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!