Locked out after the door slammed: what to do (and what not to)

What you need

• Phone with battery (to call and send a photo of the door)
• Stiff plastic card you do not mind wrecking (internal latch doors only)
• Phone torch
• Spare key from a neighbour, relative or building administrator (the best tool of all)
• DNI, passport or a document showing you live there: the locksmith will ask for it

Step by step

1. 1

   Breathe and check nothing inside is in danger

   If there is a pan on the hob, a baby alone or a dependent person inside, call 112 before anyone else. The fire brigade opens doors in genuine emergencies. For everything else, read on.

2. 2

   Look for a spare key

   Partner, children, a neighbour, parents, the building administrator, the landlord, the letting agency. If the spare is less than 40 minutes away, it is usually worth waiting: the cheapest door opening is the one that never happens.

3. 3

   Check for another way in

   A ground floor terrace door, an open window you can reach without climbing, the garage door with the remote in the car. Do not climb facades or balconies: every year people fall doing this, and it is not worth it to save 60 euros.

4. 4

   Identify what kind of door it is

   Look at the edge or ask yourself: is it a wooden front door with a mortice lock? Is it an armoured (blindada) or high-security (acorazada) door with several locking points? Is it an internal door that has shut on the handle latch? This changes what you can try and what the opening costs.

5. 5

   Internal door with a latch: try the card

   On an internal door (bathroom, bedroom) that has shut on its own, the latch has a bevelled side. Slide a stiff card between the door and the frame at latch height, angled towards the bevel, and push while pressing on the door. If there is a rubber seal or a stop bead that prevents you getting it in, leave it. On front doors this method only works if the door closes badly, and even then it damages the latch and the draught strip.

6. 6

   Front door: do not force it

   No kicking, no screwdriver in the frame, no trying to lift the hinges off. A kick to a flat's front door breaks the frame and the lock and you go from 60-90 euros for an opening to 300-600 euros for repairs. And never drill: on an armoured door the escutcheon wrecks the drill bit and leaves the door jammed.

7. 7

   Call a locksmith with a fixed price and send a photo

   Take a photo of the lock and of the edge of the door if visible. Ask for the total price in writing before anyone sets off: opening, call-out and any possible parts. Be wary of any advert with a price well under 60 euros in the daytime: it usually ends in 200-400 euros with a lock cylinder that never needed changing.

8. 8

   Have your ID ready and check the work

   A serious locksmith will ask you to prove you live there (DNI or passport, a bill, a neighbour who confirms it). Once the door is open, check the key turns as it did before. If they say the cylinder has to be changed, ask why: with a door that has only slammed shut, in 9 cases out of 10 it is not necessary.

Why a door slams shut and how it is opened

A slammed door has not been locked with the key. The only thing holding it shut is the latch, the bevelled piece that springs into the keep by itself when the door closes. That makes it the easiest opening for a locksmith: with a latch pick, a flexible shim or a lever opener, the door is open in a few minutes without touching the lock.

If the key has also been turned (because someone locked it from outside or because the door has an automatic deadlocking latch), the job changes: the cylinder has to be opened with picks or by bumping, and on security cylinders it sometimes has to be extracted and replaced. That is why the price of opening a lock depends on the door and the lock, not on the time shown in the advert.

Draughts in coastal homes are the number one cause: terrace door open, the levante wind in Alicante or the poniente in Valencia, and the flat door slams while you are taking the rubbish down. A 3 euro door stop or closing the terrace before you go out prevents 90 per cent of cases.

Mistakes that turn 60 euros into 400

• Kicking it or barging it with your shoulder. Breaks the frame, the lock and sometimes the door itself. Repairs cost 300-600 euros and far more on an armoured door.
• Pushing a screwdriver between the door and the frame. Splinters the frame and bends the keep. Afterwards the door does not close properly and the lock is strained every day.
• Trying X-ray film or cards on a front door. Almost never works on doors that close properly and wrecks the draught strip and the latch.
• Calling the first advert with an eye-catching price. Adverts for a locksmith from 29 euros end with a drilled-out cylinder that was never needed and a bill for 250-400 euros. Ask for the fixed price in writing first.
• Letting them drill the cylinder on a door that has only slammed. If the key was not turned, the cylinder does not need touching. If the locksmith reaches for the drill the moment they arrive, ask why.
• Climbing over the balcony. No. Never.

When to call a professional (and what it costs)

As soon as you have ruled out a spare key and another way in, call. Every attempt to open with a card or to force the door makes the professional opening slower and sometimes dearer. Opening a slammed door is the most routine job any locksmith does and is done without damage in almost every case.

Our prices: opening a slammed door 60-90 euros from 8:00 to 21:00, night or public holiday opening 90-150 euros, opening an armoured or high-security door 90-180 euros. If the cylinder has to be changed because the key was turned in a security cylinder, 40-60 euros plus the cylinder. Fixed price by WhatsApp before setting off, no call-out fee if you accept, payment on completion with an invoice.

We arrive in 20-45 minutes in Valencia, Alicante, Torrevieja and Benidorm, and in 30-60 minutes in Dénia, Jávea, Calpe and Altea. Full details in locksmith in Valencia, Alicante and the Costa Blanca and in what a locksmith charges to open a door.

How to stop it happening again

Leave a spare with someone you trust who lives nearby: a neighbour, a relative, the building administrator. In the urbanisations of Orihuela Costa or Torrevieja with many foreign owners, the concierge or the maintenance company often holds keys. A copy costs 3-15 euros and an opening on a Sunday night, 90-150 euros.

Fit a door stop or a hold-open on the front door if you tend to go out with the terrace open, and close the windows before going down to the garage or the letterbox. If the door slams often, the door closer or the latch is badly adjusted; it is corrected in one visit from our handyman by the hour.

If the door has an automatic deadlocking latch (armoured doors with an auto-locking mechanism do), every time it closes it locks itself. In those cases, consider a smart lock with phone or code opening (Nuki, Yale, Tedee) or a cylinder with a thumbturn inside and a spare outside. And if the key snapped inside while you were trying to get in, read how to remove a broken key from a lock.