Lockouts · Kawartha Lakes
Break-In Damage Lock Repair in Kawartha Lakes
The back door looks closed until you touch it.
In plain words
A failed break-in is still a repair. When a lock holds against a pry bar or a kick, the force goes somewhere: a strike plate bends, screws loosen, the door edge takes a gouge, the deadbolt binds where the bolt met the strike under load. Left alone, that door locks a little worse each week and the next attempt starts from where the first one finished. The visit checks every part that took the strain, replaces what bent, reinforces the strike and hinges with long screws and confirms the bolt throws cleanly again. It is also the moment to add what would have made the attempt pointless from the start.
How the visit goesPolice have come and gone, the occurrence number is on a sticky note, and you are standing in a cold hallway looking at a splintered frame, wondering how the house gets locked before everyone tries to sleep.
Break-In Damage Lock Repair
How the visit goes
Which keys and codes are gone
Break-ins change who holds the keys, so the assessment includes a short inventory. Were house keys hanging by the door, in a drawer or on a hook in the garage? Was a car taken with a garage remote and a house key on its ring? Was a bag or wallet with keys inside stolen? Are alarm codes or safe combinations written anywhere that was disturbed? Each yes adds a cylinder to be rekeyed, a remote to be erased from the opener or a code to reset. The locksmith lists every lock those keys fit, including the mailbox, padlocks and a rental unit's suite door, so nothing that opened yesterday still opens tomorrow.
Rebuilding the strike side
The strike is where most forced doors failed, so it is rebuilt rather than reattached. The old plate comes off and the bolt pocket is cut to full depth, since a pocket that is too shallow stops the bolt from extending completely and leaves it easier to push back. A security strike with a boxed pocket is set flush into the jamb, its long screws driven through the jamb and shim space into the wall stud, with the longest screws placed nearest the door stop where the bolt bears. Pilot holes are drilled first so the screws seat without splitting the repaired wood. The bolt now pushes against framing lumber instead of two short screws in soft trim.
A door that closes and locks again
The visit ends with the door tested the way it will be used. The bolt is thrown and withdrawn with the door open, then closed, and it must slide home without dragging on the strike or stopping short of full extension. The latch catches when the door is pushed to, not slammed. The door meets its weatherstrip evenly and the thumb-turn works from inside without a key. You try it yourself before the locksmith packs up, with your own new key, so the first time the household locks up that night is not the first time anyone has tried the door.
Break-In Damage Lock Repair
In the van
Jamb repair plate
Three-inch strike and hinge screws
Latch guard plate
Anti-lift blocks and foot bolt
Wrap-around door edge reinforcer
Break-In Damage Lock Repair
What affects the quote
Number of cylinders rekeyed
Every lock a taken key fits is rekeyed individually, so a house with four exterior doors, a mailbox and two padlocks is more work than one front door. Bringing them all onto a single key is part of the count.
Door and frame material
A wood jamb over a stud takes standard reinforcement. Steel frames, jambs on masonry, fibreglass doors and aluminum storefront stiles each need their own fasteners and methods, which changes both labour and parts.
How many parts were damaged
One broken cylinder on a sound frame is a small repair. A torn strike, a split jamb, a crushed door edge and bent hinges together are a longer visit with more hardware, and the quote follows the count.
What to have ready
- Which door or opening was forced, and does it still close at all?
- Is this a suite door in an apartment or condo building?
- Is there glass beside the door or in it?
Break-In Damage Lock Repair: questions
QuestionsWhy did the frame break instead of the lock?
Because that is where the weak point was. A standard strike plate is held by two short screws in a soft wood jamb, and the deadbolt only reaches into a shallow pocket behind it. A kick delivers the full weight of a body to those screws, and the wood around them splits along the grain. The bolt itself is rarely the failure. That is why the repair concentrates on the strike side: a boxed strike, a full-depth pocket and long screws into the stud.
The intruder pried open our sliding patio door. Can it be made secure?
Yes. The panel goes back on its track and the broken latch is replaced, then the weaknesses a slider is born with are addressed: anti-lift blocks in the upper channel so the panel cannot be raised off its rollers, a foot bolt or pin lock through the frame at the bottom, and an auxiliary keyed lock if the latch alone is flimsy. A bowed frame may need a door installer, with the opening secured until they come.
I rent. Who arranges the repair, and can I change the lock myself?
Tell your landlord or property manager as soon as the police have been called; provincial tenancy law makes the landlord responsible for repairs to the unit, and most will arrange the locksmith. A tenant may not change locks without the landlord's agreement, and a landlord who changes them must give the tenant keys, so the visit is coordinated between you. If you arrange securing yourself in an emergency, keep the receipt and the record of what was done for both sides.
Related services
- Business Lockout ServiceYou signed the lease on the unit last week and the landlord handed over possession, but the previous tenant's locks are still on both doors and no keys came with them.
- Broken Key ExtractionOvernight the deadbolt froze, and this morning the key would only turn partway.
- Seized & Jammed Lock OpeningEvery time you pull the key out of the side door it comes away gritty.