Lockouts · Toronto
Break-In Damage Lock Repair
You came home to find the front door standing open. The deadbolt is still thrown, but the strike plate is dangling from one screw and a fist-sized piece of the jamb is lying on the hall floor.
Break-In Damage Lock Repair
In plain words
When a home is broken into, the locks are not the only thing that has changed hands. Keys hanging in the hall, a spare in a drawer, a garage remote on a visor or a house key on a stolen car's ring may all be gone. Part of break-in damage repair is closing that door too. Every cylinder those keys fit is rekeyed or replaced and fresh keys are cut, the mailbox and padlocks are considered, and you are reminded to reset the garage opener and any alarm codes that were written down. The forced door gets fixed, and the missing keys stop mattering at the same time.
How the visit goesThey did not get in. The attempt left a screwdriver gouge in the door edge, a strike plate bent outward and a deadbolt that now needs a shove to throw. The lock held, but the door is telling you it was tested.
Toronto
How the visit goes
What is behind the jamb
Long screws only help if there is something solid to bite into, so the locksmith looks at how the frame is built. Most house doors have a wood jamb, a shim space and then a stud, and three-inch screws reach through all three. A door beside a sidelight has glass where the stud would be, so fasteners are chosen for that construction instead. A jamb fixed to a masonry return, a steel frame in a commercial building, or a fire-rated suite door in an apartment corridor each call for their own hardware and fixing method. Knowing the wall before choosing the screws is what makes the reinforcement real.
Repairing a split jamb
A jamb that has split along the grain can often be saved. The loose section is pressed back into place and glued with a two-part wood epoxy that cures harder than the surrounding wood, then clamped while the strike box is fitted through it into the stud so the screws hold the repair as well as the strike. Missing wood is built up with filler or a fitted piece of matching stock and dressed flush. When the jamb has pulled away from the framing along its length or shattered around the pocket, the locksmith says so and arranges a new jamb leg through a carpenter, with temporary securing to see the household through until then.
New keys and a clean slate
If keys were taken, you now hold a set that fits locks nobody else can open. The cylinders were pinned to a fresh combination and the new keys were cut from that pinning, tested in each door and counted into your hand. It is worth deciding on the spot who gets one and where the spare lives, which is no longer a hook by the door. Garage remotes have been erased and re-paired, and you have been reminded to change alarm codes and any code written on paper that was disturbed. The stolen ring is now a handful of metal that turns nothing.
Break-In Damage Lock Repair
In the van
- Wrap-around door edge reinforcer
- Two-part wood epoxy and shims
- Plywood and cleats for boarding
- Rekeying pins and key blanks
- Three-inch strike and hinge screws
What affects the quote
Same fees day, night or weekend
1Matching finish and style
Choosing hardware that matches the existing trim, finish and handle style on your other doors can mean ordering rather than fitting from stock, which the quote notes.
2Strike and hinge reinforcement
A security strike box, hinge reinforcement plates and three-inch screws on both sides of the door are listed as their own items, so you can see what strengthens the frame beyond replacing what broke.
3Work referred to another trade
A shattered frame, a broken door slab or smashed glass is listed as needing a carpenter, door installer or glazier, and that work is quoted by those trades rather than by the locksmith.
Break-In Damage Lock Repair: questions
I rent. Who arranges the repair, and can I change the lock myself?
Tell your landlord or property manager as soon as the police have been called; provincial tenancy law makes the landlord responsible for repairs to the unit, and most will arrange the locksmith. A tenant may not change locks without the landlord's agreement, and a landlord who changes them must give the tenant keys, so the visit is coordinated between you. If you arrange securing yourself in an emergency, keep the receipt and the record of what was done for both sides.
Is a smart lock a good replacement after a break-in?
It can be, with the same reinforcement behind it. A keypad or app-controlled deadbolt eases the problem of stolen keys, since codes are changed in seconds and a lost phone is unpaired rather than rekeyed. Its bolt still needs a boxed strike and long screws, because the frame is what failed; a keyed override should be rekeyed too, with any spare left with a trusted person, not hidden outside; a cylinder-free model needs no override key. Choose one with a full-throw bolt and fit it to a reinforced door edge.
Can the locksmith start before the police have finished?
The door is left as found until the police have seen it or said they will not attend. What can happen in the meantime is planning: the locksmith can look at the damage, photograph it, measure for hardware and prepare the temporary securing so that the moment the scene is released the work begins. Nothing is removed or moved before then, because the marks on the door are part of the report.
Lockout Services
Break-In Damage Lock Repair near you
One team handles every service on this page for Toronto, so a lockout can turn into a rekey, and a rekey into a properly set deadbolt, within the same visit if you want it. Each service is described separately below, but at the door they fit together as one piece of work.