the phone, plus a page of shorter answers. None of them ends in a sales pitch.
Longer pieces
Four things worth understanding before a locksmith arrives
Each of these exists because it comes up in conversation constantly, and because knowing the answer changes what people ask for.
- 01 Rekeying or replacing: how to decide The two are not alternatives to the same problem. One changes who can open the lock, the other changes the lock. Knowing which question you are asking settles it. Compare the two
- 02 Choosing a deadbolt for an older door Grades, bolt throw, cylinder types and the strike plate, which is where most of the difference on a hundred-year-old frame actually lies. What to buy and why
- 03 When a door stops latching Six checks, in the order a locksmith makes them, that tell you whether you have a lock problem or a door problem before anyone comes out. Work through the checks
- 04 Which car key do you have? Mechanical, transponder and proximity keys look similar on a ring and differ enormously in what replacing one involves. Identify your key
Shorter answers
The questions page
Things that do not need a whole article: what identification is needed, whether rekeying makes a lock stronger, what happens to old keys, how quotes work, and what a locksmith can and cannot legally do for you.
Why these exist
Written from the calls, not from a keyword list
Every one of these started as a conversation that kept repeating. Someone rings about a lock that has “broken” and the door turns out to have dropped three millimeters over a humid summer. Someone else is quoted for four new locks when the honest answer is one rekey. A driver discovers the hard way that the key a hardware counter copied will open the doors but not start the engine.
So each guide is the version of that conversation we would rather have had before anyone booked anything. If reading one means you decide you do not need a locksmith at all, that is a reasonable outcome and the page has done its job.
How to use them
Where to start, depending on what you know
- You know something is wrong but not what
- Begin with the latching checks. Five minutes with a screwdriver often identifies the whole problem.
- You know what you want but not which service it is
- Rekey or replace settles the most common version of that question.
- You are about to buy hardware
- Read choosing a deadbolt first, particularly the part about the strike.
- It is a vehicle
- Identify the key before calling anyone. It changes the answer entirely.
Still not sure what you are looking at?
Describe the symptom and we will tell you which of these applies, or that none of them does.