Had a little problem with my rental today; the door knob loosened, stopped opening and locked my tenant out.
We got a locksmith out (thanks to Chels for finding one) who in his broken English said he was surprised that such a nice condo would use a restroom door knob for the front door (he seemed most surprised that the door knob wasn’t keyed.) Fortunately he had opened the door in about two minutes using two air wedge devices. Except the door has a closer on it and rapidly closed keeping us locked out and with it half of his tool set that had fallen in. He swore a lot but was able to get it open again regardless. It was interesting to see how quickly he got the door open without any visible damage.
With the door now open he examined the door knob and proclaimed it broken and proceeded to try and upsell me a new door knob and dead bolt for a crazy amount of money. Much back and forth ensued and he finally attempted to fix it which took all of 30 seconds. He then explained that sometimes he is nice and helps out and other times rips people off. This time he was being nice. I was thankful, at $180 to get the door open I felt I had spent enough.
If you have a favorite Seattle locksmith, let us know in the comments.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Ace // Oct 21, 2008 at 9:34 am
Nyberg is a pretty good local locksmith.
Personally I’d change the locks out for Medeco high security locks. Expensive, but anyone with an hours training can probably bump open that existing lock.
2 Ace // Oct 21, 2008 at 9:35 am
Here’s an example of lock bumping.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr23tpWX8lM
Note that any lock you can buy at Home Depot (including brands like Schlage) are vulnerable to this.
3 Matt // Oct 21, 2008 at 9:36 am
Is it common for folks who buy new construction to replace their door knobs as soon as they move in?
4 Ross // Oct 21, 2008 at 11:14 am
There’s a great slide deck on lock picking here: http://deviating.net/lockpicking/slides/2008-08-15-deviant_ollam.ppt
The standard locks that come on homes are generally complete crap. There’s a couple recommendations of good brands in that deck.
5 uptown // Oct 21, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Change the locks when you buy, unless they are high end (with a deadbolt). This goes for all types of housing. Medeco is worth the money.
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