Locksmith Cost

My friend showed me this method, always makes me laugh at such a massive design flaw

Not 100% true.

most UPVC windows now have security glazing tape inside them now that sticks to the glass stopping the window from being taken out I am led to believe.
 
Well I'm in. £55 to get in. He kept coming down on the price to replace the face which was drilled as I wanted to do it myself. £100 cost all inclusive.

Ripped off no doubt, but I've learnt my lesson (a £100 one and it's not really a silver lining at all).
 
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Borrow cordless drill from a mate and drill the lock barrel out, replace yale lock after

not without a very expencive drill bit you wont, ;)

there is a more simple way to solve this, and i swear this is what your locksmith will try first.

get a 2L bottle of coke, empty it, and cut out the centre.

you should be left with a ring of coke bottle yeah?

now cut this ring through, to give you two ends.

slip one of those ends into where your yale lock is, push it hard and pull you door back and forth hard, this will let it 'slip' the lock for you ;)
 
Took him a good 5+ minutes to drill. Was barely making a dent at first.

Another few minutes to repair lock and on his way.
 
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Like an idiot let the door shut behind me. Anyone have experiences about how much it costs to get a locksmith to break in? Pretty standard Yale lock from what I can tell.

What a waste of money :(

One & only time I had to call one out after I lost my keys cost me £96 for 3 mins work.
 
not without a very expencive drill bit you wont, ;)

there is a more simple way to solve this, and i swear this is what your locksmith will try first.

get a 2L bottle of coke, empty it, and cut out the centre.

you should be left with a ring of coke bottle yeah?

now cut this ring through, to give you two ends.

slip one of those ends into where your yale lock is, push it hard and pull you door back and forth hard, this will let it 'slip' the lock for you ;)

It seems not.

Why a coke bottle anyway?

Wouldn't any sort of fairly rigid plastic strip do the job?
 
Drilling out cylinders/yales is a last resort, which doesn't always work. Most barrels can be snapped allowing access, most yales can be bumped and slipped open.
A good window installing company would have used security tape in place of wedge gasket on external glazed windows.That stuff sticks like .... to a blanket making it nearly impossible to remove the sealed unit.

Glad your in op, 100 quid for a job well done quickly. What more could you ask for? ;-)
 
Think i've gotten in here too late...i once had a similar situation and used a bank card to get in. Worked a treat. Coincidently the same reason that i now double bolt all doors...
 
OP - did the locksmith ask for any ID? I locked myself out twice when I was in student digs and I had to show the security guard my NUS card and another form of photo ID. I would imagine that it would be more than this if it's for a private house.

Perhaps have a family member keep a spare key for you as a workaround for future. My mum has one, and so does a local friend of mine, who I can trust and he does DIY jobs around my house anyway.
 
If it was a standard Yale lock then why didn't the locksmith simply bump the lock?? Would have been quicker, would not have had the hassle of drilling the barrel out and the time to replace it.

Could have charged £75 and been and gone in 2 mins
 
Because the punter starts arguing the cost if you turn up and get inside within 30 seconds. Best take your time, drill the lock out etc and the customer thinks he is getting value for money and has no problem paying you the call out rate.

NDE doesn't pay as well as DE (as you can sell stock you have on the van as extra's with destructive entry).

But any smith who's half competent can pick a Yale in under 2 minutes - but the customer will argue the cost/won't pay you once they are inside as they are embarressed it was so easy.
 
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If it was a standard Yale lock then why didn't the locksmith simply bump the lock?? Would have been quicker, would not have had the hassle of drilling the barrel out and the time to replace it.

Could have charged £75 and been and gone in 2 mins

edit: nvm thought lock bumping was something else.
 
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No way is a locksmith £100 unless you live somewhere mental, I paid £40 and even that left me with a sore bum bearing in mind it took him about 5 minutes to put a device through the letterbox and open the locak.
 
I've unlocked my door twice before after accidentally shutting it behind me. Both times I used a long twig with a strong leaf steam made into a loop attached to the end to pull the lever down. I no longer stay indoors without the Chubb lock on!!
 
Because the punter starts arguing the cost if you turn up and get inside within 30 seconds. Best take your time, drill the lock out etc and the customer thinks he is getting value for money and has no problem paying you the call out rate.

NDE doesn't pay as well as DE (as you can sell stock you have on the van as extra's with destructive entry).

But any smith who's half competent can pick a Yale in under 2 minutes - but the customer will argue the cost/won't pay you once they are inside as they are embarressed it was so easy.

Sad, but true.

When I locked myself out, I was lucky enough to get a locksmith who didn't go the easy route. Or maybe it was just because he was doing something else and didn't really want to come out at all, so he didn't want to waste any time.

He couldn't have got in any quicker with a key. It was a bit startling, but it certainly made his point when he advised me to get a better lock. He didn't even call the Yale I had on the door a lock because something that easy to get past isn't really a lock.

I paid up as agreed because I was paying for a specific job and he'd done it very well (not a scratch of damage), but I can see how some people would see it in terms of cost/time and argue about it. £50 for 30s work looks unreasonable when you look at it that way.
 
Not 100% true.

most UPVC windows now have security glazing tape inside them now that sticks to the glass stopping the window from being taken out I am led to believe.

Externally beaded windows have had double sided security tape since they first came out. Its useless as a form of security as the glass is just as easy to remove as it would be without it. Sucker on the corner and pull and the glass is out.

If you have externally beaded UPVC you may as well leave your door unlocked tbh.
 
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