Have You Recently Moved Home
Have you recently moved home or business premises, and are now not sure how may keys are in circulation for your property?
British Standard Locks
Now you've Moved home it would be wise to ascertain whether the current locks are or reasonable quality or not. By checking the fore-end of the lock it should be stamped with a British Standard Kite Mark, if you have a wooden door. This will normally include what revision the lock is. The British Standard for mortice locks is 3621. So if it’s stamped BS3621, this indicates that the lock conforms to the British Standard, the latest revision is 2007. The year of revision will be stamped below the kitemark.
Insurance Policy
Most, if not all, insurers will specify your property must be fitted with a British Standard locks on their policies. Older policies may only state a five lever lock. On some of the newer policies I’ve seen they are also now specifying the year of revision, this is important as even though you may have British Standard locks they may not conform to the latest revision. It is essential to check your own policy, especially when you've moved home or are renewing. If you’ve used the same insurers for years you may find the policy has changed, check it carefully!
Repair and Replacement of Existing Locks
If you have a lock that satisfies your policy you may not necessarily the need to shell out the expense of replacing the lock. It is possible for the the lever pack in most locks to be changed. This ensures any old keys will no longer operate the lock. If lever packs are not available a locksmith should be able to change the position of the levers in the existing lock and make new keys to suit, thus achieving the same result i.e. the old keys no longer work. Much cheaper than replacing the entire lock. However, this option may not be viable due to excessive wear of the lock.
Should you feel you would like to discuss your lock with ACQ Locksmiths Ltd we are more than happy to help and advise. However, it is a good idea to have some basic information for us, for instance is it a:
- Sashlock
- Deadlock?
- uPVC Lock
- Nightlatch
Remember not all nightlatches are Yale and not all mortice locks are Chubb but they are a good description in the first instance. To be frank, Chubb have not made the locks for years, and most Chubb marked locks in use now were made by Assa Abloy, and in recent years have been re-branded as Union. This applies to all ex Chubb door locks, the Chubb window locks etc. are now branded Yale. There's nothing straightforward in locksmithing!!!
I Hope this information is useful to you, if it has helped you may wish to like our Facebook page and follow us on Google+.
