Home Owner, Landlord, Tenant/Renter, and Realtor Locksmith Services:

• Keys locked in house or room (lockout, pop lock, pick lock, bypass lock)
• Broken key extractions
• New Lock Installation (drilling and prepping the door to accept a lock)
• New locks
• Additional keys
• Rekey
• Padlocks
• Mailbox locks and keys

Door alignment issues

These are the main reasons why latches and bolts fail. There are several causes: improperly drilled holes, incorrectly positioned strike and latch plates, sagging hinges, bowed doors, excessive gap between the door and frame, or just settling from age.

Latch replacements

Latches typically wear out before the rest of the lock, sometimes preventing the door from being opened. Kwikset latches seem to fail most often and this is typically due to design flaws and alignment issues. Standard entrance locks use latches with an additional dead-latch. This piece is meant to rest on the latch plate while the primary latch is extended inside the plate. When both latches go inside the plate, they can be manipulated to open the door, and they also bind against the back of the latch plate from the pressure of the door. This is what causes the latch to fail within a few years.
We stock replacement latches for Kwikset, Baldwin, Schlage, Yale, and Master Lock.

Bolt replacements (for deadbolts)

Bolts don’t fail very often, but alignment issues are the top reason they do. This is especially critical when they are operated by electronic components. Smooth action is required for the small motor to throw and release the 1” lock bolt. Too much binding can prevent the lock from fully engaging/disengaging, overclock the motor, wear batteries, and break the lock.

Replacement Locks:

• Knobs (entrance, privacy, passage)
• Levers (entrance, privacy, passage)
• Deadbolts
• Padlocks
• Lock Cylinders

Mailbox locks

USPS can typically replace cluster box locks, but oftentimes the wait is in excess of two months. Stand-alone mailboxes are outside of the scope of USPS and often require specialized locks, or modifications to the locking cam to work properly.
Furthermore, many cluster boxes are susceptible to manipulation. This is not the fault of the lock, but rather the shape of the hole in the compartment door. Specialized locks can be used to prevent brute force attacks.

Rekey

Rather than replacing a functional lock, the combination can be changed. This is a more cost-effective way to regaining access to the door and regaining key control. Typically, residential locks should be keyed alike. This allows you to use a single key to operate all the locks. Bedroom locks would be the common exception to this. But when you have dog sitters, caretakers, or Airbnb situations, you may consider keying the lower lock (knob, lever, or handle) to a different combination than the deadbolt. This gives you sole control over the deadbolt, which is the primary security of the door (if one is present).
The most common reasons you would rekey a lock would be for:

• Lost or stolen keys
• Staff turnover (caretaker, maid, nanny)
• Evictions
• Estates
• Binding keys (worn keys and lock pins)
• New property lease or purchases