Broken Key Extraction in Harrisburg, PA

Where keys give out in Harrisburg

Before you need broken key extraction, know which Harrisburg doors put keys under the most strain:

• Shared street doors. The HBG2020 Comprehensive Plan places mixed-use commercial zoning along streets such as North 6th and South 13th, and the city's design guidelines describe brick commercial-style buildings from 1860 to 1900 with housing upstairs. Where the upstairs has its own entrance, every resident turns the same street-door lock, and a key copied from a copy bends more easily.
• Older cylinders. Much of Midtown dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Where original hardware is still in use, worn pins can make a key bind, and people turn harder.
• Swollen or sagging doors. The guidelines favor repairing historic wood doors, and a wood door that swells or sags can press its bolt against the strike, so the key has to fight the door as well as the lock.

What not to do

• Do not put the broken piece back in or try to turn the lock with the stub.
• Do not put glue on the fragment; it can stick the pins together and ruin the cylinder.
• Do not push the fragment deeper with a pin, knife or other tool, or spray heavy oil into the keyway.
• Keep both halves of the key, since they help when cutting a new one.

If the key broke in a shared street door, tell the building owner or manager, since that lock belongs to the building. If it broke in the only door into your home and you cannot get in, it is also a house lockout.

Details that help

• A photo of the lock face showing whether any of the key sticks out, and one of the piece you still have
• Which lock it is: street door, unit door, alley door, deadbolt or knob lock
• Whether the lock is stuck locked or unlocked, and whether you can get in another way
• For a car, the make, model and year, and whether the key broke in a door or the ignition

If the cylinder itself is worn, taking out the piece may lead into lock repair so the next key does not break the same way.