Questions on Locksmith Swords

Every locksmith working in Ireland must hold an individual or contractor licence from the Private Security Authority (PSA). You can check the public register at psa.gov.ie or ask to see their PSA licence card on arrival.

In most home lockouts where the key is inside or lost and the lock is not broken, a skilled locksmith opens the door non-destructively using picks, a letterbox tool or a bypass slip so you keep your existing lock.

Lock snapping breaks a standard brass euro cylinder in half at the central fixing screw hole to reach the locking cam inside a uPVC, composite or patio door; upgrading to a 3-star anti-snap cylinder stops the attack.

When a uPVC or composite door drops slightly on its hinges or the internal centre gearbox wears out, the hook and roller bolts bind against the frame keeps; re-aligning the hinges or replacing the gearbox before it jams shut saves a much dearer emergency job.

Yes. On most uPVC doors the central gearbox unscrews from the full-length metal locking strip, so a locksmith can fit a new gearbox without buying a complete multipoint strip.

Yes. Previous owners, tenants, builders or estate agents may still hold spare keys; swapping the euro cylinders or rekeying the locks takes less than an hour and guarantees only your new keys work.

Keyed-alike euro cylinders are pinned to the same key code so one single house key opens your front door, back door and patio door.

A thumbturn cylinder has a keyhole on the outside and a turn knob on the inside, allowing fast keyless exit in a fire on apartment doors and front doors without glass right beside the handle.

Irish home insurers commonly ask for a 5-lever mortice deadlock conforming to BS 3621 (or a nightlatch paired with a 5-lever deadlock) on wooden external doors.

Usually yes. Provided the lock was not glued or forced with a screwdriver, a locksmith extracts the snapped blade with fine key extractors and tests the cylinder with your spare key.

That almost always means the door sash has dropped a few millimetres, so the hooks and deadbolt hit the metal keeps on the frame instead of sliding into their slots; a hinge toe-and-heel adjustment fixes it.

Yes. Requests from Swords and the surrounding Fingal towns go to one local PSA-licensed locksmith covering North County Dublin.

Residential lock repair and fitting carries the 13.5% reduced VAT rate when the cost of the lock hardware is less than two-thirds of the total charge.

Your details go to one PSA-licensed locksmith covering Swords and North County Dublin, never to a call centre or a list of firms.