When You Don't Need a Locksmith | Save Your Money

I put down the phone last Tuesday having just talked a woman in Southborough out of booking me.

Her front door wouldn't latch properly. She was convinced the lock was broken. I asked her three questions, she answered them, and I told her to get a tube of graphite spray from the hardware shop and try lifting the handle while she turned the key. Thirty seconds later she rang back to say the door was fine.

She was embarrassed. She shouldn't have been. I wasn't annoyed. That's just how a lot of these calls go.

I reckon a good half of the people who ring me either don't need a locksmith at all, or need something so minor that pointing them in the right direction takes less time than driving to them would. I'm going to write that down here because I think it's the most useful thing I can tell you.

The Jobs That Are Almost Never a Locksmith Job

A Door That's Stiff or Hard to Lock

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, this is lubrication. Not WD-40, before you reach for that blue can. Standard WD-40 is a water displacer rather than a dedicated lubricant, and used regularly inside a cylinder it can leave a residue that attracts grime and makes pins sluggish over time. WD-40 Specialist dry lube is a different product and behaves better, but even then I'd rather you used graphite spray or a PTFE-based lock lubricant as a first choice. Squirt it into the keyhole and the latch mechanism, work the key back and forth, done. Costs about four pounds.

If the stiffness comes and goes with the weather, the door is moving on its hinges as the frame expands and contracts. That's a draught-seal or a hinge adjustment, not a new lock.

A Latch That Doesn't Reach the Keep

The keep is that little metal plate on the frame that the latch tongue clicks into. If the door has dropped slightly, or if the keep was never fitted quite right, the latch misses it. You'll know because the door only latches if you lift the handle or give it a shove.

The fix is almost always to move the keep down a few millimetres. Unscrew it, slot out the recess with a chisel if you need to, refit it lower. Fill the old screw holes with a matchstick and wood glue first so the screws bite. This is a twenty-minute job for anyone who's comfortable with a screwdriver. If you're not, a joiner will do it faster and cheaper than a locksmith will.

A Hinge Bolt Binding on the Strike

This is the one people never think of. A lot of composite and uPVC doors in Southborough and out towards Bidborough and Speldhurst have hinge-side security bolts, little mushroom-headed bolts that engage into a receiver when the door closes. If the door has sagged, those bolts hit the receiver at a bad angle and the door feels locked when it isn't, or locked when you want it open.

It's usually an adjustment. The multipoint lock gearbox on a uPVC door has adjustment cams, and your handle alignment might just need resetting. Look up your door make online. GU, Maco, Fuhr, Winkhaus, most of the mainstream makes have YouTube videos showing you exactly which Allen key goes where. One caution: if you over-adjust a multipoint cam you can put the mechanism out of range and end up with a door that won't open at all. Make small incremental turns, test the door between each one, and stop if anything feels like it's binding rather than freeing up.

A Mortice Lock That's Just Stiff

BS3621 mortice deadlocks, the five-lever kind you find on a lot of older semis around Tonbridge and Paddock Wood, can get stiff with age and dust. Before you conclude it's had it, try a proper lock lubricant in the keyhole and along the bolt. If the bolt drags when you throw it, check whether the door has moved on its hinges and the bolt is fouling the keep. Again, this is usually a keep-adjustment job.

When You Might Think You Need Me But Probably Don't

Locked yourself out of an internal room? Most interior door locks in UK houses open with a generic privacy key, a small flat-tipped thing that costs a pound and comes in packs of five on Amazon. The keyhole on a bathroom or bedroom lock is almost always a slot or a small pin hole. A flat-head screwdriver, a thin coin, sometimes a bent paperclip. Try it before you ring anyone.

Key broken in lock? If enough of it is proud, needle-nose pliers will get it. Don't push it further in first. If it's flush or below flush, that's when you call me.

Lock looks old and you want it replaced just in case? That's not a reason. A lock that works, has no play in it and hasn't been compromised is fine. New isn't always better.

The Stuff That Genuinely Is a Locksmith Job

I'm not writing myself out of a job entirely.

If your cylinder has snapped, either in a break-in attempt or just from old age, the door is going nowhere without a drill. That's me. If you've had a burglary or a near-miss and the door frame has been kicked, the frame needs assessing properly before any lock upgrade means anything. If your multipoint mechanism has failed and the door is locked shut from the inside, that's a strip-down job and you don't want to force it.

A lock that's visibly been interfered with, scoring around the cylinder, a loose barrel, something that feels wrong, that's not a job for a YouTube tutorial.

And fitting. If you want a proper TS007 3-star cylinder, an ABS Avocet or an Ultion, fitted correctly with the right length of cylinder so it doesn't protrude and give a burglar purchase to snap it, fit it right or don't bother. A cylinder fitted two millimetres too long undoes half the point of buying it.

Why I'm Telling You This

Because the locksmiths who tell you to book them when they know you don't need to are the ones eroding trust in the whole trade. I've heard of call-outs in the TN4 area where someone has been charged sixty, seventy, eighty pounds for a job that took four minutes and involved nothing more than a spritz of lubricant and a keep screw tightened. That's not skilled labour. That's taking advantage.

If I tell you to try the graphite spray first, and it works, you remember that. When you actually need a locksmith, when your cylinder snaps at eleven on a Sunday night, or your rental property door locks a tenant out in Langton Green, you know who gave you the straight answer last time.

That's the only reason I need.

If you do have a genuine lock problem you can't sort yourself, Locks Local covers Southborough and the TN postcodes. I aim to be with you in under thirty minutes where the job allows. Ring before you book and I'll tell you honestly whether it's worth a call-out. Pricing is on the call, no surprises when I arrive.