LANCASHIRE LOCKSMITH • HOMES & BUSINESSES
A snapped key can usually be removed without replacing the lock. Extraction tools grip the broken section and draw it out, leaving the cylinder working. Pulling at it with pliers or a magnet normally pushes the fragment deeper and turns a £108 job into a lock replacement.
From £108 · call-out and labour rates
Half the key in your hand and half of it in the door is one of the most common calls we take. In most cases the broken section comes out and the lock carries on working.
Do not push the remaining half of the key back in to try to turn it, and do not pull at the fragment with pliers, tweezers or a magnet. Both usually drive the broken section further into the cylinder, past the point where it can be gripped. Leave the key where it is and do not force the handle.
Keys fail from metal fatigue, not from one unlucky turn. A key that has been stiff for months, that needs lifting or pulling the door to turn, or that has visible wear on the cuts is already weakened. The underlying cause is usually a worn cylinder, a dropped door or a lock that has never been lubricated — which is why extraction alone sometimes is not the whole job.
The cylinder is inspected to see how far in the fragment sits and whether it is jammed against the pins. Thin extraction tools are worked alongside the broken section to catch the cuts and draw it out. Where the key has sheared flush and cannot be gripped, the cylinder may have to be removed or, as a last resort, drilled — and that is explained, with the cost, before it happens.
Once the fragment is out, the lock is tested with the remaining key. If the cylinder is sound, nothing else is needed. If it is worn enough to have broken one key it will break another, so replacement is usually the sensible course — a euro cylinder from £120, a mortice lock from £156. Extraction itself is listed from £108, with call-out and labour charged as set out on the pricing page.
Euro cylinders, mortice locks, nightlatches, window handles, garage and shed locks and padlocks are all routinely recoverable. What matters is not the type of lock but how far in the fragment sits and whether any of its cut edges can be reached by an extraction tool.
The cylinder can often be removed from the door and the fragment pushed out from the back, which costs nothing extra in parts. Where that is not possible, drilling is the remaining option, and it means a replacement lock. Either way you are told the cost before anything is drilled.
Only if a new lock is actually needed. Extraction alone is listed from £108; if the cylinder is sound afterwards, that is the job finished. A euro cylinder from £120 or a mortice lock from £156 is added only when the lock itself has to be changed.
Often, and the principle is the same as a door lock. Tell us the make, model and year of the vehicle and whether the key snapped in a door, the boot or the ignition, as that changes the access and the tools needed.
We cover Lancashire, including the towns below. Call with your postcode to confirm availability for your address.
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