--- title: "Lock Repair London | Sticking & Seized Locks Fixed | The Bow Locks" description: "Lock repairs across London from £48. Sticking, stiff, seized and misaligned locks put right without replacing the door, by City & Guilds qualified locksmiths. 3-year warranty." lang: en-GB json-ld: | [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://www.thebowlocks.co.uk/#organization", "name": "The Bow Locks", "legalName": "The Bow Locks", "url": "https://www.thebowlocks.co.uk/", "telephone": [ "07546 247 247", "020 7247 1111" ], "email": "thebowlocks@outlook.com", "description": "Family-run London locksmiths for homes and business premises. Emergency lockouts, lock changes, uPVC repairs, burglary repairs and safes, 24 hours a day.", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Canning Town", "addressRegion": "London", "postalCode": "E16 4RF", "addressCountry": "GB" }, "sameAs": [ "https://maps.app.goo.gl/mS6He4Vvuieevx3Z6" ], "contactPoint": [ { "@type": "ContactPoint", "telephone": [ "07546 247 247", "020 7247 1111" ], "contactType": "emergency locksmith", "areaServed": "GB", "availableLanguage": "English" } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://www.thebowlocks.co.uk/#website", "name": "The Bow Locks", "url": "https://www.thebowlocks.co.uk/", "inLanguage": "en-GB", "publisher": { "@id": "https://www.thebowlocks.co.uk/#organization" } }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Service", "name": "Lock repairs", "serviceType": "Lock repairs", "description": "Lock repairs across London from £48. Sticking, stiff, seized and misaligned locks put right without replacing the door, by City & Guilds qualified locksmiths. 3-year warranty.", "url": "https://www.thebowlocks.co.uk/services/lock-repairs", "provider": { "@type": "Locksmith", "name": "The Bow Locks", "telephone": [ "07546 247 247", "020 7247 1111" ], "email": "thebowlocks@outlook.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "London", "postalCode": "E16 4RF", "addressCountry": "GB" } }, "areaServed": { "@type": "City", "name": "London" }, "offers": { "@type": "Offer", "priceCurrency": "GBP", "price": "48", "priceSpecification": { "@type": "PriceSpecification", "priceCurrency": "GBP", "minPrice": "48" } } }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "How much does a lock repair cost?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "From £48, with the exact price confirmed after diagnosis and before any work begins. Parts such as a gearbox or lock case are quoted separately and clearly." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Is it worth repairing or should I just replace the lock?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "If the mechanism is sound and the fault is alignment or a single worn component, repair is cheaper and lasts. If the lock is worn out, forced or below the standard your insurer expects, replacement is the honest answer and we will say so." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How long does a repair take?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Most repairs and adjustments are completed within an hour. Multipoint gearbox replacement takes longer, and we carry common parts so many are still finished on the first visit." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "My uPVC door needs lifting before it locks. Is that a lock problem?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Usually not — that is the door out of alignment loading the mechanism. Left alone it destroys the gearbox. Adjusting hinges and keeps early is the cheap version of this job." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Can you repair a lock with a key broken inside it?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes. We extract the broken key, check whether the cylinder survived the break, and either service it or replace it. Cut replacement keys can be supplied at the same visit." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Do you guarantee repairs?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes — 3 years on the work and on any parts we fit." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Can you come out at night or at the weekend?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes. We work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with a typical 30-minute response across London." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How long should a repaired lock last?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "A properly diagnosed repair on a correctly aligned door should give years of normal service. The limiting factor is nearly always whether the underlying alignment was fixed, which is why we treat it as part of the repair rather than an extra." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Do you repair locks for landlords and managing agents in London?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes, routinely, including planned repairs across managed portfolios. We are the only London locksmith company contracted to major letting agents and property maintenance companies." } } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://www.thebowlocks.co.uk" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Services", "item": "https://www.thebowlocks.co.uk/services" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Lock repairs", "item": "https://www.thebowlocks.co.uk/services/lock-repairs" } ] } ] --- 24 hours a day, 365 days a year [thebowlocks@outlook.com](mailto:thebowlocks@outlook.com)[020 7247 1111](tel:+442072471111)[07546 247 247](tel:+447546247247) [![The Bow Locks locksmith logo](/__l5e/assets-v1/604321ce-f8ce-4664-8cc3-379a605564f3/bow-locks-logo-2.png)](/) [Home](/)[About](/about) [Services](/services) [Areas](/service-areas) [Our Work](/our-work)[Contact](/contact)[07546 247 247](tel:+447546247247)[020 7247 1111](tel:+442072471111) [Request Estimate](/contact) 1. [Home](/) 2. [Services](/services) 3. Lock repairs ![Door latch and cylinder partly removed during a lock repair](/__l5e/assets-v1/3d232a55-7eee-466f-a0a3-35d15426826e/Lock_Repairs.png) Lock repairs # Lock Repairs Across London That Fix The Cause, Not Just The Symptom. A lock that needs lifting, leaning on or jiggling is telling you it is about to fail. We diagnose whether the fault is the lock, the door or the frame, repair what can be repaired, and stop a £48 visit turning into a lockout at midnight. [Call 07546 247 247](tel:+447546247247)[Request an estimate](/contact) 25 years in London · From £48 · 3-year warranty on work and parts 25 years Serving London 30 mins Typical response 24/7 · 365 Always available 3 years Warranty on work & locks From £48 Priced before we travel Overview ## What lock repair covers and when it beats replacement Lock repair is the work of restoring a mechanism to correct, reliable operation — freeing a seized lever pack, replacing a worn follower or spindle, realigning a keep so the bolt lands where it should, correcting a dropped door that is loading the mechanism, or replacing a single failed component rather than the entire assembly. It is the right choice when the lock body is sound and the fault is mechanical or positional. It is the wrong choice when a mechanism is worn beyond tolerance, when the lock has been forced, or when the hardware no longer meets the standard your door should be at. We tell you which of those you are looking at, and we tell you before any work starts, so the decision is yours and the price is known. Repair matters because a failing lock rarely fails at a convenient moment. It fails when the door is pulled shut behind you, in the rain, at night. Fixing a stiff mechanism on a planned visit is the cheapest, calmest version of this problem — and on doors we work on for letting agents and property managers, it is exactly the preventative work that keeps emergency call-outs down. ### Who this is for - Anyone lifting, slamming or fighting a door to make the key turn - Households with a key that sticks, snags or has to be wiggled - Landlords and agents dealing with repeated tenant reports about a door - Businesses with a heavily used entrance door starting to feel loose or stiff [07546 247 247](tel:+447546247247) Answered 24/7 · From £48 Leave it and it gets worse ## What happens if a stiff lock is ignored Stiffness is friction, and friction is wear. Every turn of a key in a strained mechanism removes material from the components that are already carrying too much load. The lock does not stabilise; it degrades until something breaks, and the break happens under force — which is why so many seized locks end their life with a snapped key still in the cylinder. The knock-on costs are the real problem. A misaligned uPVC door does not just make the key stiff, it grinds the gearbox until the handle goes slack and nothing throws at all. At that point you are buying a multipoint mechanism and paying for the labour to fit it, when a hinge adjustment and a keep realignment months earlier would have prevented the whole thing. There is a security cost as well. Many people stop deadlocking a door that is hard to lock and rely on the latch alone. An insurer will take a dim view of that after a break-in, and a latch-only door is significantly easier to defeat than a properly thrown deadbolt or multipoint. ### Common mistakes - Spraying WD-40 or oil into a lock — it attracts grit and accelerates wear rather than curing it - Forcing a key that has started to bind, which is how keys snap inside cylinders - Treating a lifting-and-slamming ritual as normal instead of the alignment warning it is - Replacing the cylinder when the actual fault is the door dropping in its hinges - Leaving a door on the latch because deadlocking has become too stiff to bother with Our process ## Five steps, priced before we start 01 ### Inspection of lock, door and frame together We check the key in the cylinder off the door as well as on it, look at hinge condition, gaps down the closing edge, keep alignment and weather seal compression. The fault is often not where the symptom is. 02 ### Diagnosis and a priced decision You are told what has failed, whether it is repairable, and what each route costs. Repair from £48 where the mechanism is sound; replacement only where repair will not hold. 03 ### Repair or component replacement Hinge and keep adjustment, follower, spindle, spring or lever replacement, gearbox or cylinder swap where needed, and correct lubrication with the right product rather than whatever is under the sink. 04 ### Verification on the closed door Locked and unlocked from both sides, with the door shut, checking that the bolt travels fully and the handle returns cleanly. A lock that only works with the door open is not repaired. 05 ### Sign-off, warranty and keys handed over You get every key that works the lock, a clear price with no surprise additions, and our 3-year warranty on the work and the locks we fitted. All payment types are accepted at the door. What you get ## Concrete outcomes, not adjectives ### Cheaper than replacement Where the mechanism is sound, a repair from £48 avoids the cost of new hardware and the disruption of changing every key. ### Prevents the 2am lockout Repairing a mechanism before it seizes removes the emergency call-out, the broken key and the entry charge that follow it. ### Protects the door itself Correcting alignment stops the multipoint grinding and stops the slab and hinges taking loads they were never designed to carry. ### Restores full security A door that deadlocks easily gets deadlocked. That alone puts most homes back inside their insurance conditions. ### Right diagnosis, first time 25 years of London door hardware means we recognise the difference between a worn cylinder and a dropped door in minutes. ### Warranted for three years The repair and any parts we fit are covered for 3 years, so a fault that returns is ours to put right. In detail ## Common faults, causes and repair methods ### Sticking and stiff cylinders A key that catches on the way in or out usually means debris, a worn key, or pin wear inside the cylinder. Worn keys are a genuinely common cause in London flats where the same original key has been copied from a copy for years, each generation losing a little more definition. Repair is cleaning, correct dry lubrication and, where the key profile has degraded, cutting fresh keys to the original code rather than copying the worn one. Oil-based sprays are avoided because they bind with dust into a paste that wears the pins faster than no lubrication at all. ### Multipoint mechanisms and gearbox failure On uPVC and composite doors, the classic sequence is: the door needs a firm lift to lock, then it needs a harder lift, then the handle goes limp and the hooks stay put. That is a gearbox failing under load created by misalignment, not by age alone. Repair means correcting the cause and replacing the failed component: adjusting hinges and keeps so the door sits square, then fitting a matching gearbox or full multipoint strip where the original is beyond saving. Getting the alignment right is what makes the new mechanism last rather than repeating the same failure. ### Mortice locks, levers and followers Mortice locks fail in recognisable ways. Levers seize when moisture reaches the lock case in an exposed door; springs break so the handle droops; the follower wears oval so the spindle has play and the latch stops retracting cleanly; the bolt binds against a keep that has moved as the timber has swelled. Depending on the case, repair can mean stripping and servicing the lever pack, replacing springs and followers, easing and repositioning the keep, or fitting a new lock case of the same size so no new joinery is needed in the door edge. ### Residential versus commercial repair priorities In homes, the priority is a door that locks easily enough to be locked properly every time, and the fix usually pays for itself against a single avoided lockout. Weather-exposed front doors and rarely used back doors are the two places faults hide. In commercial premises, the driver is footfall. An entrance used hundreds of times a day wears followers, closers and latches on a completely different timescale, and a failed lock can mean a door that cannot be secured at closing time. For managed and let properties we handle repairs as scheduled work wherever possible, which is exactly why letting agents and property maintenance companies keep us on contract. Questions ## Lock repairs in London — your questions answered ### How much does a lock repair cost? From £48, with the exact price confirmed after diagnosis and before any work begins. Parts such as a gearbox or lock case are quoted separately and clearly. ### Is it worth repairing or should I just replace the lock? If the mechanism is sound and the fault is alignment or a single worn component, repair is cheaper and lasts. If the lock is worn out, forced or below the standard your insurer expects, replacement is the honest answer and we will say so. ### How long does a repair take? Most repairs and adjustments are completed within an hour. Multipoint gearbox replacement takes longer, and we carry common parts so many are still finished on the first visit. ### My uPVC door needs lifting before it locks. Is that a lock problem? Usually not — that is the door out of alignment loading the mechanism. Left alone it destroys the gearbox. Adjusting hinges and keeps early is the cheap version of this job. ### Can you repair a lock with a key broken inside it? Yes. We extract the broken key, check whether the cylinder survived the break, and either service it or replace it. Cut replacement keys can be supplied at the same visit. ### Do you guarantee repairs? Yes — 3 years on the work and on any parts we fit. ### Can you come out at night or at the weekend? Yes. We work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with a typical 30-minute response across London. ### How long should a repaired lock last? A properly diagnosed repair on a correctly aligned door should give years of normal service. The limiting factor is nearly always whether the underlying alignment was fixed, which is why we treat it as part of the repair rather than an extra. ### Do you repair locks for landlords and managing agents in London? Yes, routinely, including planned repairs across managed portfolios. We are the only London locksmith company contracted to major letting agents and property maintenance companies. Related services - [uPVC door & window locks](/services/upvc-door-lock-repair) - [Lock changes & upgrades](/services/lock-changes) - [Snapped & broken keys](/services/snapped-keys) - [All locksmith services](/services) Areas we cover [Bow](/service-areas/bow)[Chelsea](/service-areas/chelsea)[Battersea](/service-areas/battersea)[Tooting](/service-areas/tooting)[Canary Wharf](/service-areas/canary-wharf)[Islington](/service-areas/islington)[Croydon](/service-areas/croydon)[Brixton](/service-areas/brixton)[Notting Hill](/service-areas/notting-hill) Based in E16 4RF, London, covering London. [Back to the homepage](/) or [request an estimate](/contact). ## Fix the lock before it strands you outside A qualified locksmith diagnoses the door, the frame and the mechanism together, repairs what should be repaired, and covers it for three years. From £48, across London, 24 hours a day. - City & Guilds qualified - DBS-checked locksmiths - 3-year warranty [Call 07546 247 247](tel:+447546247247)[Request an estimate](/contact) [![The Bow Locks — 24 hour London locksmith company logo](/__l5e/assets-v1/604321ce-f8ce-4664-8cc3-379a605564f3/bow-locks-logo-2.png)](/) Family-run London locksmiths for homes and business premises. 25 years of experience, City & Guilds qualified and DBS-checked. [07546 247 247](tel:+447546247247) [020 7247 1111](tel:+442072471111) [thebowlocks@outlook.com](mailto:thebowlocks@outlook.com) E16 4RF, London ### Services - [Emergency lockouts London](/services/emergency-lockouts "Emergency lockouts in London") - [Lock changes & upgrades London](/services/lock-changes "Lock changes & upgrades in London") - [Lock repairs London](/services/lock-repairs "Lock repairs in London") - [uPVC door & window locks London](/services/upvc-door-lock-repair "uPVC door & window locks in London") - [Burglary repairs London](/services/burglary-repairs "Burglary repairs in London") - [Snapped & broken keys London](/services/snapped-keys "Snapped & broken keys in London") - [Gaining entry London](/services/gaining-entry "Gaining entry in London") - [Security upgrades London](/services/security-upgrades "Security upgrades in London") - [Safes London](/services/safes "Safes in London") - [All locksmith services](/services) ### Areas covered - [Locksmith in Bow](/service-areas/bow "Locksmith in Bow") - [Locksmith in Chelsea](/service-areas/chelsea "Locksmith in Chelsea") - [Locksmith in Battersea](/service-areas/battersea "Locksmith in Battersea") - [Locksmith in Tooting](/service-areas/tooting "Locksmith in Tooting") - [Locksmith in Canary Wharf](/service-areas/canary-wharf "Locksmith in Canary Wharf") - [Locksmith in Islington](/service-areas/islington "Locksmith in Islington") - [Locksmith in Croydon](/service-areas/croydon "Locksmith in Croydon") - [Locksmith in Brixton](/service-areas/brixton "Locksmith in Brixton") - [Locksmith in Notting Hill](/service-areas/notting-hill "Locksmith in Notting Hill") - [All London areas covered](/service-areas) ### Company - [About us](/about) - [Our work](/our-work) - [Contact](/contact) - [Leave a Google review](https://g.page/r/CegDlwgCcfTeEBM/review) Open 24 hours, 365 days Typical response: 30 minutes © 2026 The Bow Locks. 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