We recently had the task of gaining emergency entry to a property in St Just.
The owner came home, attempted to enter the property but the key would not work as they could no longer operate the handles or lock in an old aluminium door. The door was locked and was seized solid.
Once the handles were stripped away, it was immediately obvious why. Unfortunately, the inside of the lock and the spindle for the handles had rusted either to the point of being solid at one end and at the opposite end had totally broken away.
As the customer had the keys and the internal parts were rusted solid, we would not be able to gain entry by picking the lock. It was decided to use other means which included drilling out part of the lock. Once the door was open, we found we had to order the replacement lock so the door was temporarily secured overnight using specially designed security bolts. These would be left in position after the job was completed and would add extra security to the customer’s door. The replacement lock arrived the following day and was promptly fitted.
The pictures above show the condition of the lock that we removed and also the finished job. We replaced the lock case and the handles which fitted perfectly with just a couple of minor adjustments. Although the lock is very badly rusted, this is by no means, the worst that we gave been called upon to repair.