Several times each week, people call us because they’ve got a problem with their door lock and they want to know how much it’s going to cost them to get it sorted. This is a really difficult question to answer, but watch this video and we’ll explain as best we can.

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When something goes wrong with your door lock, probably the first question you think of is, how much is it going to cost to get that repair done, and obviously that’s something we get asked multiple times a week and I can’t answer it straight out because there are so many different things that could have gone wrong with the door.

It’s just impossible to give a firm and definite cost, that it will cost £X ,as much as we’d like to, but we can’t. Anybody that does has got to be allowing for worst case scenario. In which case you may be paying too much if you’ve got an easy job.

But anyway, let me explain the factors which go onto making up the price that you’ll pay.

So, first thing is what the actual problem is. Now with a double glazed door, generally there are a couple of things that go wrong. It will either be the lock cylinder, the part that you put the key into, or it’ll be the door mechanism, the part that the cylinder works with.

Now, if the problem is the cylinder, simply swapping that out for a new one is relatively straightforward, it would generally take less than half an hour, so you’ll have minimum charge for labour. And at the moment (bear in mind that was written in May, 2023) the cost of a replacement cylinder at the moment is about £17.50. That’s probably what I would call best case scenario.

The other thing that tends to go wrong is locking mechanism inside the door. In a lot of cases, we’re able to just replace the gear box, the center section of the lock. In some instances we have to replace the whole thing. With a double glazed door, generally speaking. It’s far, far easier to put back in the exact same type of lock that you are taking out. And indeed, if you’re just changing the gear box, the centre section over, you’ve got to do that because it’s got to be compatible with the existing vertical bolt work (that’s the strip that goes up and down the door that you see on the edge of the door.)

With a wood door, you can chisel a bit out here, chisel a bit more out there, so you aren’t restricted to replacing with something from the same manufacturer. You can’t easily do that with composite doors and new PVC doors. So it’s far, far easier to replace with exactly the same, and that means you can only buy it from one source, ie the one manufacturer that makes that lock, and consequently you are restricted to what they charge for their replacements.

In terms of labour, obviously that’s generally speaking a longer job, what we generally do is cap our labour charge at an hour and a half labour. If we only take an hour, then we only charge you an hour. And then it’s the cost of the replacement parts. Now again, If you are reading this in three or four years time, no doubt the price will have gone up, but at the moment, probably the cheapest replacement parts are around the £50 mark, and the most expensive ones may be around £250-£300 pounds. The manufacturers charge what they want and we have to then pass those cost prices on to the customer, but that very much is a worse case scenario. The majority of replacement locks are between the £100 and £150 mark. Add on anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half’s labour ,and if it goes over the hour and a half, generally speaking we will only charge you for an hour and a half’s labour.

And that’s what goes into making up the price that you pay. Hopefully I’ve explained that it’s quite a difficult task to say how much it will be. If you need any more specifics, then obviously we can come out and take a look at the door and we’ll have a far better idea at that point as to how much it will cost you.