Locked out in Wimbledon? We're on the way.

Around 30 minutes from the call to most of the area. The Village, the Broadway, South Wimbledon, Wimbledon Park, Merton and Raynes Park all sit inside that. We give you a realistic ETA on the phone, not a hopeful number we can't hit.

For most lockouts, no. If the door has just shut behind you on a standard cylinder, we open without damage and the lock you came home to is the lock you keep. The harder cases are locks that have already failed, cheap cylinders snapped open before we arrived, or some high-security units where the right path is to replace. We have the kit on the van for many high-security cylinders, including some Banham, opened with no damage. Where a lock genuinely has to come out, the door is never damaged and we carry replacements for every common stock. Safety first, always.

Yes. We answer the phone every hour of the day, every day of the year. We've opened doors on Christmas morning, New Year's Eve, and through every bank holiday since 2014. The phone is answered by a person, not a voicemail or a queue.

We focus on residential and commercial property lockouts. For a car lockout, your insurer's breakdown cover or the manufacturer's dealer network is usually the right route. If you're not sure who to call, phone us and we'll point you at the right person rather than send the wrong engineer.

Please don't. Modern UPVC and composite frames are tougher than they look. You can bruise yourself, you can damage the frame, and the lock will still be locked when you get inside, so you still have a problem in the morning. A lockout solved properly costs much less than a door repair after a window climb that went wrong.

The £35 number is not the price. It is the cost of the call, sold to whichever locksmith picks it up first. The actual quote happens on your doorstep, after work has started, and the final bill is typically many times the advert. We give you an honest range on the phone, before we set off, and that range is what you pay. The lower end is the usual outcome on standard locks. That makes us more expensive than the advert and cheaper than the doorstep bill.

Tap, contactless, Apple Pay, Google Pay, chip-and-PIN, or cash, your call. The engineer carries the reader on every van so you can pay at the door once you are back inside, not on the kerb. The itemised receipt lands in your email by the next morning at the latest, in the format an insurer or landlord will expect.

Yes, identical warranty to a planned daytime fit. Any cylinder, mortice lock or piece of hardware we supply during a lockout is covered for 12 months from fit. Work done on your existing lock without supplying a new part is covered for 6 months. A 3am rush job and a 3pm planned swap get the same guarantee.

Three usual culprits. Cylinder pin wear from thousands of cycles, which slowly drops tolerance. Frame movement as the building settles or the timber swells in damp weather, which shifts the bolt's path through the keep. And dirt or graphite build-up inside the keyway. If it's just getting harder, that is the warning sign before it stops working entirely. Call before it fails on a Sunday night.

Usually one of three. Wafers or pins inside the cylinder have shifted out of alignment, often after a hard knock or a worn key being forced. A previous key fragment is still sitting in the cylinder from a half-pull. Or the cam at the back of the cylinder has jammed against the bolt mechanism. We can usually diagnose which from the symptoms on the phone and bring the right kit.

Not always. Non-destructive picking by a competent locksmith leaves the lock fully functional and the keys still uniquely yours. If we open your door without damage and there is no security reason to replace (no missing or stolen keys, no break-in attempt prior), the lock can stay. Where there is a security reason, a fresh BS3621 cylinder takes the question off the table. We'll be honest about which applies.