Locks keep our homes and businesses silently and safely protected, leaving all belongings exactly where they should be. They are one of the first and most important factors in forming a barrier against theft and loss of property.
Unfortunately, we all occasionally experience issues related to our locks, whether they break down due to age, wear or tear, or accidental damage. You also may experience security concerns in cases such as losing your keys, experiencing a break in, or just want to be extra cautious when moving into a new property.
In these cases, you’ll often need to call out a professional locksmith and while it often feels like a good tradesperson is hard to find, it should be easy to get a local, quick service with a quick search of “locksmith near me”. Once you have a few options, you can compare prices and customer reviews.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the main reasons it’s best to call a locksmith…
Moving Into a New Property
Moving into a new property can be exciting, but don’t let that excitement make you forget about security. You’ll have a lot of admin to do when moving into a new place, but making sure that you check, update and replace the locks is one task of high priority.
Previous tenants, their neighbours, friends, family, estate agents, contractors – you never know who has key access to your new place. And even if none of the people above sound like they’d suddenly turn to a life of crime, you can never be too careful, so don’t risk it.
It’s highly recommended to replace all the locks as part of a “moving in checklist”, do this early into the process of moving into the new property to give you peace of mind. Whether you replace the locks entirely, or just get them rekeyed, this applies to any property, both homes and businesses.
A locksmithing pro can do this swiftly, so it won’t feel like a mammoth task, and you can focus on the mountain of other things you need to sort for the new property.
Enhancing Your Security
Following from the above, even if you’ve been in your property for some time, you’ll still want to evaluate your level of security and update it every so often, perhaps every couple of years or so.
New exploits in lockpicking are found over time, so you may need to update locks to counterattack this.
If you’ve had your locks for a while, maybe even many years, now is a good time to upgrade them. There are also other ways to enhance security such as cameras, motion detecting lights, camera doorbells, etc. – many of which you can monitor through your phone at any time, even whilst you are away.
Once you’ve found a recommended locksmith, you can ask them to perform an assessment and give security advice. They may suggest installing deadbolts, smart locks, or even updates to your windows and doors. It’s up to you how much of this you want to update though, budget is a factor after all.
Losing Your Keys
Perhaps you’ve lost your keys and need a replacement, it’s a common and frustrating experience that can happen to anyone. A locksmith or locksmithing shop can quickly do this for you.
But depending on where you’ve lost your keys, you might want to opt for a lock replacement or rekeying instead. You never know if previous tenants have lost their keys and someone with nefarious intentions has gained access to them, it’s a small risk but a risk nevertheless.
Rekeying is a step between replacing keys and replacing locks. Instead of replacing the entire lock, the internal locking pins are altered and new keys are issued. This is a good option if your locks are otherwise up to date and exploit free.
Emergencies and Getting Locked Out
As well as losing a pair of keys, getting locked out can be frustrating at best and panic inducing at worst.
Luckily, many locksmiths offer emergency services for such instances and will use specialised tools to try to quickly give you back access to your property without resorting to breaking the lock or damaging the surrounding property.
So don’t wait out for long, call an emergency locksmith and you’ll be able to carry on with your day as soon as possible.
It’s especially important to call a locksmith in the case of an emergency. For example, your day may have blown shut whilst you were just taking out the rubbish, but you it’s freezing cold (which could be hazardous to your health) or you have young children or someone vulnerable inside that needs a lot of supervision.
In these situations, don’t risk hurting yourself or causing damage by trying to break in or climb through a window, just call a professional to get your access back.
