Common locksmith questions
These are the questions we get asked most often. Anything specific to a particular job is answered on that service's own page, and if what you need is not here, call (716) 777-5678 and ask.
Check the other doors first, including the back, side and garage service doors, because one is unlocked more often than you would think. Then call us on (716) 777-5678. We will give you an arrival window and a price before anyone sets off. If a child or an animal is shut in a vehicle, call 911 first: the fire service will be closer and is equipped for it.
It depends on where you are and what traffic is doing, so we give you a realistic window when you call rather than a number chosen to keep you waiting. Emergency lockouts are prioritized ahead of scheduled work. We dispatch from Akron and cover Erie and Niagara County.
Yes, on the phone, including any after-hours premium and what it does and does not cover. Being quoted one figure by phone and a larger one on the doorstep is the oldest complaint in this trade, and it is a fair question to ask any locksmith before agreeing to a visit.
In the overwhelming majority of cases, no. Standard residential and commercial locks are opened non-destructively and work normally afterwards, and vehicles are opened with an air wedge and long reach tool that leave no mark. Drilling is a last resort on high-security cylinders that cannot be manipulated, and we tell you before it happens.
For a home, a driver's license with the address, a utility bill, a lease or mail addressed to you there. For a business, something linking you to it plus an owner or manager who can confirm by phone. For a vehicle, registration or title plus photo ID that matches. We ask every time, because it is exactly what stops someone else having your door or car opened.
Rekey unless the lock is damaged, badly worn or the wrong grade for the door. Rekeying changes the pins inside the existing lock so every old key stops working, which is what people usually actually want, and it costs a fraction of new hardware.
Yes, on the great majority of vehicles, and at the car rather than at a dealership. Expect it to take longer than a spare, because with no working key the immobilizer has to be programmed from scratch and most manufacturers build in a security wait of anywhere from a few minutes to nearly an hour.
Residential and commercial locks, deadbolts and mortise hardware, aluminum storefront doors, exit devices and door closers, high-security and restricted keyways, master key systems, smart and keypad locks, safes, and automotive keys including transponder, laser-cut and push-to-start systems.
Usually. A mechanical dial can often be manipulated, and a dead electronic keypad is frequently a battery or a solenoid rather than a lockout. Where drilling is needed it is a small, precisely placed hole that is repaired afterwards with the lock replaced, which is a different thing entirely from cutting a safe open.
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. Pre-war mortise locks, skeleton-key interior doors and period hardware can usually be serviced or rekeyed rather than replaced, and where you want modern security we can often fit a current cylinder into the original hardware so the door is not altered.
Usually the door is the problem, not the lock. As a frame settles, or as a wooden door swells with the seasons, the bolt stops meeting the strike squarely and the key takes the strain. Adjusting the strike or the hinges normally clears it, which is a much smaller job than replacement.
The strike plates. A deadbolt anchored with three-inch screws that reach the stud behind the frame resists a kicked door far better than an expensive lock sitting in a strike screwed to the trim. It is a small job and it is the best value in residential security.
We cover Buffalo and 13 surrounding towns and cities across Erie and Niagara County. The full list is on our service areas page. If you are nearby but not on it, call and we will tell you honestly whether we can reach you and roughly how long it would take.
Yes, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Lock problems do not keep office hours, and neither does the phone.