If a child or pet is locked inside and you are outside, call us and say so when you ring — it changes how the call is handled. Do not force a window or door yourself while you wait; forcing entry is slower than it looks and risks hurting whoever is on the other side…
A spare key under the mat or in a fake rock is the single worst thing you can do for your security — burglars check those spots first and it takes them seconds. A wall-mounted key safe with a changeable code, bolted into masonry rather than siding, is the sensible version. So is leaving a…
Rekeying solves exactly one problem: it stops old keys working. It does not make the door harder to kick, and most break-ins are not key-based. If you want the door to be genuinely harder to get through, the strike plate and frame matter far more than the cylinder, and they cost about thirty dollars. People…
When a partner or housemate moves out, rekey the doors they had keys to. Whether you can do it depends on whose name is on the deed or lease, not on who moved out. If there is any safety concern, that changes the priority and there are people better placed than a locksmith to advise…
Rekey between every tenancy, not replace. Returned keys tell you nothing — copies cost a few dollars at any hardware shop and nobody has to declare them. Rekeying costs a fraction of replacement, takes 15 to 25 minutes a cylinder, and is the single clearest thing a landlord can point to if a break-in is…
If you own the property, rekey every exterior cylinder and you are done. If you rent, check your lease and speak to the landlord first — in most Louisiana tenancies the tenant does not have the right to change locks unilaterally, and doing it anyway can put your deposit and your tenancy at risk. Two…
The security jobs worth doing in a new house, in order of what they actually buy you: rekey every exterior cylinder, put three-inch screws through the strikes into the studs, check the garage-to-house door, then deal with sliding doors and outbuildings. Most of this is one visit and a screwdriver, not a renovation. There is…
Yes, and rekeying is almost always the right version of it. Nobody can tell you how many copies of the old key exist, and rekeying kills every one of them in about 15 to 25 minutes a cylinder while leaving your hardware on the door. Full replacement is only needed if the hardware itself is…
Doors on the Gulf Coast move for two separate reasons: timber swells and shrinks with the seasons, and the slab underneath settles unevenly over years. Swelling is temporary and reverses. Settlement does not. Telling them apart decides whether you adjust the strike or leave it alone until autumn. A door that binds in July and…
Locks fail faster in Louisiana because three things run at once: salt carried inland off the lake corrodes cylinder internals, humidity above 75 percent for months keeps moisture inside the mechanism, and timber doors swell and shrink seasonally. A lockset that would last fifteen years in a dry state often gets eight here. People move…