Locksmithing and Security

How much of an appetite do readers have for locksmithing suggestions, I wonder. After all, you don’t want to go through a flight length checklist as you leave. But here’s a one-off check for right now if you have your keys; and it’s something to check again when you move into a new place. It concerns any kind of pin tumbler like the venerable Yale latch.

There’s a greater than one in ten chance that your latch key (your “Yale”) has a deep cut near the bow end. That’s no problem if the lock is working smoothly. However, if the lock is stiff or if you need to “jiggle” your key before it will start to turn, there’s a not insignificant risk that your key might snap off in the lock one day.

If your situation is the “jiggle” one, you could just try being careful (and sober); otherwise there isn’t much you can do except replace the cylinder and get good keys or sort out why the lock is stiff.

Have you ever had to fill in one of those interminable Answers To Questions when selling a property?

If I was buying a property, one of the questions I’d like answered is, “Are there any doors with locks to which no key will be handed over?”

I’ve just been to a job where a new owner was faced with seven doors where there were locks but no keys. Luckily they were all open and were all straightforward locks to rekey.

So, amongst the 1001 things to worry about when buying, I do suggest a one thousand and second worry: that you ask your solicitor to add such a question.

What’s a restricted section? Well it’s not something that THEY do to get you locked away. It’s a key with a profile or shape (i.e. its section) that prevents other locksmiths obtaining key blanks and thus prevents them copying your keys. (It used to be a protected design but now it has to be a patent, so cylinder manufacturers are forever inventing silly gizmos just so that they can patent and protect the key blanks.)

Should you ask for a restricted section? Well, the advantage is that you can stay in control of how many copies of your keys are in existence. This can be particularly important if you are blessed with nannies, cleaners, dog walkers or au-pairs (AKA nannies, cleaners and dog walkers).

However, key copies will cost you more: maybe £9 rather than £3; and possibly considerably more for some famous London locks. And you will have to make sure you don’t lose your registration letter or card. And new occupants will be sticking pins in wax images of you when you neglect to give them the registration on moving out.

And locksmiths can retire or go out of business, so make sure you know about escrow — who really manufactured the restricted section and how you go about getting copies from them.

Lots of new apartment blocks sprang up around here during the boom years, while New Labour was carrying where the previous government left off in its efforts (along with the Americans) to set up the spectacular bust we have just witnessed. (At least the Americans were up-front about having an idiot “running” the executive.)

Anyway the build quality of these blocks, as you would expect, is lamentable. The problem that brings customers to me is the quality of the front door and its furniture. I’ve already mentioned the door furniture, so on to the doors themselves. Chipboard. Even at its best it’s not strong enough to resist a good kicking. At its worst not enough resin of the right formulation will have been used and you’ve effectively got a thin-walled box of sawdust guarding your apartment. Add to that the use of the thinnest door they can get away with and the mortice deadbolt lock will simply burst right out of the door when it’s kicked.

Yesterday, I had to go to a new block where several apartments had been broken into, and where the builder had been as bad as ever and the architect had been even less security-conscious than usual. The doors were chipboard with very little resin. And each pair of apartment doors were closed off from the corridor behind an extra door thus keeping the thieves warm, comfortable, and out of sight and earshot as they kick the apartment door in.

What can you do? You can consider fitting a new solid door of course. You can fit mortice lock strengthening plates, which will help strengthen things a little bit. And if the block is absolutely new, form an action group to harry the architect and builder.

If you’ve bought or are renting a newly built apartment, it’s quite possible that you and everyone else in your building are out at work all day. Which means that the entire building might be unoccupied during the day. (Unless you’re rich young professional, in which case there’s a porter or concierge.)

We are seeing more and more break-ins where the thieves have been able to make as much noise with power tools (e.g. chain saws!) as they like.

Have you considered a neighbourhood watch. Or seeing if you can get everyone in the building to contribute towards CCTV cameras?

If you do either of these, ensure that they’re prominently signed. And ensure that any camera are prominent and that their fittings are hidden or very robust.

Some keys can be copied by anyone with a key cutting machine and some can’t. Those that can’t be (or shouldn’t be) copied are called restricted or protected key systems.

If you have to give keys out to friends or relatives or builders, or to nannies, au pairs or dog walkers, it’s nice to know that when those keys come back to you they are very unlikely to have been copied.

The downside is that when you do finally want another copy for yourself, it will be time consuming and expensive to get it. It may not even be possible. Restricted key systems are frequently specific to a particular locksmith, and if that locksmith has gone out of business getting copies is going to be from difficult to impossible.

If you are having a restricted key system fitted, make sure that you are told where key blanks can be got from if the locksmith, heaven forbid, goes belly-up.

If you are moving into a place, have a good look at the keys. If they are stamped with a locksmith’s name or with a longish number¹ they may well be restricted — ask, or try ringing the number and enquiring about getting key copies.

It’s much easier to come up with restricted key systems for pin tumbler cylinder locks than for lever locks. It is therefore your cylinder lock (the “Yale”) that is the more likely to be restricted. It is, however, possible to find a restricted key system lever lock (the “Chubb”); look at the stem of the key; if it isn’t cylindrical, it might be restricted.

¹ 1, 2 or 3 digit numbers stamped on a key don’t count. They are used to distinguish regular key blanks: 1A is a Yale 5-pin, 453 is a Profit blank, etc.

When you’ve moved into a new place and are contemplating the pile of keys you’ve acquired, put the ones that don’t seem to be for anything into a drawer somewhere (unlocked). But make sure that the keys that go in your pocket or purse are the complete set of front door keys. The most likely time to suffer a lockout is during the first two or three days of having moved in.

Apart from coming across intriguingly locked cupboards, mystery keys might operate locks from the inside. If you’ve got a rim lock with a key on the outside and a key on the inside, don’t assume that the outside key also fits the inside lock. If the outside cylinder was ever compromised and changed, its key will no longer operate the inside lock; and hopefully the inside key was kept.

If someone double locks the door as they leave, while you are still on the inside, you’ll be grateful you kept the inside key. You won’t have to yell to passers by from your window, throw them your key and keep your fingers crossed that they don’t just run off with it.

Where’s the best place to keep a spare key once you’ve made sure that a good friend who never goes out or on holiday has one? The pocket of your dressing gown.

The second most likely situation for a lockout is if you ever decide it won’t hurt to get the milk/shut the gate/pull the bin back from the street/rescue a bird from the cat/… in your dressing gown. Murphy’s Law clearly states that that is when the sudden gust of wind will come from nowhere and blow the door shut with you only half-decent and half-way down the garden path.

Incidentally, some say that it should have been named Sod’s Law. Actually it was Finagle’s Law, which only goes to show that (s)he was right.

And the most likely situation where you will lock yourself out? Moving day. As if the stresses of a move weren’t already enough, unfamiliarity with locking mechanisms and the new location of the hall table mean that a lot of people lock themselves out whilst moving in. Keep all your keys in your pockets at all times for the first ten days of living in a new place.

One of the most frustrating things in this job is visiting property after property where developers or builders have done a poor or half-assed job.

There are a large number of new and developed properties around South London where the doors have all been fitted out the same way. They have a “architectural quality” roller-bolt latch and a deadbolt. First of all though, let’s deal with this euphemism “architectural  quality”. I’m afraid it means cheaply bought in bulk and not of the best quality.

The roller-bolt latches in this case are not too bad as architectural quality fittings go. And in my opinion roller-bolts are an excellent choice for a latch lock. You can pop out to the rubbish bins closing the door to the wind and the neighbour’s cat but without having to take your keys because the door will push open again when you return from the bins. Even better, when you’re going out for a while you can use your key and deadlock the roller-bolt so that it can’t be pushed open. However, all this is only true if the roller-bolt latches have been fitted correctly. And in these places they haven’t; they’ve been fitted too far away from the door edge and don’t hold the door properly when latching.

Another thing to drive me nuts at the two most recent jobs for these properties is where a decorative moulding is used to hide the gap between the plasterboard wall and the door frame. That’s common enough. But builders habitually fit it in the wrong place. They place it centrally over the gap. This means it’s too close to the frame edge. This means that they then have to hack a chunk out of the moulding in order to fit the latch bolt keep. And it also means that when I come along to fit a “London bar”, there isn’t room. If the builders had left, as they should, 20 mm of moulding-free frame, the keep would fit nicely and I could fit a “London bar”.

I’ve put a page up on the main web site, offering a pre-purchase inspection of new or developed properties in order to locate any areas where builders or developers have made your new residence impossible to secure.

(What is a London bar? It’s an inexpensive strip of strong steel to reinforce the doorframe and its keeps agains a kicking, shouldering or battering ram attack. It’s one of the most important things you can do to improve your security.)

And painters (and housefolders instructing painters): please put masking tape over locks when painting doors. And this includes the face plate of the mortice deadlock. Firstly it’s usually a nice piece of brass and should be left as such. Secondly and more seriously, paint jams up the rollers in the bolt. The bolt rollers are there to stop villains sawing through the bolt. The saw can’t get past the rollers — unless the rollers don’t roll any more because of paint.

If you’ve arranged for a locksmith to come and fit an extra lock to the front door of the house you’re moving into, it’s a fair bet that they would quite like to spend a bit of time standing, kneeling, squatting or otherwise occupying — the doorway.

If you’ve arranged for removal people to bring all your furniture to your new house, they would probably also like to spend quite a bit of time transiting, blocking and otherwise taking up — the doorway.

So it’s not a hugely good idea to book both people for the same time.

Still it can be entertaining. Mother was also there (I’m guessing it was mother) and she was giving the movers the sharp edge of her tongue over some alleged damage to a piece that was so hideous I don’t know how you could be expected to tell damage from design.