Locksmith in Inman Park, Atlanta: Older Door Locks, Car Keys and Lockouts

An older front door can hold several generations of hardware at once. The oldest is the mortise lock: a rectangular lock body that sits in a pocket cut into the edge of the door, with the latch, the bolt and the hub for the knob spindle inside one case, a faceplate on the door edge and a strike on the jamb. Some of these still take a bit key, the skeleton key, which marks a warded design: fixed obstructions inside the case stop any key whose notches do not clear them. Warded locks allow only a small number of distinct keys, so one bit key can open doors it was never cut for, and a skeleton-key lock on an exterior door is best treated as a latch rather than as security.

Later mortise locks take a threaded pin-tumbler cylinder screwed into the case and located by a set screw, with a cam on its back that throws the bolt. Beside them you may find a rim lock or night latch, a box fastened to the inside face of the door with a rim cylinder reaching through to the outside, and a bored deadbolt someone added in round holes through the face and edge of the door. Each is serviced differently, so the first question on the call is what you see on the door.

A worn cylinder shows itself as a key that has to be wiggled or pulled back a hair before it turns. Inside a pin-tumbler cylinder, key pins of different lengths sit under spring-loaded driver pins, and the cuts on the key lift each stack to the shear line so the plug can turn. Wear on the cuts, the pins or the plug moves them off that line. The technician compares your key with a fresh one cut to the lock before blaming the cylinder: a tired key is solved by a new key, a tired cylinder by re-pinning or a replacement cylinder. Because a pin-tumbler cylinder can be changed without disturbing the boltwork, a sound mortise case keeps its place on the door while the cylinder in it is rekeyed or swapped.

When the lock body itself has worn out, the door decides the replacement. New and reproduction mortise locks come in more than one backset, 2-1/4 and 2-1/2 inches among them, so the technician measures the backset, the length of the faceplate and the size of the case against the pocket already cut. A body that fits that cutout leaves the door edge untouched. Moving a mortised door to a modern cylindrical lock can be done, but the old pocket has to be filled with a wood insert or epoxy, or covered by a filler or wrap-around plate, and the repair tends to show on a stained door; the mortise route also keeps its heavier boltwork.

Inman Park addresses carry the 30307 ZIP code, a standard Atlanta ZIP whose area sits mostly in Fulton County with a part in DeKalb. Other neighborhoods share 30307, so give the street address. The neighborhood runs from the BeltLine's Eastside Trail on the west to Moreland Avenue on the east, which is also the Fulton and DeKalb line, and from Freedom Parkway on the north to DeKalb Avenue on the south.

Freedom Parkway, which leaves the Downtown Connector at exit 248C, brings the van along the north edge; inside the neighborhood, name the nearest corner on streets such as Euclid, Edgewood, Elizabeth, Waverly, Austin or Alta. A car shut in the parking lot of the Inman Park/Reynoldstown MARTA station, at 1055 DeKalb Avenue, is reached where it sits; give the row and the color of the car.

The homes range from small shotgun cottages to large Victorian houses, bungalows and condominiums, and former industrial sites on the west side are now mixed-use complexes with shops, restaurants and offices. For a house, count the exterior doors and say what is on each. For a condo, the unit door is the job and the building entry belongs to the association, so arrange a way in or wait for the van at the entrance. For a business, name the door type. The same dispatch covers Old Fourth Ward across the Eastside Trail, Little Five Points across Moreland and the rest of Atlanta.