Well, it is rare for a door to require the use of the drill. However, yesterday was one of those days. Until yesterday, only one lock had been drilled all year, a deadlock on a door in Wolverhampton. Yesterday, I jinxed myself. I had a 10:30 and a 12:30 job, with an hour and three quarters drive between them. Yes, a slight gamble, but, as I jinxed myself fully, I said “Yes, it’s tight [for time], but when’s the last time I had a two hour door?”
About 10:30 I am walking around the town centre, toolbox in hand. At 10:40 I am on the phone, and at 10:50 I’m back in the van driving down a very small alley. Great, so I’m now already looking at being late even if things are easy. I park on a loading bay about 100 yards away, and cross my fingers. I walk to the job site, and find that 15 minutes before I’d been standing 20 feet from the door, on the phone with the guy I’m meeting! Bah!
So I get onto the opening part, and find that it is a pair of right facing lever locks, both to the latest standards, and it is a brand new, as yet un-painted door which is mostly glass, and properly fitted to a new shopfront. Alas, although I have the tools and ability to pick over 95% of the British Standard insurance rated lever locks without issue, this was a new one, and I have yet to beat this type on the door or bench! Great. (Though I have only had to open, er, two this year, and they are the subject of this post!)
So sadly, it was the drill first. This is quite a challenge on the right, especially if you don’t want to destroy the lock entirely. I wanted the original keys to work too. I set to drilling the middle lock first, as it was easier to reach. About 20 minutes later, I had got through, and 5 minutes after that the bolt came back with a nice click. On to the top one.
I had to get help with this one. I simply couldn’t reach high enough and push hard enough for the drill to bite, so I had to get a brace for my back! Once it started, though, it was fine, and again, after another short while I was nearly there. However, because of the angle and height, and the difficulty of driving this type of lock, it took another 15 minutes before that opened.
Once in, I quickly stripped down and sorted out the locks, but then the big issue is how to re-lock them? This required drilling another hole. However, without the door or hardplate anti-drill protection in the way, this went quite quickly.
Handsfree kits are great for this work, too, as I was able to keep everyone updated on my progress, and my ETA for the second job, without slowing down. This was hampered more than slightly by the agent I was meeting at the next job having a mobile number that didn’t seem to work, though.
When I finally signed the job off, I’d been there for almost 2 hours! Typical…
However, it turned out I didn’t need to help out at the second job, as the customer was in for that. Also glad that I didn’t wipe out the van as it fishtailed on a wet bend on the way home. That would have made a bad day far worse!
http://www.legalentry.co.uk have found the most advanced and attack proof lock on the market today is by far “The RennieLock”, hese locks are totally impregnable and require a different point of access as they are protected on 4 differing fronts.
Have you got a link to that?
I’ve been assured that many locks are “the most secure” but in practise there is little that beats a good pair of lever deadlocks (BS2007) on a steel faced wooden door for slowing entry.
I did a gas warrant (for non-payment, we gain entry and change the meter to Pay-As-You-Go) and they had fitted a new one on me, a high security American deadbolt, not something I’d seen “in the flesh” before. I picked it in under 10 minutes. The warrant officer told me that they must have fitted it specially, to keep us out, as it wasn’t there when they had swapped the electric meter the previous week!
I’d say that the current state of the art would be a Gemini Shield covering a good cylinder like the magnetic EVVA MCS (which graces at least one embassy front door) or a good Abloy (though having seen the latest abloy destroying technique, I’d be more wary) in a Scandinavian format, armoured escutcheons (and hinges) on a well-made composite steel door with a good multi-point hook locking system. Then add an obscure lever deadlock with extra anti-drill protection somewhere tricky.