From the locksmith
Practical advice on lockouts, rekeying, security upgrades, and how to protect yourself from fraudulent locksmiths — from Kobi and the Locksmith Enforcement team.
Pet sitters, cleaning services, adult children visiting from out of state — an active adult household usually needs to let someone in when nobody's home. Here's how the three common ways of doing that actually compare, and how each one fails.
Buy a deadbolt at a big-box store for a manufactured home and there's a fair chance it won't fit the door. The reasons are structural, not brand-related — and knowing them before you buy saves a return trip.
Inheriting a house often means inheriting a door you can't open. The lock part is straightforward. The part people don't expect is being asked to prove you're entitled to be let in — and that's a good thing.
Getting the key back isn't the same as getting every key back. Whether you can do anything about it depends on one thing first: whether you rent or own.
A renovation hands out more access than anyone tracks — the main contractor, their subs, a lockbox code shared over the phone. Closing that back down is a twenty-minute job most people forget entirely.
A sliding door that got heavier every year isn't dirty — it's riding on failed rollers and grinding a groove into the track. Here's how to tell the difference, and why waiting makes the repair bigger.
Most people who buy a replacement sliding door handle buy the wrong one. Handle sets are specified by dimensions, not by door brand — here are the four measurements that decide what actually fits.
The wear you notice as an annoyance — a door that's heavy, or only latches if you lift it — is the same wear that makes a patio door easier to defeat. Here's how the two connect.
Homeowners are routinely quoted a full door replacement for what turns out to be a worn roller. Here's how to tell the difference, and the short list of situations where replacement is genuinely the right call.
A deadbolt that won't latch in a new house is almost never a lock problem. It's usually the strike plate and hinges out of alignment, and rekeying won't fix it.
Forgetting a safe combination feels worse than it usually is. Mechanical dials and electronic keypads fail differently, and drilling is the last option, not the first.
Your ignition key won't turn and you're not sure why. It's almost always one of three things, and only one of them actually requires a locksmith.
