11 Surprising Services That Locksmiths Provide

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Did you know that there are over 24,000 locksmiths?

That might seem like a lot. After all, how many people can there really be every day that lock their keys in the house? But the truth is, locksmiths do far more than open doors for people. Once you know everything a locksmith does, you might be amazed that just 24,000 of them can do it all!

Read on to learn the 11 services locksmiths can provide that you might not have heard about.

Locksmiths

If you’ve ever searched on google for “locksmiths near me,” then you probably found several options. But what can all these locksmith locations do for you?

A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is this: if it has to do with a mechanism in a door, key, or lock, there’s a good chance that your local locksmith can help you out!

1. File Cabinet Locks

Your office doesn’t just have locks on its doors. Precious documents are kept secure within locking file cabinets. And if it has a lock, then a locksmith can probably help.

Whether for locks on your file cabinets or for your office desks, an office locksmith can help you in at least four ways.

If you want new locks put on, then a locksmith can take off the old ones and install new ones. This might be the right choice if your locks are broken or you think they’re not strong enough.

On the other hand, let’s say your locks work just fine, but you’re worried that the wrong people might have keys to open them. Maybe you lost a key and are concerned about who picked it up, or you’ve given out keys to the locks so many times over so many years that it’s impossible to know for sure who has them now.

In that case, rather than buying new locks, it can be much cheaper and more efficient to simply rekey the locks. A locksmith can open up a physical lock and “program” it to reject the shape of the keys it used to accept. Then, they can set it to open when a key of a new shape is presented.

After that, you’ll need one or many copies of the new key to your file cabinet or desk locks, so a locksmith can print you as many of those as you like.

Thirdly, you might have perfectly functioning locks and you might feel perfectly secure about who has keys to it. Maybe you just need some extra keys to give to new employees or to replace old, lost or broken keys. In that case, you just need some extra keys printed, and a locksmith can help with that, too.

And lastly, you might have a broken lock. A competent locksmith knows locks inside and out and has the tools and parts necessary to fix them.

If you have a safe around the office, then a locksmith’s safe opening skills can also come in handy. A safe locksmith can handle even highly secure, complicated-locking safes.

2. Padlocks

Whether you need new padlocks or need to fix old ones, your local locksmith can help. As with your file cabinets or office desks, a locksmith can print you new keys for your padlock, rekey your padlocks to accept new keys, or fix a broken padlock.

When it comes to padlocks, there’s another area in which a locksmith can help. Padlocks come in an incredible variety, with different sizes, strengths, costs, and everything else. Knowing exactly which padlock to pick for your needs can be very difficult, so consulting with an expert can really help facilitate your search process.

3. Install and Repair Door Closers

Door closers are a wonderful convenience to add on to your doors. They keep your doors from slamming, automatically close your doors, and can be set to hold your doors constantly open.

Door closers can be installed on practically any door, and are especially common in offices and other places with a lot of traffic. In some cases, it’s important for a door to never stay open and accessible to anyone. In theory, everyone who uses that door can simply always remember to close it without ever forgetting.

Realistically speaking, however, it’s inevitable that someone will forget at some point. This can leave private or confidential information, valuables, or other sensitive items vulnerable.

Door closers can provide an important security function by taking out the human element. Instead of relying on imperfect human beings to perfectly remember to close the door, your door closers can do it for you.

Locksmiths can fix your door closers or install new ones for you. Depending on the type of door closer you have, a good locksmith can even upgrade your door closer to provide extra features.

4. Installing Deadbolts

When it comes to home security, it’s usually not necessary to be so secure that no one could break in no matter how hard they tried.

Potential burglars don’t want to use the fullest extent of their ability to get into a place, they just want an easy target. To keep your home safe, it’s usually enough to just not be an easy target.

As simple a security feature as deadbolts can provide too much of a hassle for burglars to bother with. But they really only work if you have them on all your external doors.

After all, a criminal might not want to try to snap a sturdy deadbolt of metal to get into a house, but they might be more than willing to take a lap around the house and look for a door that doesn’t have a deadbolt.

Some deadbolts are of low quality. If a burglar does decide to test their strength, they may find cheap deadbolts easier to break than they expected.

On the other hand, your local locksmith can provide you with powerful, robust deadbolts to provide quality security to your home.

5. Installing an Intercom

An intercom system can be a fantastic convenience, allowing you to talk with people at your door and remotely open your door for them. Modern systems often allow you to not only talk to people at your door, but even watch them through a camera.

It’s your property (or your workplace), and it’s great to have the ability to carefully monitor who you decide to let in or not.

Picking out the right intercom system can be complicated. Your locksmith can help you find the right one, as well as install it for you.

6. Installing Crash Bars and Exit Devices

Crash bars, or exit devices, are important security features. They are so important, in fact, that many places legally require them to be installed on office doors or the doors in significant public buildings.

Crash bars allow you to open a door simply by pressing anywhere on a long bar that stretches from one side of the door to the other. As they are safety devices, it’s important that your crash bars are functioning properly all the time.

Your locksmith can install, inspect, or fix crash bars for you.

7. Installing and Maintaining Keypads and Card Access Locks

Keypad locks and card access locks are modern alternatives to traditional physical locks. They both include electronic components, which makes them programmable so you can get features out of your locks you never enjoyed before.

If you like, your lock can keep track of when people try to enter. Or you might program it to only unlock during certain hours of the day or night.

Keypad and card access locks are also more convenient to use. With a card access lock, you can keep your card key along with your other cards instead of on a key ring. When it’s time to open the door, you simply insert the card, without having to turn anything to unlock your lock.

Keypads can be even more convenient. With a keypad, you don’t need a key or a card to open your lock. All you have to do is remember a password which you’ll enter on the lock’s buttons.

With no key or card, you can’t lock your key in the house, you can’t lose it, and no one can take it or find it and gain unauthorized access to your house.

Locksmiths can install, fix, and program either of these great devices.

8. Making New House Keys

There are all sorts of reasons you might need to have extra keys to your house. If you ever lose yours, you can use the spare so you don’t get locked out. If a child comes of age, you might want them to have a key to the house.

A trusted neighbor or friend might have use for a key. You could have a nanny, maid, maintenance man, or another professional that you need to be able to get into the house. Or you could have guests visiting who’ll need to be able to come and go as they please.

Whatever the reason, when you need extra house keys, your locksmith can copy your house key to produce a new one, often in a minute or less per duplicate key.

9. Rekeying Your Locks

Over time, you might give out a lot of house keys. Even if you are careful, living in the same place for years or decades can mean you eventually have 10 or more keys given out.

Once your keys are out in the world, there’s no knowing for sure where they’ll end up. It’s a good idea to rekey your locks every so often so that old keys are no longer able to open your house’s doors.

As mentioned with file cabinets and office desks, rekeying your locks doesn’t require you to buy new ones. A locksmith can visit your home, work on your locks for a bit, and provide you with new keys that can open them.

10. Backup Car Keys

Losing your only car key can be disastrous and expensive. Not only can buying the new key itself cost as much as hundreds of dollars, but there’s a good chance you’ll have to pay hundreds more for a tow truck. Plus you’ll have to pay for some kind of alternative transportation while your car is unusable.

All of that hassle and loss of hundreds of dollars can be reduced to a cost-free, minor inconvenience. How? Simply prepare backup car keys in advance.

Just as with your doors, having an extra key is great when you forget or lose your usual one. In the case of cars, it also comes in handy if you lock your key inside the car.

Making a new key for your car at the locksmith’s can usually be done in just a few minutes. They can often even provide transponder keys and program them appropriately for your car.

11. Replace a Lost Car Ley

If you do only have one car key, and you end up losing it, then you’ll have to deal with the situation as well as you can. You’ll certainly want to resolve it as quickly as possible.

A locksmith can still help! Even without the original key, a locksmith can get a workable key for you using your car’s Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN. Simply find your VIN and call your locksmith.

In some cases, they can have your key ready even before you arrive at the shop to pick it up.

Handle All Your Lock, Key, and Door Needs

We hope you learned something helpful about locksmiths and all the many services they can perform to provide you with convenience and security.

To learn more about locksmith services or to find a locksmith to help with a problem, get in touch with us here.

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