Safe Specialist

Start with your insurance rather than with the safe. Most policies that cover valuables in a safe name a cash rating, and the valuables figure is usually a multiple of it. Tell us what the wording says and we will specify to it. Buying well above the requirement wastes money, and buying below it can mean a loss you assumed was covered is not.

Sometimes, and it depends on what you hold and how much. Policies frequently set a limit on jewellery or cash kept outside a safe, above which a rated unit becomes a condition of cover. We are not insurers and cannot interpret your policy for you, but we can fit to whatever standard it names and itemise the make and rating on the invoice.

Keypads are the most convenient and let you change the code whenever somebody leaves; they need batteries changing and can fail electronically. Key locks are simple and reliable but only as secure as where the key lives. Dials are slow and almost never fail. For a household we usually suggest a keypad with a key override, and for a business a keypad every time, because codes can be changed and keys cannot.

Very often it is simply flat batteries, and that is worth trying first with a fresh set of good-quality cells fitted correctly. If the keypad lights but the safe will not release, the internal lock or solenoid has more likely failed, which is a repair rather than a battery. Either way, tell us which of those two you are seeing when you call.

In most cases yes. What we cannot do is discuss how over the phone or in writing, and we will always establish first that you are entitled to open it. Bring together whatever you have — the make and model, any original paperwork, and identification connecting you to the property or business — and the visit will be considerably quicker.

Not always. A good proportion of safes can be opened without damage, in which case you simply carry on using it. Where that is not possible the opening is controlled and the safe usually needs a new lock afterwards rather than scrapping. We tell you which outcome is likely, and what reinstating it would cost, before starting.

Because a safe is designed to keep people out, and we have no way of knowing whose it is. We ask everyone for identification and something linking them to the address or the business, whether they are a homeowner, an executor or a company. It is a short conversation and it protects you as much as anybody. A locksmith who does not ask should give you pause.

It comes up regularly, particularly with probate sales, and it is dealt with in the same way as any other opening. You will need to show your connection to the property, usually through the deeds, the completion paperwork or correspondence from a solicitor. Once open we can reset it to a code of yours or fit a new lock if the original is worn out.

Somewhere solid, out of sight, and not where a visitor would look. A ground-floor utility room, a garage with a concrete slab or a fixed position in a fitted wardrobe all work well. What matters more than the room is the fixing: anchors into concrete or masonry rather than into floorboards or a plasterboard partition.

They are two different jobs measured in two different ways. A fire safe is rated by how long its contents survive a fire, often thirty or sixty minutes, and is designed around insulation. A security safe is rated against attack and is about steel and locking. Some units do both, usually at a higher price and a much greater weight, and it is worth deciding which you actually need first.

By the job. An opening, a lock replacement, a safe moved to another room and a supply-and-install are four different pieces of work. Openings are quoted with the likely outcome explained up front, and installations after we have looked at where it is going. You get the figure before anything is booked or ordered.