Sound familiar?Cambridge
- The call
- The key turns a full circle without any resistance and the deadbolt stays exactly where it is. There is no click, nothing moves behind the face of the lock, and the door is as closed as it was before you touched it.
Every time you pull the key out of the side door it comes away gritty. The lock has been sticky since the salt trucks started running, and today it has gone from sticky to solid, with the bolt still thrown.
In plain words
Many jammed locks are not lock problems at all. Wood doors swell in humid weather and shrink in dry winter air, hinges loosen and let the door drop, and a strike plate that was fine in spring is a few millimetres out by autumn. When that happens the bolt is squeezed in its pocket and the key cannot move it. The locksmith checks this first by loading the door in different directions while working the key, and by comparing how the lock behaves with the door open. If the door is the cause, the opening is gentle and the lasting fix is a hinge, strike or seal adjustment.
Seized & Jammed Lock Opening · Cambridge
How the visit goes
Scene 1
What is inside the keyway
A small mirror and a bright light show what the keyway has collected. Salt crust, sand, metal filings, sawdust from a renovation and the gummy residue of household spray oils are all common, and each reads differently: a dry gritty feel, a sticky drag, or a plug that will not accept the key to full depth. Ice shows as frost on the cylinder face and a key that stops short. A cylinder cap that has loosened lets the plug sit crooked so the pins never line up. This look decides whether the cylinder needs a flush and dry lubricant, a thaw, a re-tightened cap, or a full strip on the bench.
Scene 2
Opening when the tailpiece has failed
A key that spins freely means the cylinder is fine and the bar behind it, the tailpiece or cam, has broken, slipped or twisted out of engagement. The bolt is then retracted directly through the mechanism rather than through the cylinder, or the cylinder is withdrawn so the locksmith can reach the bolt drive. Once the door is open the old tailpiece is removed and a replacement of the correct length and profile is fitted, since one that is too short repeats the fault and one that is too long binds. The cylinder goes back, the retaining screws are checked, and the bolt is thrown and retracted with the key until it moves cleanly through its full travel.
Scene 3
The early warnings to act on
A lock gives notice before it seizes, and now you know the signs. A key that needs a jiggle to seat, a plug that turns stiffly on cold mornings, a bolt that drags in its pocket, a lever that returns slowly, or a key that comes out gritty are all invitations to act while the fix is small. Stop as soon as a key begins to bend; a snapped key turns a service call into an extraction. A puff of dry lubricant or a turn of the strike screws often settles it, and a call while the lock still turns is a shorter visit than a call after it stops.
In the van
- Mortise case spring and hub
- Cylinder springs, pins and cap
- Electronic contact cleaner
- Replacement cylinder
- Key blanks and code cutter
What shapes the quotePreston Locksmith Co.
- Signs of an earlier struggle
- A key snapped in the plug, a twisted cylinder or a bent latch from a screwdriver adds an extraction or a repair to the opening, and the locksmith points that out before quoting it.
- Door and hinge adjustment
- When the door caused the jam, hinge screws, shims, a strike move or a deepened bolt pocket are quoted as their own line beside the opening.
- Small parts behind the cylinder
- Tailpieces, cams, springs, cylinder caps and pins are minor items, but each one used is named on the quote so you can see what went into the lock.
FeesSame any hour
Good questions about locks
Can a seized lock be opened without damaging it?
In most cases, yes. A bolt held by the door is freed by relieving the pressure on the door. A cylinder clogged with grit or ice is cleaned and thawed until it turns. A failed tailpiece is bypassed and replaced. The lock stays on the door with its finish and your existing keys. A plug or shell that is worn, damaged, or eaten through by corrosion or earlier forcing is what has to be replaced, and that is explained before any work starts.
The lever on our shop door goes down but the latch does not pull back. Is that a lock problem?
It usually points to the mortise case rather than the cylinder, and it is a common complaint on commercial doors. Inside the case a return spring, a worn hub, or another part of the latch's drive path can have failed, so the lever moves without driving the latch. The locksmith gets the door open, draws the case out of the door edge, replaces the worn part, cleans and greases the contact points and refits everything, then tests lever, key and thumb-turn together.
Is a key stuck in the lock the same problem as a jammed lock?
They are close relatives. A key that will not come out is usually a plug that has not returned to its neutral position with the shell, a cylinder cap that has loosened, debris in the keyway, or a cylinder that is pinned incorrectly; some cylinders are also designed to hold the key until the plug is returned. The locksmith frees the key first, without pulling, then treats the cause the same way as any seized cylinder.
Lockout Services
- Business Lockout ServiceIt is ten to nine, three staff are on the sidewalk with their coffees, and the key that has opened the glass front door for six…
- Broken Key ExtractionThe key went in like any other morning, you turned it, and something gave with a small metallic click.
- Break-In Damage Lock RepairThe shop's aluminum door has a bent meeting stile and the hookbolt is jammed half out.
- Lost Keys — Same-Visit RekeyThe lawyer's envelope held two keys for the new house.
Cambridgeinformation
WaterlooOntario
- Town
- Cambridge, Waterloo
- In business
- 26 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7
- Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (226) 807-5217
- Visits
- On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.
2021 census: what it means at the door
Every square is one home in a hundred.
- 48 in 100 homes · mixed ages
- 57 in 100 homes · mixed housing
- About 48% of homes in Cambridge were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Mixed housing stock keeps a locksmith versatile. A morning might be a heritage mortise lock rebuilt and an afternoon a smart lock paired to a phone on a steel door. The same care goes into both, with tools and parts for each.
- Single-detached houses make up about 57% of homes in Cambridge (2021 Census).Mixed housing brings mixed hardware ages as well as types. A locksmith may rebuild a mortise lock on a semi-detached house and then set up a keypad on a townhouse door across the road, and treats each with the care its owner expects.
On-site assessment
Request a visit.
Every time you pull the key out of the side door it comes away gritty.
(226) 807-5217, open 24/7.