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Posts Tagged ‘key<’
Sometimes old age, rust and wear take their toll on our door locks, requiring us to replace them before they become too troublesome. Internal door locks differ from outside ones that are normally equipped with secure locks that are difficult to “pick”. Inside doors make use of a mortise, positioned in the door hollow, which docks into a latch plate mounted in the doorframe. This allows you to lock your door from either side as you desire.
Mr-Skill recommends that you remove the old mortise and take it to your local hardware store as a sample. After that, the similar replacement lock is quick and easy to fit, avoiding the need to make modifications to the existing door.
Having made your purchase, here are the steps involved in fitting your new lock. This job should take no longer than 30 minutes. However, if you want peace of mind you may prefer to find a window and door fitter right here on Mr-Skill.
What You’ll Need
- Internal door lock assembly, including keys
- Chisel for minor adjustments
- Screwdriver correctly sized for the screw heads
- Hammer
Fitting Guidelines
- Position the new mortise into the hole in the door that held the old mechanism. Test for smooth and flush fitting into the latch plate. If necessary, tighten up screws holding the latch plate in the door frame (they can become loose with constant opening and closing of the door).
- If everything lines up correctly and the closing action is good, secure the mortise in position using wood screws on the closing edge of the door.
- Re-fit the handles on either side, carefully securing them with wood screws.
- Test that the key locks smoothly from either side of the door.
 If you are getting a window and door fitting quote, make sure that the service provider knows to replace like-for-like door locks to save you money.
One of our ever-present London window and door fitters offers the following tip.
“Once you have fitted your new internal door lock, be sure to place one of the two keys in a safe place. Also note the unique number inscribed on it, in case you ever need a replacement. In fact, you should consider keeping a register of all your key numbers!”
Tags: action, close, dock, door frame, find a window and door fitter, fit, handle, key, latch, lock, london window and door fitter, mortise, open, position, replacement, screw, smooth, wear, window and door fitting quote
Posted in Window & Door Fitting | Comments Off
Posted in Locksmith on Mar 08
Most of us don’t think twice about a locksmith, until we actually need one. The problem could be at your home, the safe in your office, or maybe the fact that you have locked yourself out of your car. Whatever the situation, you are in a state of panic. This unwanted event might easily ruin your day.
 The intricate design of modern locks and keys means that once we have locked ourselves out, there is very little that we can do about it. Sure, you could smash a window in your car or house, but that will likely attract the attention of the neighbours and the long arm of the law!
Try explaining why you are breaking into your own car or house then. You could well end up in trouble! Rather find a locksmith on the basis that they are experts in electronic and mechanical locks, and can return your situation to normal as soon as possible.
Locksmith Services
Locks – A London locksmith will stock a wide range of products, covering all leading brands. Make sure that you are dealing with a registered locksmith before you call.
Key Cutting – An approved locksmith with a key code or sample should be able to help you straight away.
 Safes – If you have lost the key to your safe, you will have no other option. Contact your approved local locksmith (unless you have a friend with a stick of dynamite).
Vehicle Keys – Car dealers are careful about replacing key sets without proof of ownership. Your approved locksmith should be able to advise what to do.
Choosing a Locksmith
It is important to check that your insurer approves your locksmith if you plan to claim. When you ask for a locksmith quote, make sure they are current members of the Master Locksmith Association. Remember, that locksmith will have knowledge of your keys and locks, so be careful who you deal with. It’s far safer to work through Mr-Skill, and it’s free to customers too.
Tags: approved, brand, break in, car, claim, code, dealer, design, electronic, find a locksmith, home, insure, key, lock, locked out, locksmith quote, london locksmith, neighbours, office, panic, police, problem, registered, reputable, safe, sample, window
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There’s nothing quite as annoying as having a badly-fitting outside door, especially on a winter’s day when there’s gale outside. It’s amazing how much harder central heating has to work, and what this costs. Don’t just sit back and accept this. Either Get Door Fitting Quotes on Mr-Skill, or have a crack at it yourself.
 Draught-Proofing Strips – The handiest solutions are the rolls of sticky-backed foam that hardware stores all sell. The upside is that the result is instantaneous. The downside is they soon wear out. At best, this is a cheap stop-gap measure.
Sealing Door Bottoms – Gaps at the bottom of doors are a common problem where tiles have replaced a thick-pile carpet. You could try a draught-excluder, although in my experience these don’t always work particularly well. My advice would be to Find a Door Fitter and ask them to attach a matching piece to the bottom of the door. That way the problem should go away, permanently.
While You’re At It - Check out other suspect areas by holding a burning candle near the letterbox and keyhole. Flaps and keyhole covers become sticky and it’s in human nature to adapt to almost anything. It could be an idea to check all the other doors and windows too. You never know what’s there until you look.
 Safety Warning – When I mentioned that I was writing this, my friend the London Door Fitter who hangs out in Charing Cross whistled sharply. I think I may have mentioned him before. Don’t make the place completely airtight, he grumbled. Air still needs to move around the house especially when your central heating and gas appliances are working.
This information comes to you with compliments of Mr-Skill. That’s the matchmaker website that connects customers with tradespeople. Use us with confidence anytime you like. We only recommend first-class craftspeople whose rates are reasonable too. You can trust them to get the job done properly.
Tags: airtight, appliance, bad, bottom, carpet, cheap, door, doot fitting quotes, draught, exclude, find a door fitter, fit, foam, gale, gap, heat, key, keyhole, letterbox, london door fitter, outside, roll, tile, window, winter
Posted in Window & Door Fitting | Comments Off
Posted in Locksmith on Jan 06
There’s nothing quite as irritating as losing keys, or battling with sticking locks without a plan to bail you out. In fact, at times like this you sometimes feel like hitting your head in frustration against a wall. If in the City, you’ll need to  Find a London Locksmith to bail you out, and that could cost you a pretty penny too. This might all have been avoidable, if you had followed these simple tips:
- Have your outside locks serviced regularly. You can Obtain a Locksmith Quote by clicking on the link. There’s no charge for this service, and the rates you receive will be highly competitive too.
- Inspect your keys regularly for signs of damage. A bent key is brittle, and could suddenly snap in two pieces. A worn one could eventually fail to work, just when you need it most
- Make up a spare set of keys. Click on this link to Find a Locksmith in your immediate area. Once you have a spare set, entrust them to a neighbour or some other trustworthy person.
 TIP – Never leave your spare keys hidden on your property or in your car. Trust me, crooks know every place that you could think of, and you can even find these listed on the internet. Act wisely in this regard.
Mr-Skill is a tradesperson-listing service that is freely available to members of the general public, and provides a Bulletin Board where you can post your jobs. And that includes far more than just having keys cut too.
In fact, we provide Links to Every Trade Available, and deliver our service FREE.
Tags: bent, brittle, broken, competitive, damage, fail, find a locksmith, frustration, inspect, key, lock, locksmith quote, london locksmith, plan, rate, service, snap, spare, spare key, spare set, sticking, tip, trust, worn
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Posted in Tiling & Flooring on Dec 14
For some peculiar reason that I don’t quite understand, bathrooms in UK homes are seldom fully tiled. Personally I think developers are being mean. How much can it cost to Find a Tiler to extend a run of wall tiles once the levels have been set?
Here’s a neat way to integrate a mirror on a painted wall with tiles elsewhere in the room.  Let your imagination loose here. The choices are endless!
- Buy the mirror and install it plumb and level with concealed mounts. Obtain sufficient wall tiles of a suitable finish and have them cut to size. If need be, you could get a Tiling Quote to have the cutting done.
- Mark out the area around the mirror where the tiles will go, and mask it off for at least the width of the tiles. Mask the frame of the mirror carefully too.
- Apply a layer of tile-keying liquid between the two runs of masking tape. Attach a batten to the wall to support the bottom run of tiles.
- Glue on the bottom run of tiles using pre-mix tile cement. Allow this to dry for twenty-four hours.
 Return the next day to complete the job, making sure the tiling spacers keep the joints between the tiles neat.
TIP A London Tiler I know well uses epoxy to secure the tiles. This may add a little to the cost, but at least he can complete the tiling on a single day, and get the money back that way.
- After waiting another day for the glue to dry properly, remove the batten and the masking tape, grout the tiles and tidy up the wall.
Little details like this can make all the difference, and add DIY pleasure to a weekend. Aren’t you glad you found a handy website like this? What’s more, you can Find Tradesmen for all larger jobs right here. And it will not cost you a single penny more!
Tags: bathroom, batten, cement, cut, dry, eopxy, extend, find a tiler, frame, key, level, london tiler, mark, mask, masking tape, mirror, mount, plumb, pre mix, quote, set, spacer, tile, tiled, tiling quote, wall, width
Posted in Tiling & Flooring | Comments Off
Posted in Locksmith on Nov 07
There’s nothing quite as unnerving as arriving home from holiday, and finding you’ve either lost your key or the front door lock refuses to budge. This unfortunately boils down to a lack of care or just stupidity. I can say that, because I’ve been guilty of these oversights myself when I was younger.
 Lost Keys – The solution is as simple as people’s failure follow it is incredulous. Leave a spare set of keys with a good friend you trust, so they can visit your home from time to time too. That way, you may never need to Find a Locksmith at such an inconvenient hour.
Jammed Locks – It’s a funny old thing, isn’t it? We update our ant-virus databases and we even sometimes mow our garden lawns. Yet we leave our essential door and window locks to take care of themselves completely, when all you need to do is the following:
• Lubricate all your exterior door locks with a puff of graphite powder (not oil because that will attract the dirt and dust). Lock and unlock them several times to work the lubricant in. If the lock is exposed to the elements and seldom used, consider taping over the outside keyhole with a piece of weatherproof tape to keep the moisture out.
•  The advice of every London Locksmith and all others lock repairers too is to take action as soon as a lock starts giving trouble. If you can open the door or window you could change the lock yourself. At the least you could possibly avoid paying overtime rates.
• Inspect your keys monthly for signs of damage, and never, ever use worn ones. That’s because a broken piece of key can be impossible to remove, necessitating an expensive repair.
Whatever else you do please do not overlook the need to maintain your locks. Did we mention you can get Locksmith Quotes on Mr-Skill too? You’ll find the rates more than competitive and our service exemplary. Isn’t that good to know. Remember that in times of trouble we’re here for you.
Tags: break, broken, budge, care, change, damage, door, element, find a locksmith, friend, graphite, inspect, jam, key, lock, locksmith quotes, london locksmith, lose, lost, lubricate, maintain, moisture, oil, powder, rate, remove, replace, solution, spare, stuck, tape, weather, window, work
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Posted in Locksmith on Sep 05
We all tend to take locks for granted until the day they seize up, and then it’s all hands on deck to Find a Locksmith. While everything does eventually wear out or become otherwise out-dated, you can avoid being obliged to  replace your locks for quite some considerable time by following these useful tips.
• Non-use is a lock’s worst enemy because it can seize up completely when seldom operated. The only way to avoid this is to use the lock every month, and to take action as soon as this becomes necessary.
• Examine the keys themselves from time to time. Look for signs of obvious damage like bent shafts and worn blades, and obtain a replacement set of keys if in any doubt. A key should also be kept clean too – the last thing you want is to introduce dirt into a lock “deliberately”.
• If you feel resistance when turning a key in a lock with the door closed, do this again but this time with the door open. If it operates smoothly, then the alignment with the door-frame may have shifted. You may  need to Get Locksmith Quotes on Mr-Skill for Free to have the door hinges re-aligned.
• If the resistance is similar no matter whether the door is open or closed, then you have identified a sticking lock which could eventually jam up completely. Locksmiths in London where ironmongery can be old, will always try graphite powder first as a service. If this does not work, then it is time to replace the entire lock.
Maintaining a lock in good working order really is quite a simple matter, when you take precautions as you should with anything else that contains moving parts. Fail to do so, and you could face expensive locksmithing bills, even on Mr-Skill where rates are generally well discounted. And also face the inconvenience of being locked-out too.
Tags: action, align, bend, bent, blade, clean, close, dirt, discount, door, examine, expensive, find a locksmith, frame, graphite, hinge, jam, key, lock, locksmith in london, locksmith quotes, maintain, moving, open, operate, part, replace, resistance, seize, shaft, shift, smooth, stick, turn, use, wear, worn
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Posted in Locksmith on Jul 15
 All of us are confronted with a sticky lock from time to time. Sometimes this is caused by misuse, sometimes the lock is full of gunk, and sometimes rust has begun to creep in. The immediate requirement is to apply some form of lubricant to un-stick it. Unfortunately many of us are tempted to apply liquid oil and all this does is attract more dirt and prepare the lock to jam again. This could be good business for Locksmiths in London, but is of course totally counterproductive in a practical sense.
o Pop down to your local hardware or home improvement store instead, and obtain a tube of graphite powder. This looks like a small toothpaste tube except that it has a long thin spout ideal for your purpose.
o  Back at home, cut off the tip of the long thin tube. Be sure to look the other way as you do this though, because the powder although non-toxic is an irritant. If in any doubt at all, wash your eyes thoroughly under running water.
o Squirt the graphite powder into the keyhole and work the key gently back and forth to un-jam the lock. At all costs to not try to force things and cause the key to snap off in the lock. If this happens, then we suggest you cut your losses and Find a Locksmith on Mr-Skill.
A final word of warning when it comes to the lady of the house – although graphite powder is water soluble it has an impressive ability to stain. The key that is working so nicely now will also have a little graphite sticking to it for a while. The last thing you after all your efforts is to have to get Locksmith Quotes to strip and clean the lock, when a little bit of dexterity with an ear bud or pipe-cleaner will do the job for you just as well.
Tags: dirt, ear bud, eyes, find a locksmith, graphite, gunk, jam, key, lock, locksmith in london, locksmith quotes, lubricant, lubricate, misuse, pipe cleaner, rust, snap, spout, squirt, stain, stick, toxic, work
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These days an amazing variety of different power drills are available for different jobs, and homeowners often wonder about the necessity of getting Plumber Quotes at all. Trust me,  one burst pipe above the bedroom ceiling on Christmas Eve cured me of any further desire to tackle advanced plumbing jobs again – and then I still had to endure criticism and Find a Plumber too.
This is not to say that small plumbing jobs are beyond the reach of the average home handy girl or handy man. I’m thinking here of plumbing-in a washing machine or extending a garden tap. Both will inevitably involve making holes through which pipes will pass, or where screws will hold things down. The question is, which electric drill is best?
Plug-in drills are available in a wide variety of power ratings and their price varies accordingly. I don’t see much point in buying down, and I have left a few worked-out drills behind me to prove the point. So buy something decent in the 600W power range with a name that you can trust, and that’s not made in an obscure country either.
I dislike the clutchless drills so popular these days. True, there is no chuck key to lose, but equally there is a fair chance of chucks locking up or not tightening  properly. A sales clerk once thoughtlessly remarked that my hands were getting old. My response included buying elsewhere and never shopping there again.
A cordless drill with re-chargeable battery is a handy tool to have around the house, and I would personally not be without one. What they may lack in power is compensated for by their convenience. However please forget about drilling into brick or concrete using one. I have yet to see a professional Plumber in London using one either, which says a lot in itself.
Before choosing an electric drill I recommend you first hold it in your hand. Is it well-balanced? Does it feel right? Does the chuck work easily? Finally, make sure that the motor speed is both variable, and reversible (for stuck bits) and that there is an impact option too. A power drill should be a reliable friend for life – choose yours carefully.
Tags: battery, brick, burst, charge, choice, chuck, clutch, concrete, cord, cordless, different, electric drill, find a plumber, Garden, hole, impact, job, key, kind, lock, motor, pipe, plug, plumber london, Plumbing, plumbing quote, power, power drill, range, recharge, reverse, reversible, screw, tap, tight, type, variable, variety, vary, washing machine
Posted in Plumbing, Heating & Gas | Comments Off
Posted in Locksmith on May 26
Locksmithing is an ancient art that goes back to earliest days when a locking device was often a wooden bar slotted inside a bedroom door. These days of course the art of  locking has become a science in many regards, and the days of using a metal pick are largely history.
There are a number of reasons for this. One is the increasing cleverness of thieves for whom the average mechanical lock is a cake walk. Another is our increasing obsession with electronics and high technology, which sometimes leads us to spend more than we ought.
There are several reasons why you might need to Find a Locksmith on Mr-Skill, and often urgently too.
o Losing a key is something that we all do from time to time, and naturally at the most inconvenient moments. The scariest is when we drop one into a drain in the street – out of reach but there for everyone to see. When this happens there is no time to Get Locksmith Quotes. We need our key retrieved, or a new one supplied urgently.
o Another common reason is when a lock suddenly fails to operate. This could be owing to a mechanical one jamming up, or an irritating piece of electronics suddenly failing.  We stand outside our front door, or our office or our car feeling helpless and hopelessly aggrieved. Many a Locksmith in London has been called out at two in the morning, fixed the problem and then had his overtime rate challenged. I cry foul – the labourer is worthy of their hire, just like the good book says.
o Finally there are the irritating moments when a key breaks off in a lock, and we realize that we should have done something about it as we watched it weakening. If you have a key halfway cracked through or that keeps on bending, my advice as a locksmith is – fix it now.
I say thank heavens for good locksmiths even though I try to be one myself. We may be overlooked at Christmastide, but we like to think we do our jobs well. Remember us when you need us.
Tags: call out, callout, car, crisis, device, electronic, emergency, fail, find a locksmith, fix, home, jam, key, lock, locksmith, locksmith london, locksmith quotes, lose, mechanical, new, office, pick, repair, replace, retrieve, urgent
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