When You Don't Need a Locksmith | Fixes You Can Do Yourself

About half the calls I get, I talk people out of booking me. Not because I don't want the work. Because the job doesn't need me.

I had a woman ring last Tuesday from Brownlow Fold, convinced her front door lock was broken. Wouldn't turn, she said. Key going in but jamming solid. Sounded like a faulty cylinder to her. Sounded like dry graphite to me. I asked her to try a pencil tip rubbed into the keyway and give it thirty seconds. She rang back seven minutes later to cancel the call-out. Lock worked fine.

That's a good result. For her, obviously. But also for me. Because if I'd sent someone out, charged her a call-out, swapped a cylinder she didn't need swapping, she'd have remembered that. Maybe not consciously. But she'd have felt it. And she'd never call Locks Local again.

So here's my honest list. The situations where you probably don't need me, and what to try first.

The Lock Is Stiff or Jamming

Ninety per cent of the time, this is lubrication. Or the complete lack of it.

Doors in Horwich take a hammering. We're right on the edge of the West Pennine Moors. The wind and rain off Rivington come straight down the hill and into the BL6 streets. uPVC expands in summer heat and contracts in January cold. The lock mechanism moves fractionally inside the door with every temperature swing, every slam. Over two or three years, it dries out.

Get a dry PTFE lubricant, not WD-40. WD-40 is a water displacer and it'll attract grit over time. You want a dedicated lock lubricant, the aerosol kind with the thin straw nozzle. Squirt it into the keyway, into the cylinder face, into the multipoint locking mechanism through any visible gap on the edge of the door. Work the handle and key a dozen times. Most stiff locks respond immediately.

Cost: about four pounds from a hardware shop. Time: five minutes.

If the lock is still tight after lubrication, that's when you call me.

The Door Won't Pull Shut or Align Properly

This one I see constantly on the older semis around Wallsuches and on the Lostock estate. The door starts to drop, or the frame settles, and suddenly the multipoint hooks won't line up with the keeps. People assume the lock has failed. It hasn't. The door has moved.

Look at your keeps, the metal plates recessed into the door frame that the bolts and hooks shoot into. They're usually held by two or four screws. In most cases you can loosen those screws, shift the keep a few millimetres, and retighten. The door locks cleanly again.

If the gap at the top of the door is bigger than the gap at the bottom, or vice versa, that's hinge sag. Most uPVC door hinges have an adjustment screw or two, and you can move the door laterally and vertically to compensate. There are decent videos online showing exactly how. I'm not going to pretend that's a job that requires a tradesperson.

Cost: nothing, or maybe a new keep plate at two or three pounds. Time: fifteen to twenty minutes if you've not done it before.

A door that won't align is annoying but it's not usually a locksmith job.

You've Locked Yourself Out but the Window Is Open

I'll lose money saying this and I don't care. If you're locked out and there's a window open, or a back door you haven't checked, check those first. I've arrived at houses in Adlington and Blackrod where the conservatory door was on the latch the whole time. The call-out cost was avoidable.

Also: do you have a spare key with a neighbour? Did you fit a key safe last year and forget the code? Is there a family member ten minutes away?

If none of that applies, then yes, call me. A lockout is absolutely what I'm here for, and a good locksmith should be able to get you in without damaging the lock. But exhaust the obvious first.

The Hinge Bolt Keeps Popping Open

Some front doors have a hinge bolt, a small cylindrical bolt on the hinge side of the door that clicks into a metal plate on the frame when the door closes. They're designed to stop the door being lifted off its hinges. Sometimes they get misaligned and the door feels like it won't close properly, or it bounces back when you push it.

This is almost always a simple adjustment to the strike plate on the frame, or cleaning out debris that's built up in the housing. Takes five minutes once you know what you're looking at.

The Lock Barrel Turns but Nothing Happens

Now we're getting closer to a genuine locksmith job, but not always. On older rim locks, the kind you still find on internal doors and on some back doors across the Victorian terraces up around Bolton Road, the connection between the cylinder and the mechanism can strip or disconnect. Sometimes the fix is a new cylinder for twelve or fifteen pounds and ten minutes with a screwdriver.

If you're at all confident with a screwdriver and can identify the lock brand, look up the cylinder size online. A lot of rim cylinders are interchangeable. If it's a modern multipoint on a uPVC or composite door, leave it to me. Getting that wrong costs more than the call-out.

So When Do You Actually Need a Locksmith?

I'm not trying to put myself out of business. There are real locksmith jobs:

• The lock has been snapped in an attempted break-in
• You can't identify what's wrong and it's your only way in or out
• The door frame itself has been forced and the keep has pulled through
• You need a cylinder upgrade to TS007 3-star or want an Ultion or Avocet ABS fitting properly
• It's 11pm, you're standing in the rain, and you've tried everything

Those are the calls I want. Not because they're more profitable, some are quick jobs, but because that's when I'm actually useful.

Why I Tell You This

There's a version of this trade that sends someone out for every call, charges a call-out fee regardless, and replaces parts that didn't need replacing. That version of the trade has given locksmiths a reputation that frankly we haven't always deserved.

I'd rather spend two minutes on the phone with someone from Westhoughton, talk them through a keep adjustment, save them sixty or seventy pounds, and have them remember Locks Local as the firm that didn't take the money when they didn't need to. When they do need a new cylinder, or there's a break-in, or they're locked out at midnight, that's who they'll ring.

That's the trade I want to be running.

If you've tried the obvious and you're still stuck, Locks Local covers Horwich and the BL postcodes. I aim to be with you in under thirty minutes where I can, and I'll tell you the price before I start anything. If you call and I think it's something you can sort yourself, I'll say so.