Norcross Locksmith, Car Keys and Lock Repair, 24/7

Day or night in Norcross, GA, 4Keys Locksmith sends a mobile locksmith to the address you give; the company holds NASTF VSP authorization for vehicle security work and ALOA certification, carries insurance and a bond, and is registered as 4Keys Locksmith LLC with the Georgia Secretary of State. Nobody waits at a counter, since the company keeps none. Everything rides in the van from Brookhaven, from key cutter and programmer to replacement locksets, and it typically reaches a Norcross address within 15 to 30 minutes of setting out.

The van's work here runs from the house and the business to the car, and one topic gets the full treatment on this page: repairing a lock that sticks, will not latch or fights the key, and recognizing the point where a repair stops making sense and a new lock is the better buy.

No van is sent until you have heard the price on the phone, and the published figures are on the rate list. You can speak Spanish from the first word of the call; the Spanish edition of this page lives at Cerrajero en Norcross.

A lock that fights you is not always a bad lock. Schlage's own deadbolt installation guide has you work the bolt twice, first with the door open and then with it closed, and says that if the bolt drags or hits the strike plate with the door closed, the strike or the jamb needs adjusting for better alignment. That comparison is where a repair visit in Norcross starts. If the key and the thumbturn move freely with the door open and only bind once it is shut, the lock body is fine and the trouble lives between the bolt and the frame.

Between the bolt and the frame, three things go wrong. The strike no longer sits where the bolt meets it because the door, the frame or the strike itself has moved; Kwikset names misalignment of any of the three as a reason a deadbolt will not lock. The hole behind the strike is too shallow or packed with debris; Kwikset calls for a bolt hole at least 1 inch (25 mm) deep and clear, so the bolt can extend all the way. Or the latch on the knob or lever below misses its own strike, which Kwikset corrects by adjusting the tab of the lower strike. Its test is simple: retract the deadbolt, close the door, and notice whether you have to push, pull or lift the door to shut it. Each of these is repaired at the door by moving the strike or opening it up, deepening and clearing the bolt hole, or reworking the latch strike.

When the fault is inside the lock, the signs are different. A key that is stiff even with the door open points to the cylinder or to the key itself: try another key to the same lock, and if that one turns freely, a fresh key cut to the lock's depths may be all the repair it needs. A latch that will not spring back, a lever that droops, or a cylinder that turns without moving the bolt points to a worn or broken part inside the lockset. On some models even the mounting screws matter; Kwikset warns that over-tightened screws on its keypad deadbolt can stop it from working.

Repair or replace? A repair is the right call when the lock itself is sound and the problem is alignment, the strike, the bolt hole, loose trim or a worn key. Replacement is the right call when the cylinder is worn past a clean turn, parts inside are broken, the lock was forced, or you wanted a smart lock, a sturdier deadbolt or a restricted keyway anyway. The technician tells you which it is at the door, before starting, and you decide. The same thinking applies to shop and office doors, covered under commercial locksmith service, and a full commercial changeover is laid out in the commercial lock change guide.

When a manager or an employee leaves holding a key, each cylinder that key worked gets new pins, and only the people who stay receive the new keys. A list of the doors before the visit keeps the job to one trip; if the building runs on a master system, the change is worked into the existing key chart instead of breaking it.

A master key system gives the owner one key for everything, managers a key for their area and each employee a key to the doors the job needs, all planned on paper before a single cylinder is pinned. Put it on a restricted keyway and duplicates can be ordered only through an authorized channel; planning a master key system goes through the steps. Where metal keys are the problem, card readers, fob readers or keypads on employee entrances let a lost credential be switched off rather than a lock rekeyed, and a system with an audit log shows whose credential opened which door.

Panic bars and other exit devices that jam, stop latching, or need an exterior lever with a keyed cylinder are fixed or exchanged on site. A bar that no longer latches gets the same strike and alignment checks described above before anyone calls it broken. Shop fronts of glass and aluminum along the Buford Highway corridor carry narrow-stile hardware keyed through a mortise cylinder, and that cylinder can be rekeyed or swapped so the storefront matches the back door.

Staff locked out after closing get in at whatever hour they call, and if a key has gone missing the cylinder is rekeyed before the van leaves. Give the dispatcher the business name, the door (front, rear or an interior office) and the hardware on it, and the quote follows on that call.