Lockouts · London
Break-In Damage Lock Repair
There is a hole where the cylinder used to be.
In plain words
Most forced doors fail at the frame, not the lock. A standard strike plate is held by two short screws in a softwood jamb, and a kick transfers the whole force of a body to those screws. The bolt usually survives; the wood around it does not. Swapping the deadbolt for a heavier one leaves the weak point untouched, so a proper break-in repair rebuilds the strike side with a boxed strike, a pocket cut to full depth and three-inch screws that pass through the jamb and the shim space into the stud behind. The lock is replaced too, but the frame is where security returns.
How the visit goesThe shop's aluminum door has a bent meeting stile and the hookbolt is jammed half out. The alarm did its job and the display is untouched, but the entrance will not close properly and opening time is hours away.
Break-In Damage Lock Repair
How the visit goes
Photographs before parts move
Nothing on the door is touched until it has been photographed as found. The locksmith records the door face and edge, the lock and cylinder, the strike and the wood around it, the hinges, the jamb and any broken glass, plus the tool marks that show how entry was made. These images serve the police occurrence file and the insurance claim, where insurers ask for damage to be documented and damaged property kept. You are encouraged to take your own set too. Once the record exists, hardware can come off and the repair can start without anyone later wondering what the door looked like at the beginning.
Fitting the new deadbolt and cylinder
The replacement hardware is chosen for the door and for the attack it suffered. A deadbolt with a full one-inch throw, a hardened insert against sawing and a low-profile face that resists a wrench grip is the usual choice, graded to a recognised durability standard rather than the lightest unit on the shelf. It is matched to the existing bore and backset so no new holes weaken the slab, or the preparation is enlarged cleanly where the old hardware was small. The bolt is tested with the door open, then closed, and the strike adjusted until it throws without dragging. Trim and finish are matched to your other doors where you want that.
Glass and the reach-in problem
When entry came through glass beside the door, the lock was never the weakness, and the follow-up is about the glass. A tested security-film system, applied with its specified frame attachment, can slow an arm from passing through the sidelight, or the pane is replaced with laminated glass by a glazier. Where the layout allows, the deadbolt is repositioned beyond arm's reach of the glass. A thumb-turn stays on the inside, because it lets everyone leave without hunting for a key, and a keyed inside cylinder trades one risk for a worse one if there is ever a fire. The result keeps the intruder out and the way out clear.
Break-In Damage Lock Repair
In the van
Jamb repair plate
Two-part wood epoxy and shims
Wrap-around door edge reinforcer
Grade 1 deadbolt with one-inch throw
Plywood and cleats for boarding
Break-In Damage Lock Repair
What affects the quote
Number of cylinders rekeyed
Every lock a taken key fits is rekeyed individually, so a house with four exterior doors, a mailbox and two padlocks is more work than one front door. Bringing them all onto a single key is part of the count.
Grade of the replacement deadbolt
A residential deadbolt with a one-inch throw and hardened insert, a heavier commercial-grade unit and a keypad or smart deadbolt sit at different points, and the quote names the one you choose.
Door edge reinforcement
A wrap-around edge reinforcer is added when the wood around the bore is crushed or split. It is a separate part, chosen to suit the door thickness and the hardware going into it.
What to have ready
- Would you like stronger hardware fitted while the door is being repaired?
- Is this a suite door in an apartment or condo building?
- Have you photographed the damage as you found it?
Break-In Damage Lock Repair: questions
QuestionsDo longer screws really make a difference?
A large one. Factory strike and hinge screws are usually short enough to grip only the jamb, a piece of trim about an inch thick. Three-inch screws pass through the jamb and the gap behind it into the stud, so a blow has to move the wall rather than the trim. Lock manufacturers supply reinforcement plates with three-inch screws for exactly this reason, and note that a door beside a sidelight needs a different arrangement because glass sits where the stud would be.
Can a split jamb be repaired, or does it need replacing?
Many can be repaired. A split along the grain is pressed back together, glued with a two-part wood epoxy and held by a steel repair plate or a boxed strike screwed through it into the stud, so the fasteners reinforce the repair as well as the lock. Missing wood is built up with filler or a fitted piece. A jamb that has pulled off the framing along its length or shattered around the pocket is replaced by a carpenter, with the opening secured until then.
Will my door be boarded up, or can it be made to lock tonight?
Most forced doors lock again during the visit. If the slab and frame are sound, a new lockset goes in and the strike is reinforced. If the jamb is split, a repair plate or a boxed strike screwed into the stud usually holds it. Boarding is reserved for openings where the frame or the door itself is destroyed, and even then it is fitted so the household can get out from inside without a key.
Related 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 years will not turn.
- Broken Key ExtractionThe padlock on the shed has been stiff all summer.
- Seized & Jammed Lock OpeningEvery time you pull the key out of the side door it comes away gritty.