Business · safes
Some safes open in ten minutes. Some do not open at all.
This is the service most locksmith sites oversell. Here is a straight account of which is which, so you can decide before anybody is dispatched.
The four reasons a safe will not open
- Dead batteries. The single most common cause on an electronic safe, and the cheapest. A keypad that lights up weakly, beeps oddly or does nothing at all is usually this. Most units take a nine volt or four AAs behind the keypad, and plenty of people have paid a call-out for something they could have fixed with a battery.
- Forgotten or never-known combination. An office safe inherited with the lease, a safe from a deceased relative, a code that changed when somebody left. Often openable, depending on the lock.
- Lost key. On a key-locking or dual-control safe, frequently the easiest of the four.
- Mechanical failure. A snapped bolt, a dropped relocker, a seized handle. This is the one that gets expensive, because the safe is built specifically to resist what has to happen next.
What a relocker is, and why it changes the price
Better safes carry a secondary locking device that fires if the lock is attacked or the door is struck hard. Once it has fired, the door is held by something that was designed never to be released from outside. A safe with a tripped relocker can go from an hour's work to a cutting job.
That is precisely why we would rather manipulate or decode a lock than drill it, and why we will not promise you a non-destructive opening on the phone before anyone has looked at it.
What we will tell you before we come out
We ask for the make, the model, a photo of the door and dial or keypad, and what you think is wrong. From that we can usually say three things, and we say them on the phone:
- Whether it is likely to open without damage.
- Whether it is likely to need drilling, and roughly what repair that means afterwards.
- Whether this is a job for a specialist safe engineer rather than for us.
That third answer is a real one and we give it. High security safes, TL rated units, old manganese-bodied safes and anything where the contents matter more than the box are safe engineer work. We would rather lose the job than take your money and make the problem worse.
Likewise, a drilled safe is a repaired safe, not a new one. The hole gets plugged and the lock replaced, and the unit is serviceable, but anybody who tells you a drilled safe is as good as it was is not being straight with you.
What we need from you
A safe is the one job where proving ownership matters most, because the whole point of the object is that not everyone is supposed to get into it.
- Photo identification.
- Proof of your connection to the property the safe is in: a deed, a lease, a business license, a bill in your name.
- For an inherited safe, whatever paperwork you have. Probate documents, a letter from the estate's solicitor, or the executor on the phone.
- For a business, confirmation from whoever is actually on the lease.
We ask every time, including when it is obviously fine. One of the reasons San Mateo's commercial security code requires a TL-15 rated safe for businesses holding cash overnight is that people do keep real money in these things, and the check is what separates a locksmith from the alternative.
San Mateo Municipal Code ch. 23.54 on safes; SSFMC §15.48.070 sets a comparable requirement for businesses holding $100 or more after hours.
Questions
My keypad is dead. Is the safe broken?
Almost certainly not. Try fresh batteries first, all of them, from a new packet. If the keypad comes back to life you have saved a call-out and we will happily tell you that on the phone.
Can you open it without damaging it?
Often. Not always. Anyone who promises it over the phone without seeing the safe is guessing. Send photos and we will give you a real answer.
What does drilling cost me afterwards?
A plugged hole and a replacement lock. The safe stays usable. It does not go back to being untouched, and we will not pretend otherwise.
It is a gun safe. Does that change anything?
The identification requirements get stricter, not looser. We will want clear proof of ownership and we will ask more questions, and we are not apologizing for that.
Need someone now?
A person answers, at any hour, in English or Spanish. If it is not urgent, we will hold a day and a time for you instead.
Or leave your details and we will call you.