Locked out of your house? What to do, step by step

You're on the doorstep. The door's shut. The keys are on the kitchen table, or in your other coat, or — and this is a classic — in the house you've just locked to keep them safe. It's fine. This is a small problem that feels like a big one, and it happens to everyone eventually, including locksmiths.

Here's the order to work through it.

The gist

Check the obvious ways in first — other doors, windows on the latch, a spare with a neighbour. If there's genuinely no way in, call a locksmith and ask two things: the likely price before they drive, and whether the door can be opened without damage. For a normal house door the answer is almost always yes. Don't put a window through. A pane of glass costs far more than the opening, and climbing through one is how the evening gets worse.

First, check the easy ways back in

Before you call anyone, thirty seconds of checking can save you the whole job:

• Other doors. Back door, side door, patio door, garage internal door. People lock the front on autopilot and leave the back on the latch.
• Ground-floor windows. Not to climb through — to see if one's unlocked and a family member can reach in and open a door from inside.
• The spare. Neighbour, family member nearby, the key safe you fitted and forgot about. Now's the time you find out whether "there's a spare somewhere" was ever true.
• Anyone else with a key. A partner ten minutes away with a key is faster and cheaper than any locksmith.
• Letting agent or landlord, if you rent. They may hold a key, though out of hours that's a long shot.

If one of those works, you're done. If not, it's a call.

What not to do

• Don't force a window or door. The maths never works. A double-glazed unit, a forced frame, a splintered door — all of it costs more than a locksmith, and you still need the locksmith afterwards.
• Don't attack the lock with a screwdriver or a drill off a video. Half-wrecking a cylinder turns a simple pick job into a drill-and-replace, and now you're paying for the lock too.
• Don't climb. Wet drainpipes, flat roofs and first-floor windows put people in hospital every year. It is never worth it.
• Don't sit in the cold for hours deciding. If you're not getting in, make the call and wait somewhere warm.

Getting a locksmith out

When you call, ask for two things up front:

1. The likely price before anyone drives. A straight answer is a good sign. A "we'll see when we get there" is not. A photo of the lock and the door, sent over, gets you a tighter number.
2. Whether it'll be non-destructive. For a standard door, it should be. If the locksmith says drilling is likely, ask why — sometimes it's a genuine high-security cylinder, sometimes it's a shortcut.

Have some ID ready to show you live there. Any locksmith worth calling will want it. If you're locked out anywhere in Bedfordshire, that's the call we take most.

How a locksmith opens the door

So you know it's not witchcraft:

• Slipping the latch. If the door's only on a spring latch, a thin tool past the frame pushes the latch back. Seconds, no damage.
• Picking or bumping the cylinder. Manipulating the pins so the lock turns as if the key were in it. This is the normal method for a deadlocked euro or mortice lock, and it leaves nothing behind.
• Letter-box and through-the-glass tools, where the layout allows, to reach an internal thumb-turn.
• Drilling — last resort. Only when the cylinder is built to defeat picking and there's no other way. The lock is destroyed and replaced; the door isn't touched.

The Master Locksmiths Association has more on how a professional approaches a lockout if you want the background.

So it doesn't happen again

• Spare with a neighbour you trust. The single best fix. Future you, standing in the rain, will be grateful.
• A key safe by the door, fitted properly, with a code you'll actually remember.
• Check for keys before the door shuts. A dull habit that saves a bad night.
• Sort a sticking lock now. If your key's been getting harder to turn, that's a lockout waiting for a cold evening. See what to do when a key won't turn.

Locked out right now and none of the easy options are working? Call 07362 773424 and we'll talk it through.