Sound familiar?Milton
- The call
- The lock works, but only if you lean on the door with your hip while turning the key. After a week of humid weather the bolt is jammed against the strike plate, and without that push the key stops halfway.
The key turns a full circle without any resistance and the deadbolt stays exactly where it is. There is no click, nothing moves behind the face of the lock, and the door is as closed as it was before you touched it.
In plain words
When the cylinder is the part that has seized, the work is about cleaning rather than force. Keyways collect dust, salt spray, metal filings and residue from sprays never meant for locks, and over time the pins stop lifting cleanly. The locksmith flushes the plug with a contact cleaner, applies a penetrating lubricant, and works the key in small movements until the plug turns. With the door open the cylinder comes out, is stripped and cleaned, gets fresh springs or pins where worn, and is dressed with the lubricant specified for that cylinder. A plug or shell that is worn, damaged or eaten through by corrosion is what gets replaced.
Seized & Jammed Lock Opening · Milton
How the visit goes
Scene 1
Which of the three families it belongs to
Every jammed lock falls into one of three groups, and sorting it is the whole diagnosis. A key that enters fully and will not turn points to the cylinder: grit, ice, corrosion, dried lubricant or a plug that has not returned to its neutral position with the shell. A key that turns freely and moves nothing points to the connection behind the cylinder, the tailpiece or cam, or to a broken hub in a mortise case. A key that works only when the door is pushed, pulled or lifted points past the lock entirely to the door and its strike. Each group has its own opening method and its own repair.
Scene 2
When corrosion has taken the core
Occasionally the plug or shell has rusted or pitted past the point of cleaning, or an earlier forcing has twisted the plug in the shell. Then the cylinder is replaced rather than rebuilt. The locksmith matches the keyway and finish so the new part looks like the old one, and where the keyway allows, pins the new cylinder to the key already on your ring so nothing else in the house changes. If the whole lockset is tired, a replacement deadbolt or lever set goes on in the same visit, with the strike checked to suit it. The old parts are handed over so you can see exactly what failed.
Scene 3
The early warnings to act on
A lock gives notice before it seizes, and now you know the signs. A key that needs a jiggle to seat, a plug that turns stiffly on cold mornings, a bolt that drags in its pocket, a lever that returns slowly, or a key that comes out gritty are all invitations to act while the fix is small. Stop as soon as a key begins to bend; a snapped key turns a service call into an extraction. A puff of dry lubricant or a turn of the strike screws often settles it, and a call while the lock still turns is a shorter visit than a call after it stops.
In the van
- Replacement cylinder
- Plug follower and repinning kit
- Key blanks and code cutter
- Dry PTFE or graphite lock lubricant
- Lock de-icer
What shapes the quotePeru Lock Services
- Which part is jammed
- A bolt pinned by the door, a cylinder clogged with grit and a broken tailpiece are three different jobs with three different amounts of work, and the quote follows the diagnosis rather than the symptom.
- When the call comes in
- An evening, weekend or holiday call for a jammed lock costs the same amount as a weekday one. The locksmith looks at what is actually jammed once on site, and the exact figure follows from that, not from the clock.
- Door and hinge adjustment
- When the door caused the jam, hinge screws, shims, a strike move or a deepened bolt pocket are quoted as their own line beside the opening.
FeesSame any hour
Questions we hear most
My key is worn. Would a new copy have prevented this?
Possibly, if the key was part of the cause. A worn or bent key lifts the pins short of the shear line, so the plug binds even in a healthy cylinder, and a copy made from that key repeats the wear. A key cut from the code or from a crisp original is the fix. If the lock was also gritty or the door had moved, the new key would have eased things without settling them, which is why the locksmith checks all three.
Why does the lock only stick when the door is closed?
Because with the door open the bolt is throwing into thin air, and with the door closed it is throwing into a pocket that has moved. A door that has dropped on its hinges, swollen with humidity or been pushed out by thick weatherstripping lands the bolt against the edge of the strike plate instead of through the hole. A chalk mark on the bolt shows exactly where it hits, and the fix is on the frame, not in the cylinder.
My key turns all the way round but the bolt stays put. What has broken?
The key and cylinder are doing their job; the bar behind the cylinder that drives the bolt, called the tailpiece or cam, has broken, slipped or twisted out of engagement. It is a small part. The locksmith retracts the bolt through the mechanism or removes the cylinder to reach it, then fits a tailpiece of the right length and profile. Your cylinder and keys are unchanged afterwards.
Lockout Services
- Business Lockout ServiceThe key went in stiffly, turned a quarter of the way, and came out in two pieces.
- Broken Key ExtractionIn the parking lot your car key snapped in the driver's door.
- Break-In Damage Lock RepairThe back door looks closed until you touch it.
- Lost Keys — Same-Visit RekeyThe renovation wrapped up in the spring.
Miltoninformation
HaltonOntario
Seized & Jammed Lock Opening · Dorset Park, Peru
- Town
- Milton, Halton
- In business
- 20 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7
- Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (289) 630-2866
- Visits
- On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.
2021 census: what it means at the door
Every square is one home in a hundred.
- 19 in 100 homes · newer homes
- 57 in 100 homes · mixed housing
- About 19% of homes in Milton were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Newer homes are built to standard bores and backsets, so nearly any modern deadbolt, lever set or smart lock fits straight on. The locksmith can offer a wide range of hardware knowing it will mount cleanly without new holes.
- Single-detached houses make up about 57% of homes in Milton (2021 Census).Where housing types are mixed, the same lost-key call means different things. In a house, rekey every door on the property. In an apartment, rekey the suite door and check with management about the common entrance. The locksmith asks which it is first.
Nearby
On-site assessment
Request a visit.
The key turns a full circle without any resistance and the deadbolt stays exactly where it is.
(289) 630-2866, open 24/7.