Keys and lockouts

People lose keys all the time.  As our city grows we become busy with everything from getting dressed to making sure we have our keys.  There are times when you rush out of your home so you can make the train to get to work on time.  While your doing what you are doing to make that paycheck most of the time you are too busy to notice if you dropped your keys on the train  or left them at the news stand.  The end of the day you get home and guess what you don't have your keys to get into your apartment.  Please don't panic.
If you have your smart phone Google search emergency locksmith(the town you live in) and press enter.  The first page will have at least ten listings, the first three being locksmiths who pay to be first in the page.  From experiance the first three listings usually don't have shops, because they are mobile emergency dispatch services.  There is nothing wrong with using these companies but 90% of the time they employ sub contractors who split the job with them 50/50.  Now you know if one of those contractors end up at your house they are going to want to charge you the most so to get a better split.  My suggestion look for a listed locksmith that has a shop in your neighborhood or at least in your town or city.  The locksmith shop will always charge less because they are local and they probably want repeat business. 
Once you choose the listed locksmith call them and find out what they charge to open your door.  If the person says we charge service call and then a minimum charge to open the lock try to have them give you the maximum end also.  If you get a quote of $90 or less usually you should ordertheir service.  If you get a quote of under $50 don't bother because by the time they let you in you will probably pay ten times that amount. 90% of the time locksmiths can open locks with minimal amount of damage.  If they end up drilling your lock they should only be changing your cylinder not the whole lock.  Whenever possible call at least three people and get at least three quotes then depending on the locksmith location and time in business you should order there service.  When you are locked out always take your time to order the right service if you panic you have already lost.  The fact is you are locked out, you can not do anything untill you get in.  In Queens there are at least seven very reputable locksmiths Abco Master Lock and Key in Forest Hills, Admiral Lock lock and key in Astoria, Around the Clock locksmith in woodhaven, Jstein Locksmith in Jamaica, Armor Locksmith in Fresh Meadows, All emergency locksmith in Astoria, Frog Locksmith in Roslyn Heights. 

Do not let it slam.

Sometimes a service call is simply just straightening out a bent bolt in  the mortise lock.  99% of apartment doors in NYC are equipped with a mortise lock as the main lock on the door.  This lock is two locks in one.  It serves as a latch lock and also as a deadbolt.  On the lock body there is a button that you can either flip or push in to activate the latch lock, and you always have to use the key to lock the bolt lock. The thing is that when the mortise lock is activated with the latch lock, it automatically locks the door when you close the door behind you.  So some people like to through the bolt out in order to keep the door open if they are stepping out for a moment.  What they don't realize is when the door closes with the bolt sticking out and it hits the frame it gets bent a small amount and over a period of time it could bend enough where it will stop flowing in and out and then your mortise lock is deemed useless.  So I went on a service call to one of our previous customers. Her apartment door mortise lock would not lock with either the key or the thumb turn from the inside.  I automatically knew that the bolt was bent.  So I informed the client and told her that I will try to fix the bolt because replacing the entire mortise lock would be in the hundreds.  When I took the lock apart right away it was apparent that the bolt was bent.  I took out the bolt, straightened it out and installed it back into the mortise lock. I went back to the apartment and reinstalled the lock.  So the next time you want to step out of the apartment and you want to keep the lock open just flip the button to the open position and that would be enough. In Forest Hills Queens there are many buildings that are over sixty years old, these buildings have the old Lockwood mortise locks.  The Lockwood mortise lock is one of the best.  It is very durable and very well made.  Sometimes I end up replacing them with the more modern type of lock by Marks. 

    

Lock maintenance

Too many times I go to clients with lock problems and all I do is lubricate their locks and everything works perfect.  Some clients refuse to pay me my service call because "you didn't do anything".  Well I did do something, I just saved you 2 to 3 hundred dollars because I didn't lie to you and tell you that you need a whole new lock.  What happens is that people come home and all of a sudden their key doesn't go into the cylinder, so they panic and call a locksmith, now when the locksmith comes to their location he/she can do either one of two things, he/she can either squirt WD40 into the cylinder and see if that works or just drill out the cylinder and replace it. I usually squirt WD40 first to see if the cylinder is just dried up and needs to loosen up.  Most of the time the lubrication works and I am able to use the clients key and get them in. 
Many people don't realize that, like everything else mechanical locks also need a yearly maintenance check up. During this check up you should have a locksmith come over take the lock apart, check all the internal parts, lubricate and adjust all parts and then reinstall.  Now if the locksmith takes the lock apart and if either has broken internal parts or missing parts then its usually a good idea to have the lock changed.  Locks such as Mul-T-Lock or Medeco are so well made that usually a squirt of WD40 every now and then they will work for a very long time.  Cheaper brands such as Guard, defiant, or any other foreign made locks would not last for very long, so it is a good idea to have your locksmith upgrade your regular locks to something mid level or even high security.  In Queens most private homes have a set up of a tubular deadbolt and knob set.  In most cases the deadbolt and knob set is usually a defiant Home Depot brand or a Kwik Set also Home Depot brand.  I usually upgrade these type of locks at the minimum to Arrow deadbolt and knob set or Schlage deadbolt and knob set.  If the door and frame are not reinforced with hard wood or paneling then I usually install super strikes.  Always have your locksmith reinforce your door and frame.  When you move into your new home and or apartment always change your locks.  Once your locks have been changed keep them maintained by lubricating them on a monthly bases and doing a maintenance call by a locksmith every year or so. www.abbaslocksmith.com/Queens


digital locks

Lockout specialists

When you are you locked out, you want someone to come right away and let you in for the cheapest price.  When someone gets locked out the first thing they do now a days is google search emergency locksmith look down the list see a locksmith advertising $15 lockout service and call them. Please stop and ask the person you are about to hire a few questions. One question should be "Do you have a locksmith store or are you a mobile service"? Two "What is the exact price for a typical lockout service?  Three "Are you licensed?  One you have heard the answers to these question then you should be able to make a better decision in hiring the company or not.  If the person who answers the phone call says that there is no physical store front, please do yourself a favor and do not hire them.  The reason being is that either the person coming to let you in is not licensed and if he/she is licensed they are not local.  Don't fall for the minimum service call quote, because it could turn into hundreds if not thousands when they are actually there doing the job.  Hire a company that provides a free visit, and a free quote advisement.
In the locksmith industry there are many companies that are just dispatch locations located far from local who spend a lot of money advertising on line in order to get in front of you and charge you a lot of money.  I have had customers in queens who have hired companies off of the internet and then have been taken advantage of .  When they call from their home in Queens New York they thought they were reaching a local locksmith but instead a company in Maryland had dispatched a sub contractor in the local area.  The thing is that the sub contractor gets paid a commission based amount so the more they charge you the more they make.  If you live in local neighborhoods such as Flushing, Elmhurst, Forest Hills, Astoria, Jackson Heights, Corona, Rego Park, Woodhaven, Whitestone or any other neighborhood in Queens, Please do local Google searches such as "emergency locksmith (neighborhood).com" this will give you a close to an exact local business who will be able to do your job in a timely manor and cost effective way. 
An average lockout service in Queens should never be more than $125 for one lock, normally it should be about $90 but if its after 6 pm then you shouldn't be surprised to pay $125.  If you receive a locksmith to let you into your apartment or home 90% of the time they should be able to pick the lock open without destroying the cylinder to do it.  I have done lockout service in Rego Park at 10pm at night for $90 so when it comes to choosing a locksmith for an emergency lockout service please remember to hire a local locksmith who has a physical location.  Abco master lock and key in Queen is a local locksmith doing business since 1965 always willing to help people in queens with their locksmith services.  Around the Clock is another locksmith in Queens, Admiral lock and key  is another, Jstein is also a very good locksmith.  Any of these guys would be a good choice for emergency locksmith.


broken lock



rekey cylinders

 
  

Master the skills

Many counties require individuals to be licensed before they can practice locksmith work.  New York City requires individuals to get licensed before doing locksmith work.  Many individuals do locksmith work without a license or under the license of the company they work for.  In the past the licensing agency use to give individuals a locksmith test before issuing a license but now a days all they require is two licensed locksmiths to sign two affidavits in order to get a locksmith license.  The test in the past use to be where the applicant would be placed in a room in front of a desk and someone would come take apart a lock dump all the parts in front of the applicant and give them 5 minutes to put it together, if they were successful in doing it correctly they would be given the status of being a master locksmith.  In today's field there aren't many master locksmiths, just individual who learn how to install locks on door and then they call themselves locksmiths.  I feel that people who cant use everything around them to create solution for everyday lock problems they don't deserve to be called locksmiths.  Today I was able to help this old man repair his 70 year old lock which two other locksmiths refused to fix because it is too "old".  So this old man went to home depot and bought a mortise lock. When I arrived at his apartment he was holding this lock that would in no way fit in the space of the old one.  He asked me if I could fix the old one.  I looked at the lock and I looked at the old man and then I asked him to show me the problem.  From the first try I knew what the problem was so I told him that I could fix it and I could replace it.  I gave him two prices for fixing it the cost is $185 and replacing it would be $350.  The particular lock that was in his door was a Norwalk wide face extended face plate probably made in the 50's. The problem was the internal thumb turn disc inside the lock. The disc hole where the thumb turn goes into was worn out hence not allowing the thumb turn to throw the bolt in and out so if someone dead bolted the mortise lock from the outside the person inside would be locked in.  So I took the lock out removed the plates and installed the new disc and reinstalled the lock.  Another satisfied customer.


Mortise lock



tools I use for rekeys



Gif the shop