Star Locks Offers Emergency House Lockout Assistance to All Baltimore Residents
Are you having a house lockout in the Baltimore area? Getting locked out of your house is frustrating, and can even be dangerous during periods of extreme heat or cold. What’s more, the problem only gets compounded if you’re locked out of your house with small children or family members.
When you lock yourself out and are wondering what to do – give Star Locks a call! We’re a licensed and insured local locksmith in Baltimore, providing the residents of Baltimore with house lockout assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We’re fully mobile! That means we travel to your location fully equipped with all the right tools to get you back into your house with no damage to your home. Our experience in handling your emergencies, along with our affordable prices, make us the right choice!
HOW DO WE GET YOU BACK INSIDE?
Locking yourself out is more common than you think. And even the most responsible homeowners are prone to losing or forgetting their keys occasionally. When this happens, it’s crucial to call a professional locksmith to handle the house lockout. Depending on the lock and key hardware or your doors, we can do that in the following ways:
Picking The Lock
Lock picking is one of the most common methods we use when you are locked out of your house. We use special lock picking tools to align the pins and leavers inside the lock, subsequently unlocking and opening the door. This method is the least intrusive and doesn’t cause damage to your locks. Depending on your hardware, we may use the following tools to get in:
- Torsion (tension) Wrench
- Half-diamond Pick
- Hook Pick
- Rake Pick
- Decoder Pick
Sliding the Latch Open
In the case that your door is ‘only’ closed but not locked, we can use a simple tool called a Super Mica to slide the door open. It’s a special, laminated card made of flexible, low friction plastic. We slide it in the gap between the door and the door frame, opening the door.
Lock Bumping
Lock Bumping is a technique for picking pin tumbler locks by using a specially crafted key called a bump key (999 key). At Star Locks, we do our absolute best to open your door efficiently when you lock yourself out, without incurring damage to your door or lock hardware. However, in the rare instance the house lockout can’t be dealt with any of our simple lock picking tools, we may have to use more destructive methods (which will require you to change the locks). Those include:
Drilling the Lock
In certain situations, such as with high-security locks, we may need to use a drill to reach the internal parts of the lock, exposing it so that we can use a manual tool (such as a screwdriver) to unlock the door. We will only ever drill into a small area in the lock, incurring no damage to your actual door.
Cutting the Lock
We may have to cut the bolt of a lock in certain situations, such as if the bolt has rusted over & won’t open, or if you’ve lost a key to a padlock. In these cases, we will simply cut the bolt and unlock and door.
HOW TO AVOID BECOMING LOCKED OUT OF YOUR HOUSE
At Star Locks, we are happy to assist our customers when they lock themselves out of their house. And in order to prevent a house lockout from happening, we offer the following simple advice:
- Have a Trusted Locksmith On Hand
Of course, the most fail-safe way to prevent a house lockout is to double or even triple check that you’ve got your keys in hand when you leave. However, just in case you don’t, it’s a great idea to keep the number of a locksmith you trust on hand to call in case of an emergency. We recommend making Star Locks your go-to locksmith of choice! - Stash Duplicates In Good Hiding Places
If you’re locked out with no one around, your family members’ spare keys won’t be much help. That’s why we recommend making a couple duplicates and hiding them in appropriate places around your house. - Consider a Master Key System
If the different doors around your house all require a different key, it can be difficult to keep track of, and even easier for one to go missing. We recommend making a master key for all the locks in your house so that house lockout poses less of a problem. It’s also a great idea for landlords and property managers of apartment buildings who, with a master key, would be able to assist tenants when they’re locked out of the house. In fact, master key programming is a service Star Locks offers. Contact us if you’re interested in having a master key made.
WHAT TO TRY BEFORE CALLING A LOCKSMITH
While we are always on hand to take your call and make it out to your location should you become locked out of your house, there are some things you may want to try before doing so.
Got A Credit Card?
A credit card is probably one of the most well-known methods of gaining entry when you’re locked out of your house. Firstly, though, bare in mind that this process may potentially cause some damage to the card itself, so try choosing one that is old or no longer needed, just in case. Also, remember that this method will only work on a specific type of door locks such as spring bolts.
This type of lock is most commonly found on standard type door knobs. Push the card in between the frame and the door, specifically at the point where the latch of the door is located. Position the card so it’s rising straight up to the door and push / wriggle the card and see if you can make contact with the edge of the lock.
If you can, try bending the card away from the doorknob to in turn slide the latch back from where the door is jammed. If you are able to gain entry to your home this feel, don’t let it feel like too much of a victory! This means that others will be able to do the same too, which leaves the security of your home lessened. We recommend calling us to improve the security of your locks.
Removing The Door Knob
If you have a doorknob in place, removing it may mean you can gain entry if you are locked out of your house. This will only work if the doors dead-bolt is not in use. If you inspect the doorknob closely enough, you should be able to see the screw that connects it to the door, and if you look closer still, you should be able to spot a small, pin-sized hole. If you have a paperclip or thin enough hair clip, insert it into the pin-sized hole and try to push.
Call us today at (410) 220-4692