As a locksmith operating in Newcastle and surrounding areas, I get to work not only with Newcastle homeowners but also with agencies, landlords and companies. This job was for a landlord I regularly work with, who reported one of his tenants was locked in her bedroom because her lock would simply not unlock.
Upon arrival, I assumed the lock had failed, or the mechanism jammed, and was fully prepared to get the door opened non-destructively and execute the necessary lock repair in this Newcastle property. That assumption, however, was incorrect.
As it turned out, this particular mechanism had been manufactured to be able to accommodate two different types of locks: one by default, and another one, which was the case here, that required the insertion of a few pieces of metal at the bottom of the mechanism to secure said lock.
In this case, one of the inserts had somehow moved ever so slightly towards the back of the casing, preventing the lock from moving freely so it could unlock the door. See photo No. 2 below – notice the three pieces of metal at the bottom of the case: the middle one was the culprit.
What does this all mean? Well, for one, no lock replacement was necessary at this Newcastle property today! All that needed doing was making sure all the inserts were securely held, as intended.
As a bonus, all door parts were left intact, which is an extra effort not everybody would have made, as the ‘simple’ solution in situations like this would be to snap the lock and open from there. But, AD Locksmithing commits to non-destructive work in all cases where it can be done, so snapping the lock was never going to be an option today!
For an emergency locksmith in Gateshead, call AD Locksmithing on 07865 367298.
Published: 11th September, 2023 | Updated: 9th February, 2024