Stockport · SK1 to SK8
Stockport locksmith. Mind the windows.
Get a price in 2 minutes
Give us your SK postcode and what you need. We ring you back.
- 20-35 min
- From £25
- Sash window locks
- No call-out fee
- £1m public liability
Stockport has one of the biggest belts of Victorian and Edwardian family housing in Greater Manchester, and it comes with a security problem almost nobody thinks about until their insurer mentions it. Not the doors. The windows.
SK1 to SK8: the town centre, Heaton Moor, Heaton Chapel, Heaton Norris, Edgeley, Davenport, Great Moor, Offerton, Hazel Grove, Gatley, Marple, Romiley, Bredbury. 20 to 35 minutes from Salford.
The sash window problem
A Victorian bay-fronted house in the Heatons or Davenport typically still has original timber sash windows. They are beautiful and they are worth keeping. They also, very often, have nothing on them but a century-old fitch catch that a flat screwdriver defeats in about four seconds through the gap between the sashes.
That matters for two reasons:
- A ground floor bay is the easiest way into the house
- Most home policies require key-operated locks on accessible windows
If your policy says key-operated window locks and your sashes have a fitch catch, you are not compliant, and you will find that out when you claim rather than now.
The fix is not new windows. Sash stops and key-operated sash bolts fit to the original timber, cost £25 to £55 per window, and let the window still open. We would rather you kept the sashes. See window locks.
The doors, while we're there
The same housing usually has the original mortice on a solid timber front door. Seized ones almost always service rather than replace: £40-70 against £140. If your insurer wants BS3621 and the lock predates the standard, then it has to change, and we will say so plainly rather than fitting something you did not need.
Marple, Romiley and the eastern edge
SK6 runs out towards the Peak, and it changes the job: bigger plots, outbuildings, garages and gates, and neighbours further away than in a Heaton terrace. Response to Marple is at the longer end, 30 to 45 minutes. We carry closed shackle padlocks and hasps for the outbuildings rather than sending you to a merchant.
What it costs
| Job | Price |
|---|---|
| Sash stop / key-operated sash bolt, per window | £25-55 |
| Casement window lock, per window | £25-45 |
| Period mortice, strip and service | £40-70 |
| BS3621 5-lever mortice, fitted | £85-140 |
| Lockout, non-destructive | £65-110 |
| Euro cylinder repair or replacement | £35-60 |
| Full window and door survey, written | £45-75 |
Around here
Questions people actually ask
My Victorian sash windows have no locks. Does my insurance care?
Very probably. Most UK home policies require key-operated locks on accessible windows, which means the ground floor and anything reachable from a flat roof, a bin store or a drainpipe. An original fitch catch is not a lock, and it opens with a flat screwdriver through the gap between the sashes in about four seconds. If your wording asks for key-operated window locks and your sashes have a fitch catch, you are not compliant, and the time to discover that is now rather than after a break-in.
Can you fit locks to original sash windows without ruining them?
Yes, and you should not have to replace the windows to comply. Sash stops and key-operated sash bolts fit into the original timber, cost £25 to £55 per window, and still let you open the window for ventilation, some of them lockable in a partly open position. They are discreet and reversible. Anyone telling you that compliance means replacing beautiful original sashes with uPVC is selling windows, not security.
How long does it take you to get to the Heatons or Marple?
20 to 35 minutes to the Heatons, Edgeley and the town centre from our base in Salford. Marple, Romiley and the eastern SK6 edge are at the longer end, 30 to 45 minutes, because it genuinely is further and the roads out that way are slower. Overnight everything is quicker. The price is identical wherever you are in SK1 to SK8, and there is no call-out fee.
My front door mortice has seized. Do I need a new lock?
Usually not. Stockport's Victorian and Edwardian housing mostly still has the original mortice on a solid timber door, and a seized one is nearly always a century of dust and dried oil rather than a failed mechanism. A strip and service is £40 to £70 and gives you back a lock made to a standard modern replacements rarely match. The one real exception is if your insurer requires BS3621, which did not exist when your lock was made, in which case it has to be replaced at £85 to £140 fitted. We will tell you which situation you are in rather than defaulting to the one that sells hardware.