Locksmithing and Security

One of the commonest calls is, “My latch key turns a little bit but then stops.”

If it’s a Yale latch lock and it’s on the right-hand side of the door, then a loose snib might just have fallen down when the door was slammed shut. (The snib is the tiny button or lever that holds the bolt open or closed. A dropping snib on an ERA on the other-hand, is only going to lock you out if it’s on the left-hand side of the door. (These handings are as if you’re standing outside.)

Another possiblity for any lock with a snib is that there’s a huge gap between the door and the frame; and you left the lock snibbed yet managed to slam it shut.

One, more disturbing possibility you should bear in mind however, is that if a thief has broken in through a window or throught the back door, (s)he will usually snib the front door’s latch so as to get some warning if you return.

So, enter the premises cautiously. Send the dog in first.

If you’re choosing a latch lock, some can be snibbed open or closed, but some can only be snibbed open (also known as a hold-back).

I’ve said it before (I think) but I’ll say it again…

I would avoid bi-fold, i.e. concertina doors. They seem attractice for nice days. Lots of light coming into the kitchen-dining room. A garden and a kitchen that are almost one.

However, unless they are of the highest quality and very expensive, they tend to go wrong. Either they are on tracks, which will tend to sieze up; or they all hang off one poor set of hinges which are never strong enough. All doors move with the seasons and the chances that the bolt holes and keeps will line up with their bolts for a long lifetime are poor. Many lunatic manufacturers put a lock near a closing hinge such that if you forget and leave the key in and then open to door, the key gets broken and the door gets chunks gouged out.

They’re also murder to work on. There’s very little that I could repair. Mostly you have to get the fitters or manufacturers back; and of course, they’ve gone out of business.

And they are difficult as far as insurance is concerned. When most policies are describing what is acceptable in the way of security, it’s usually unclear which category bi-folds or concertinas fit into. So there’s plenty of wriggle room for the insurers to get out of paying your claim. And most of the candidate categories that they might fall into would tend to specify key operated bolts anyway; whereas only about 1 in 5 have key operated bolts.

I may have mentioned this before, but when phoning a small business from work, you might consider using your phone rather than the company phone. Small businesses are plagued by cold callers, “Can I speak to the person who pays the BT bill?”, despite many of us signing up to the better than nothing Telephone Preference Service. On a busy day, when you’ve answered the phone to the eleventh miserable speciment trying to con you over the phone, I’m afraid you are tempted not to answer any more Number Witheld calls. And your works phone will almost certainly come up as Number Witheld to whoever you’re calling.

It never ceases to amaze me, that people are puzzled and upset when you ask them if they can prove residence or prove ownership. Obviously we’re often called to liberate items that obstinately remain chained up and to liberate people from wet and windy porches.

I had a call from someone whose 21-speed, alloy-frame bicycle was chained to some railing in a local park the key to which had been lost. “Can you bring some proof of ownership please?”, I said. There was a frosty silence, followed by “I can assure you it’s mine.”

If you have to pull your door hard towards you (towards the frame stop) before you can unlock the latch or the deadbolt then not only is that inconvenient, it’s also leaving the lock under permanent abnormal pressure. It’s more likely that it will fail one day. And Sod’s Law says that it will fail locked with you on the least convenient side of the door.

Have a look at any draught-proof strip that might be there. Maybe it’s too thick and should be replaced with thinner. Most draught strip is stuck or pinned in place. Be careful though: it’s occasionally part of the door stop (the part of the frame that the closing door stops against).

If it isn’t the draught-proof strip then maybe you should get a locksmith to come and sort it out.

I forgot the point of the last post. Having been lucky enough to find a ladder in a first-floor customer’s garden yesterday, I decided that I finally had to get a first-floor-reaching ladder that would not only go in the van but that would go on the bike as well.

I’ve seen bike-based handymen carrying collapsible step ladders but they wouldn’t reach the first floor. The answer is a “surveyors’ ladders”. As a kid, did you ever make a ladder by rolling up a piece of paper, and cutting and extending it like this? Well you can get such a thing in aluminum. Brilliant bit of kit.

I had a call from a customer who was locked in. Given the description of the lock, I asked if I could get through a window to the inside of the door. The customer was on the first floor but he told me that there was a ladder in the garden.

(Don’t leave ladders around of course. Lock them somewhere.)

So I got in and the lock did turn out to be the one I suspected. I picked the inside tumblers which is easier on that model than the outside tumblers and got the door open.

It turned out that a new flat-mate had deadlocked the top lock when they went out. There’s a risk with any lock where a key can deadlock it from the outside cylinder and where a separate key (or no key at all) is built into the lock. Normally when the outside cylinder is changed, people don’t want to pay to have the inside tumblers redone such that the one key continues to operated both sides. Then of course, the inside key hardly gets used and is eventually mislaid. And then a new flat-mate exits and deadlocks someone inside.

So when new people move in, don’t assume that the locks are obvious. Ask yourself whether they could lock you in (or out) if they were to do something that you normally didn’t do. Another example last week was where some new people moved into the other apartment sharing a mini-vestibule with a lockable door. My customers had never had a key to the vestibule door, but the estate agent had found a key for it and given it to the new occupants of the other apartment. And of course they locked my customers out and went away for the weekend.

Quite windy yesterday. Three people out in their front garden in dressing gowns. Don’t forget to put a spare latch key in your dressing gown pocket. (And resist the temptation to dash out to the bin in nightie or PJs.)

Wow! Two months have gone by. A mixture of holiday and catching up after holiday. And running out of things I haven’t alread posted about.

Parking. Having only a modestly sized van, and using a motorbike occasionally, I sometimes forget to ask about parking and, as I think I may have mentioned already, I get slightly peeved to discover that there’s no parking at all at the customer’s.

This time it was an appointment I’d forgotten. In fact I think the customer must have been making it up as I’ve still not recalled or found the job sheet for the job they said I’d missed. Anyway I apologized and said that I’d be there as fast as I could. “What’s the address?” Well the address in question was a major road with absolutely no chance of parking so I asked about parking. “There isn’t any”, came the reply, “You’ll have to use the Residents Only bays in the side streets.”

“Ah”, said I, “you have a visitors permit I can use then?”

“No.”

I told them I’d call that evening.

Par of the reason it’s so bad there, is that it’s Lambeth. Third worst borough in London in my opinion. Neighboring Wandsworth makes nearly all bays Pay or Permit, apart from where all the councillors live, where it does tend to be Permit Only. Wandsworth also has free bike parking. Lambeth though makes the majority of its bay Permit Only; and it doesn’t allow bikes in bays; and Lambeth’s Reserved for Solo Motorcycle bays are very few and far between.

“Do you, uh, pick locks?” “Yes.”

“You don’t damage them or nothing?” “That’s right.”

“Could you come and let me into my flat on XXXington Road?” “Almost certainly. What number flat is it?”

” [long silence]  It’s the one at the back.” “I see. Will you have ID on you?”

“Well, I can find a letter.” “Right. Are you there now?”

“Well, no. But I’m only a couple of miles away. You could give me a call and I’ll nip around.”

“Oh, dear. How unlucky is that? I’ve just dropped my van keys down a drain. I won’t be able to attend after all.”

In the past, I’ve phoned the police and asked if they’d like to attend very suspicious jobs with me. Sadly they don’t take up the offer. Even more sadly, Chris will find a locksmith who will let him in.

(Chris the Crafty Cockney was a character in The Fast Show (UK TV, 1994 to 1997) who was completely up front about nicking anything.)