Broken Key Extraction in Milwaukee, WI

Where keys give way in Milwaukee

A key snaps where it is turned most and hardest, and in Milwaukee that often means a shared door. About one in five Milwaukee homes, 20.2 percent, is in a two-unit building, where a shared street door or basement door may be turned by two households. In a Historic Third Ward loft building, the shared residential lobby door serves everyone who lives there.

Age matters too. In Bay View's older buildings a door may carry layers of replaced hardware, and a worn cylinder takes more force to turn. A copy made from a copy and worn thin at the neck is a likely one to give way.

When the cold gets involved

When a lock is frozen, the instinct is to turn harder, and a key twisted against ice can snap in the cylinder. Use lock de-icer, give it time, and keep open flame away from the lock and the key. In a Wisconsin winter, a stiff or gritty cylinder may be dirt or corrosion rather than a worn key, which makes a hard-turning lock a warning to stop before the key breaks.

What not to do

• Do not push on the broken piece with the other half of the key or a spare.
• Do not put glue on it.
• Do not probe with wire, tweezers or a knife.
• Do not pour hot water into a frozen lock.
• Do not keep using the lock; each turn can push the piece deeper.

What to send

• Which lock: street door, unit door, lobby or car, and the entrance in a two-unit or loft building.
• Whether the broken end is flush with the face of the lock or deep inside, with a photo if you can.
• Whether the lock was frozen or stiff before the key broke.
• The other half of the key, kept safe.

See broken key extraction, or lock repair if the cylinder keeps sticking.