Safe opening · Greater Manchester
Most safes open without a drill. Yours probably will.
Get a price in 2 minutes
Tell us what's happened. We ring you straight back with a fixed price.
- From £70
- Non-destructive first
- Recoded after
- Proof of ownership required
A safe is the one thing in the house designed specifically to defeat somebody in our trade. That does not mean it is impossible. It means the cheap ones open faster than their owners would like, and the good ones take patience.
Which problem have you got
Flat battery
Keypad dead, no lights. The most common by far, and the cheapest. Most have an external jump point or a key override. £70-140.
Lost combination
Nobody wrote it down, or the person who knew it has gone. Manipulation or bypass. £110-260.
Jammed bolt
Code accepted, motor whirrs, door will not move. Usually a dropped relocker or a packed-full safe. £90-200.
Lost key
Key-operated safes. Sometimes we cut a new one from the lock rather than open it at all. £90-180.
Try this first, free: if the keypad is completely dead, it is almost certainly the batteries, and on a lot of domestic safes they are behind the keypad panel on the outside, not inside the safe. Slide it off. Four AAs. That fixes it more often than you would believe and we would rather tell you than take £90.
Drilling is last
Most safes open non-destructively: manipulation, bypass, an override the manufacturer built in, or a decoder. The safe still works afterwards and you have not lost the asset.
When drilling is genuinely the only way, we drill in a specific known place, through a specific point, and repair it afterwards. We tell you what the repair costs before we start, so you can decide whether the safe is worth it or whether you would rather put the money towards a new one.
Honest bit: your safe may not be rated for what's in it
A £150 fire safe from a catalogue is a fire safe. It resists heat. It is not a security safe and it is not what your insurer means when they specify a cash rating or a jewellery rating.
If we open yours in fifteen minutes, that is not us being clever. That is your safe telling you something. We will say so, and we would rather you knew before you needed it than after.
We will ask for proof
Obviously. Proof the safe is yours or that you have authority over it: ownership documents, a business letterhead, an executor's paperwork if it is a probate job, or the person whose name is on it standing there. This is the one job in locksmithing where that matters most, and any locksmith who opens a safe without asking is a locksmith who will open yours.
What it costs
| Job | Price |
|---|---|
| Battery fault / dead keypad | £70-140 |
| Jammed bolt or relocker | £90-200 |
| Lost key, key-operated safe | £90-180 |
| Lost combination, opened non-destructively | £110-260 |
| Drilled and repaired | £180-400 |
| Recode after opening | £35-70 |
Domestic and commercial. Probate and executor work handled discreetly. Commercial locksmith · Insurance work
Questions people actually ask
My safe keypad is completely dead. Do I need a locksmith?
Probably not, and try this before you ring anyone. On a lot of domestic safes the batteries live behind the keypad panel on the outside of the door rather than inside the safe, precisely so a flat battery does not lock you out of your own valuables. Slide the panel off or pull the keypad away from the door and look. It is usually four AAs. If that is it, you have fixed it for two pounds. If there are no batteries there or it still will not respond, then ring us, and a battery or keypad fault is £70 to £140.
Can you open a safe without drilling it?
Usually yes. Most safes can be opened by manipulation, by a manufacturer's bypass, or with a decoder, and the safe still works afterwards. That is what we try first every time, because drilling costs you more and costs you the safe's integrity. When drilling genuinely is the only route we go through a specific known point and repair it afterwards, and we tell you what that repair costs before we start so you can decide whether the safe is worth keeping.
I've lost the combination to my safe. How much to open it?
£110 to £260 opened non-destructively, which covers most domestic and small commercial safes. If it has to be drilled and repaired, £180 to £400 depending on the safe. Recoding it afterwards so you have a combination you actually know is another £35 to £70, and it is worth doing while we are there. If the problem turns out to be a flat battery rather than a forgotten code, it is £70 to £140 and we will tell you that rather than charging for the harder job.
Will you open a safe for anyone who asks?
No. This is the job where proof of ownership matters most, and we will want it: ownership documents, a business letterhead, executor's paperwork for a probate job, or simply the person whose name is on it standing there. It takes a few minutes and it is not us being difficult. Any locksmith who will open a safe without asking who you are is a locksmith who will open yours for someone else, and that is not a trade you want existing.
You opened my safe in fifteen minutes. Is it any good?
Probably not as good as you thought, and we would rather tell you. A cheap fire safe from a catalogue is exactly that: it resists heat, which is a real and useful thing, but it is not a security safe and it is not what an insurer means when they specify a cash rating or a jewellery rating. If it opened quickly, that is the safe telling you something about what it should be holding. It is better to find that out from us on a Tuesday than from a burglar.