Doors in Antrim are not all the same age, and that is the first thing worth knowing before booking lock repair and replacement work here. The town runs from the older town centre streets close to Antrim Castle Gardens and the High Street through to the substantial 1970s and 1980s estates at Steeple, Greystone and Rathenraw, and newer housing toward the Lough Neagh shore, and the estate stock dominates numerically, which means most Antrim callouts are uPVC and composite doors rather than timber, and the common fault is a mechanism that has been fighting a dropped door for a long time. Andy Locksmiths Ltd covers the whole of it.
Repairs from £79, new locks from £99. Available 24 hours a day, with a 12 month guarantee on all parts and labour, and no call out fee on top of the job.
Every lock repair and replacement call in Antrim starts the same way, with a look at what is actually fitted before anything is removed. This is what the work covers.
Cylinders and multipoint mechanisms on uPVC doors, including gearboxes that have failed rather than just the cylinder.
Cylinder upgrades and mechanism repairs on composite doorsets.
Yale-pattern night latches, mortice deadlocks and sashlocks on timber doors.
Anti-snap, anti-bump and anti-drill cylinders fitted in place of the basic cylinder a door was built with.
Espagnolette handles, patio door locks and window locks that no longer engage properly.
Housing stock is the thing that varies most across Antrim, and it varies in a way that matters for lock repair and replacement. At one end you have the older town centre streets close to Antrim Castle Gardens and the High Street. At the other you have the substantial 1970s and 1980s estates at Steeple, Greystone and Rathenraw, and newer housing toward the Lough Neagh shore. The practical consequence is that the estate stock dominates numerically, which means most Antrim callouts are uPVC and composite doors rather than timber, and the common fault is a mechanism that has been fighting a dropped door for a long time. We would rather ask you two questions about the door on the phone than turn up with the wrong cylinder in the van.
On timing, Antrim is reached by a straight run up the M2. This is a real journey rather than a city callout, though it is a direct one on roads we travel regularly. Ask us for an actual arrival time when you call. We would rather tell you forty minutes and be right than tell you thirty and be wrong. Antrim sits right on the motorway network, so the run there is one of the most predictable we make outside Belfast itself. What we will not do is quote you a city response time for a job that is plainly not a city distance away, and the price still follows the door and the lock rather than the journey.
Home insurers rarely ask what your lock cost. They ask what standard it meets. Which standard applies depends on the door rather than the address, and in Antrim that varies street by street: the estate stock dominates numerically, which means most Antrim callouts are uPVC and composite doors rather than timber, and the common fault is a mechanism that has been fighting a dropped door for a long time. The table below is what a policy is normally describing when it names a requirement. It is general guidance rather than a reading of your specific policy, so check your own wording, and if you are not sure what is fitted we will tell you what is on the door before anything is changed.
the British Standard for a thief-resistant lock. On a timber door this is normally a five lever mortice deadlock, or a night latch certified to the same standard. A compliant lock carries the kitemark and the BS3621 number stamped on the forend, visible on the edge of the open door.
the cylinder standard. Insurers usually accept a 3-star cylinder on its own, or a 1-star cylinder paired with a 2-star security handle. This is what an insurer means when the wording asks for anti-snap protection.
a test of the complete doorset rather than the lock alone. If a door was fitted new to a modern building regulation standard it may already comply, which is worth knowing before paying to upgrade a lock that is already adequate.
the window security standard. Policies that specify key operated window locks on accessible windows are usually describing this, and it is the requirement most often missed on an otherwise well secured property.
If the property is in a conservation area or is listed, and the work goes beyond changing a lock into changing a door, that is worth checking with Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council before ordering rather than after. A like for like lock change on an existing door is not normally the part that causes a problem.
The older town centre streets close to Antrim Castle Gardens and the High Street makes up the older half of the town, and the substantial 1970s and 1980s estates at Steeple, Greystone and Rathenraw, and newer housing toward the Lough Neagh shore makes up the rest. Because of that, the estate stock dominates numerically, which means most Antrim callouts are uPVC and composite doors rather than timber, and the common fault is a mechanism that has been fighting a dropped door for a long time. Telling us which of those sounds like your door saves a return trip for parts.
Yes. Replaced locks and cylinders are removed and disposed of, which also means a lock you were worried about is not left lying in the property.
BS3621 is the British Standard for a thief-resistant lock, and it is the one most home insurers name for a timber front or back door. A compliant lock is stamped with the kitemark and the standard number on the faceplate or the forend, so it is worth opening the door and looking at the edge before assuming you have one.
Antrim is reached by a straight run up the M2, which puts it in the middle ring of our coverage. This is a real journey rather than a city callout, though it is a direct one on roads we travel regularly. Ask us for an actual arrival time when you call. We would rather tell you forty minutes and be right than tell you thirty and be wrong.
Yes. The site states a 12-month guarantee on all parts and labour, and that applies to replacement locks as well as repairs.
Yes. Randalstown, Ballyclare, Newtownabbey, Ballymena are all covered alongside Antrim itself, and you can see the full list on our areas we cover page. Antrim falls under Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, though for a lock job the council matters far less than the door does.
It depends on the door rather than the town. On a timber door the standard usually named is BS3621, stamped on the edge of the lock. On a uPVC or composite door it is normally TS007, either a 3 star cylinder on its own or a 1 star cylinder with a 2 star handle. Both come up regularly in Antrim, because the estate stock dominates numerically, which means most Antrim callouts are uPVC and composite doors rather than timber, and the common fault is a mechanism that has been fighting a dropped door for a long time. We can tell you what is currently fitted before anything is changed.
Not always, and any locksmith promising otherwise is overselling. Antrim runs from the older town centre streets close to Antrim Castle Gardens and the High Street to the substantial 1970s and 1980s estates at Steeple, Greystone and Rathenraw, and newer housing toward the Lough Neagh shore, so we could be picking a century old mortice or bypassing a modern cylinder on the same night. We will tell you at the door which one we expect, and if the lock has to go, it is replaced before we leave.
Doors move with the seasons, and uPVC moves more than timber. If lifting the handle has gradually got harder over months, the mechanism is usually being forced against keeps that are now slightly out of line. Left alone, that is what eventually snaps the gearbox.
Yes, Antrim is covered end to end for lock repair and replacement, from Antrim Castle Gardens through to the Lough Neagh shore. Antrim sits right on the motorway network, so the run there is one of the most predictable we make outside Belfast itself.
Everything below is available in Antrim on the same terms, at any hour.
Antrim sits alongside Randalstown, Ballyclare, Newtownabbey, Ballymena, all covered on the same terms. The full coverage list is on our areas page.