People don’t often think about locksmiths or what they can do until their services are required in an emergency. If you lock yourself out of your home, your car or even your office, they can come to the rescue. If you need some keys cut, they can take care of that task for you.
But there are going to be times where you might need something sorted out at home or work. Are you aware of the fact that a locksmith can also help you out with that quandary? In today’s blog post, I will discuss what a locksmith can do for you, and how to choose the best one in town!
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What work can a locksmith undertake?
You wouldn’t call upon the services to help you create a special meal for your significant other, for example, but locksmiths are useful for a range of other things. Here are some examples of what locksmiths can do for you:
- Key cutting – have you just moved into a property, or bought a car, and you were only given one set of keys? If so, a locksmith will be able to cut a wide variety of keys for domestic, commercial and automotive purposes;
- Installation of new locks – whilst the keys for locks are usually passed along to people whenever they move into a property or buy a car, there are some circumstances where you need to eliminate the possibility of your property or vehicle being broken into by previous occupants or owners. Locksmiths can come out to you, wherever you are, and fit new locks to your doors and windows;
- Repairs of existing locks – over time, the internal mechanisms of locks can suffer from wear and tear. If you find it difficult to open and close your doors and windows, despite spraying some silicone grease or WD40 into the locks themselves, it could be that your locks need to be repaired;
- Forced entry – have you ever found yourself in a position where you have accidentally thrown your keys down a drain or locked your keys inside of your car or home? If so, a locksmith will be able to force entry into your property or vehicle without damaging them, and they will then be able to fit new locks for you.
What else can a locksmith do?
Cutting keys, fitting and repairing locks, and helping you out of sticky situations aren’t the only things these amazing professionals can do for you!
Quite often, you will find that locksmiths are also able to provide other security-related services such as setting up CCTV or closed-circuit television systems. Locksmiths can also install domestic and commercial alarm systems, and they can even install safes so that you can store your valuables without worrying about how secure they are.
And if you do find yourself a victim of theft, locksmiths can not only replace any broken locks for you, but they can also assist with the repair to any damaged doors and windows, even if the items are un-repairable.
How to find a good locksmith
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I know that most of the time you can’t determine how good or bad a locksmith is until you call upon their services, but there are some top tips to help you narrow down your shortlist of locksmiths into a shortlist of “good” locksmiths.
There are thousands of qualified locksmiths out there, but it doesn’t mean that every single one of them is good at their jobs. Whenever I find myself locked out of somewhere, or I need to have a spare set of keys cut, I can always rely on my trusty locksmith in London to come to my rescue.
But if you don’t have a good locksmith at your disposal, here is how you can find out:
Do you need a mobile locksmith or a shop-based one?
Mobile locksmiths are typically used by people that are locked out of buildings or vehicles. And since you can’t easily bring either of those items to a shop-based locksmith, you will automatically phone one that can come out to you.
They are great value-for-money in those situations, but you wouldn’t use them if you needed some spare keys cutting, for example. In other words, if you have an emergency situation, use a mobile locksmith. But if your needs aren’t urgent, take a trip to your friendly local locksmith.
Recommendations
As with any business, it is important that you first attempt to use a locksmith based on a recommendation by a friend, family member or work colleague.
Word of mouth is often the best source of income for any reputable locksmith, so it’s in their interests to provide a first-class service to their customers at all times.
Location
The next thing to bear in mind is how local a locksmith is to you. For non-urgent matters, you can obviously make your way to see them in your own time, but if you have an emergency situation on your hands, you need to use a reliable locksmith that will come out to you sooner rather than later.
Therefore, it makes sense to use local locksmiths, regardless of whether they are based from a shop or are mobile. From your point of view, it will be quicker to get things done by a local locksmith than one that lives many miles away from you!
Reputation
Reputation is key (excuse the pun) when it comes to locksmiths. By their very nature, locksmiths can access any property using their specialist tools, and so you want to use a locksmith that is trustworthy and won’t rip you off or steal from you.
You can normally only tell how reputable a locksmith is by learning of other people’s prior experiences with them. I know it’s possible to read online reviews of locksmiths, but sadly these can often be faked by competitors or even unscrupulous locksmiths looking to build up their reputation.
I hope this comprehensive guide has helped you out. Thanks for reading!