Student rentals near Clark College
Just north of Clark College, a lot of houses are split into rooms or rented to groups. Keys multiply. Bedroom doors get keyed locks. Somebody loses theirs the week before finals. If you rent, talk to your landlord before changing anything, because a lease usually requires them to keep a working key. If you own the place, rekeying between school years is cheap insurance.
Rekeying and lockout service begin at $19.00, and the $29.00 service call fee is added to every visit. Interior privacy locks are a different animal from exterior deadbolts, so mention which one is giving you trouble.
Craftsman doors in Rose Village and Shumway
Rose Village and Shumway hold some of the oldest housing stock in town. Thick doors, glass panes, skeleton-key mortise sets that still work surprisingly well. A locksmith can often service those rather than rip them out. Where a door has glass close to the knob, a double-cylinder deadbolt comes up in conversation; it has real tradeoffs for fire exit, so ask before deciding.
- Freeing up frozen mortise locks and worn latches
- Fitting a new deadbolt into a solid door that was never drilled (starting at $85.00)
- Matching keys so the front, back and basement doors share one key
Arnada porches and side doors
Arnada has a lot of houses where the side or back door gets more use than the front. Those secondary doors are usually the weak point. Short screws in the strike. A spring latch with no deadbolt behind it. A locksmith can reinforce what is there or replace a basic lock, which starts at $25.00 plus the call fee. See residential locksmith services for the full list of home jobs.
Keys snapped off in the lock
Older cylinders and cheap copied keys are a bad combination. The key twists, cracks and leaves half of itself inside. Do not jam a pin or super glue in after it. That turns a simple extraction into a lock replacement. Key extraction starts at $19.00 for home or business locks; automotive extraction starts at $100.00.
A small thing before dialing: figure out whether the lock is a knob, a lever or a deadbolt, and whether it is on a wood or metal door. Thirty seconds of looking makes the phone estimate a lot more accurate.