Before we replace a lock on a house, there are usually two things we want to know.
What is the lock doing now? And what are you trying to change?
Those sound like basic questions, but they separate a lot of residential locksmith jobs pretty quickly. A deadbolt that only gets tight when the door is closed is one problem. Moving into a house and wanting the old keys gone is another. A lock that has become loose after years of use is something else again.
At Fern Rock Hardware - Locksmith Services, we have spent more than 20 years around this stuff. Being connected to the hardware side of the business helps too. We are not looking at a cylinder in isolation. The door, hinges, strike, screws, frame and the hardware somebody installed ten years ago all get a vote.
Philadelphia homes give us plenty to look at.
You get the keys at closing. Maybe there are two. Maybe five. They all work.
What you do not get is a list of every copy made before you moved in.
That is why rekeying is one of the more useful first jobs after buying a home or taking over a rental. If the existing locks are in good shape, the hardware can often stay right where it is. The cylinders are changed to work with a new key, and the previous keys stop opening the doors.
For a lot of homeowners, that is enough.
There is no reason to throw away a perfectly good deadbolt just to change who has access to it.
We also look at whether several compatible locks can be keyed alike. Front door, side door, maybe the basement entrance - one key is a lot nicer than standing outside trying three nearly identical ones until something turns.
Older Philadelphia houses can be a mixed bag here. One owner replaces the front lock. Somebody else adds a deadbolt to the back. The basement still has hardware from another era. We may be able to bring some of it together, or we may find that one lock really should be replaced while the others can stay.
We would rather figure that out at the door than sell a whole-house lock change over the phone.
Philadelphia has a lot of doors with instructions.
Push the bottom with your foot. Pull the knob toward you. Lift the door a little. Then turn the deadbolt.
Everybody in the house knows the routine, so eventually it stops seeming strange.
Until a guest cannot lock the door. Or the weather changes and the old trick stops working.
Try this while the door is open. Turn the deadbolt.
If it moves smoothly, the lock may not be the problem at all. Close the door and it binds again? Now we are looking harder at alignment, the strike and the way the door sits in the frame.
This comes up with rowhomes, twins and older wood doors around Philadelphia all the time. Paint builds up. Hinges loosen. Wood moves. A strike that lined up years ago can be slightly off today.
Changing the deadbolt without dealing with that can leave you with a brand-new lock that is still difficult to use.
On the other hand, locks do wear out. Cylinders loosen. Latches get tired. Keys wear along with the pins inside. Sometimes the old hardware has simply done enough work.
We are fine saying that too.
The front entrance usually gets the attention. Fair enough. It is the door everybody uses.
Take a walk around the rest of the house once in a while.
Back door. Side entrance. Basement. Door from the garage if you have one.
We find plenty of homes where the main entrance has newer hardware and a solid deadbolt, while another exterior door is still relying on an old knob lock that nobody has thought about in years.
Residential locksmith work can include deadbolt installation, lock repair, lock changes, rekeying, house lockouts, broken-key problems and smart locks. Which one makes sense depends on what you already have.
A good exterior door deserves a decent deadbolt installed correctly. That last part matters. A strong lock on a weak frame or a bolt that barely reaches the strike is not the same thing as a solid complete setup.
This is also why we are not especially impressed by a lock just because the package has a lot of security words printed on it.
Fit matters.
So does the door.
Sure. Maybe.
We like smart locks. Keypads are useful, especially when several people need access and you would rather hand out codes than more keys. Being able to lock the door without wondering whether somebody remembered the key has its advantages too.
But the electronic lock still has to move a piece of metal through the edge of a real door.
If your current deadbolt only works when you lean against the door, putting a motor on it does not make the alignment problem disappear.
We would rather straighten that out before asking a new smart lock to fight the frame several times a day.
Older mortise hardware can make conversions more involved as well. Some older Philadelphia doors were simply not built around the same prep used for a modern tubular deadbolt and keypad. Sometimes there is a clean way to update it. Sometimes keeping good existing hardware makes more sense.
Bring the lock information or send a picture before buying if you are unsure. A photo of both sides of the door and the door edge usually tells us much more than "I bought a smart lock online."
That is residential locksmith work too, although nobody schedules it for Thursday afternoon.
If the door shut and the keys are inside, first check whether somebody nearby has your spare. It sounds obvious until you remember your daughter, neighbor or brother has had one for three years.
No spare?
Tell us which door you are locked out of and what happened. A key sitting on the kitchen counter is different from a key snapped inside the cylinder. If the lock had already been getting difficult before the lockout, mention that. It may matter once the door is open.
We try to avoid unnecessary damage when the lock and situation allow it. Drilling has its place, but it should not be the opening move simply because somebody arrived with a drill.
And if you lost the keys rather than leaving them inside, think about where they disappeared. A loose key with no identifying information is one thing. Keys lost together with something carrying your home address deserve a different conversation.
Our residential calls around the city do not all look alike.
Near Fern Rock and Olney, we work on plenty of twins, rentals and older doors that have already seen a few generations of hardware. North Philadelphia and West Oak Lane bring more of that mix. Manayunk and Roxborough have plenty of older frames where weather and settling eventually show up at the lock.
Closer to Center City, a residential call may be in a condo or apartment building where the unit door is only one part of the access setup. Chestnut Hill brings older homes where there can be very good existing hardware worth keeping instead of replacing for the sake of replacing it.
None of that means we can tell what lock you have from the neighborhood.
It just means we have spent enough time working around Philadelphia to know that "front door lock" can mean a lot of different things here.
If you are outside our immediate part of the city, our local locksmith pages cover the other Philadelphia neighborhoods and nearby communities we regularly serve.
You can make the first conversation easy.
Moving in? Tell us how many exterior doors you want rekeyed. Lock acting strange? Try it with the door open and tell us whether anything changes. Thinking about a smart lock? Send a picture of what is already on the door. Lost the keys? Tell us whether another working copy exists.
You do not need to diagnose the problem before you call. That would make our part of the job a little unnecessary.
If you need a residential locksmith in Philadelphia for rekeying, lock repair, a lock change, deadbolt work, a smart lock or a home lockout, contact Fern Rock Hardware - Locksmith Services. Tell us what the door is doing and what you would like it to do instead. We'll start there.
