Broken Key Extraction & Jammed Lock Repair
When a key snaps inside a deadbolt on a humid St. Johns County morning — or a deadbolt on a Nocatee townhome suddenly refuses to turn after years of salt-air exposure — the instinct is to force it. That instinct almost always makes things worse. At All Points Locksmith, our trained, insured mobile technicians arrive at your door with the extraction tools and diagnostic experience to free seized cylinders and retrieve broken key fragments without destroying the hardware you paid to install.
Open 24 hours, 7 days a week · Licensed, bonded & insured
Whether you're a homeowner in Ponte Vedra Beach, a property manager along US-1 in St. Augustine, or a business owner near the World Golf Village corridor, jammed locks and snapped keys don't wait for a convenient hour. That's exactly why we operate 24/7 — dispatching directly to your location so you never have to remove a door or haul hardware anywhere. Before any work begins, we confirm an exact up-front price based on the specifics of your situation, so there are no surprises on the invoice.
What we do
Available 24/7
Day, night, weekends and holidays — a real local locksmith answers and rolls a fully-stocked van.
Fast local response
Based in St. Johns County, we reach the St. Johns County area in well under an hour.
Insured & background-checked
Vetted technicians, up-front pricing, and no surprise add-ons when we arrive.
Damage-free entry
We pick and bypass locks the right way, so most lockouts are solved without drilling anything.
What Actually Causes a Key to Snap — and a Lock to Seize
Keys break for predictable reasons: metal fatigue from years of torque on a sticky cylinder, forcing a slightly bent key, or using a worn duplicate that binds instead of gliding. Florida's heat and humidity accelerate the corrosion inside lock cylinders — particularly in coastal St. Johns County communities like Vilano Beach or Palm Valley, where salt air works into pin stacks and causes deadbolt lock repair calls to spike after every major storm season. Mortise lock repair is especially common in older commercial storefronts along King Street in St. Augustine, where cast-iron mortise cartridges have been cycling through decades of use and weather without lubrication. Cam lock repair shows up frequently on storage units, electrical panels, and mailbox banks throughout the county's newer master-planned communities, while lever lock repair calls tend to come from ADA-compliant office suites and medical facilities where lever hardware sees constant traffic.
Seized knobs and deadbolts usually trace back to one of four culprits: a misaligned strike plate putting lateral stress on the latch bolt, a loose set screw letting the cylinder rotate without engaging the cam, dried or gummy lubricant trapping debris in the pin chamber, or a broken actuator inside a keypad lock or smart lock assembly. Rim lock repair and jimmy proof lock repair are common requests from landlords managing older rental stock in the historic district, where surface-mounted locks were installed decades ago and the mounting screws have begun to loosen or strip. Adams Rite lock repair comes up regularly on aluminum storefront doors — the slim-profile latchbolts used on glass commercial entries are precision components that jam when the door frame shifts even slightly.
Broken Key Extraction & Jammed Lock Repair: Our On-Site Process
Our mobile technicians carry a full kit of professional-grade extraction tools — including hook picks, spiral extractors, and broken-key pullers in multiple profiles — designed to grip a key fragment at the shear line and draw it out without scoring the keyway walls. Once the fragment is removed, we inspect the cylinder for pin damage, debris, or corrosion before reassembling. If the cylinder pins have been bent or the key fragment has damaged the warding, we'll tell you plainly: a cylinder replacement will serve you better than a repair. We source replacement cylinders on the truck for common Schlage, Kwikset, and Baldwin lock families, so most jobs are resolved in a single visit with no return trip needed.
For seized deadbolts and stuck knobs, diagnosis comes first. We check door alignment, test latch bolt travel, inspect the cam and tailpiece, and look for signs of forced entry or tampering before we attempt anything. On mortise lock units — which are the standard on St. Johns County's older commercial buildings and many upscale residential entries — we remove the faceplate to inspect the internal gear and follower components rather than guessing from the outside. Keypad lock repair and smart lock repair follow a different diagnostic path: we verify whether the issue is mechanical (a seized bolt or stripped drive gear) or electronic (a failed motor, corrupted firmware, or a dead capacitor on the circuit board). In either case, we document our findings and walk you through the options before touching a single component.
Emergency Locksmith Response for Homes, Businesses & Rental Properties
A broken key or jammed lock becomes an emergency the moment it leaves someone stranded outside — or, just as urgently, unable to secure a property after hours. Our 24/7 mobile dispatch means a qualified technician can be rolling toward your location in St. Johns County within minutes of your call to (904) 478-1963, whether the call comes in at noon on a Tuesday or 3 a.m. on a holiday weekend. We serve residential homeowners dealing with a seized front door deadbolt, commercial locksmith clients managing multi-tenant retail strips or office parks, and property managers who need a jammed apartment knob freed between tenants without damaging the door frame.
Rekeying is frequently the right follow-up step after a key breaks inside a lock. If the fragment was a tenant's copy, an ex-partner's key, or simply a worn duplicate you no longer trust, extracting the fragment and immediately rekeying the cylinder ensures that any other copies of that key profile become useless overnight. We carry pinning kits on the truck for the most common residential and commercial cylinder families, so a rekey can happen in the same visit as the extraction — no scheduling a second appointment. Business owners who've had a key break in a cam lock on a server room cabinet or a jimmy proof lock on a rear exit door can have that hardware addressed and re-secured before the next shift starts.
Pricing Factors, Ownership Verification & What to Expect on Every Call
The final price for any broken key extraction or jammed lock repair job depends on several honest variables: the type of lock (a standard deadbolt costs less to service than a mortise lock cartridge or an Adams Rite latch assembly), the time of day the call comes in, how far our nearest technician needs to travel within St. Johns County, and whether parts — such as a replacement cylinder, new cam, or smart lock drive motor — are required. We confirm an exact up-front quote before any work begins, and that number doesn't change once we start. There are no vague hourly estimates or surprise fees added after the job.
Ownership verification is a standard part of every service call — we'll ask for a photo ID and may ask you to demonstrate reasonable evidence that you have the right to access the property or lock in question. This protects every resident and business owner in the communities we serve. If you're locked out and wondering about your options, the safest first steps are always checking for a spare key with a trusted neighbor, looking for an unlocked secondary entrance, or calling our team directly at (904) 478-1963 so a trained technician can handle the situation without risk of damage or a security compromise. We never coach anyone through self-bypass techniques — not because we're withholding information, but because improvised attempts routinely destroy lock hardware and, in the worst cases, damage door frames that cost far more to repair than the locksmith call would have.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a locksmith in St. Johns, Florida who can handle mortise lock repair the same day?
Yes — All Points Locksmith is a mobile, 24/7 service operating throughout St. Johns County, including the St. Johns community, Julington Creek, and surrounding areas. Mortise lock repair is one of our core specialties. We carry the tools and most common replacement components on the truck, so same-day and even same-hour service is frequently possible depending on call volume and your location within the county.
What is a locksmith call-out fee, and how does it factor into my total cost?
A call-out fee — sometimes called a service or dispatch fee — covers the technician's travel to your location and the initial assessment of the problem. At All Points Locksmith, we factor travel distance within St. Johns County, the time of day, and the nature of the job into a single up-front quote that we confirm with you before starting any work. You'll know the full number — not just the call-out portion — before we touch anything.
How much does a locksmith cost in Florida for broken key extraction specifically?
There's no single answer because the total depends on several variables: the type of lock the key broke in (a basic deadbolt differs significantly from a mortise lock or an Adams Rite storefront latch), whether the cylinder needs to be replaced or just cleaned and reassembled after extraction, the time of day, and travel distance to your location. We don't quote a price until we've assessed the situation in person, and we confirm that exact number up front — no adjustments after the work is done.
How much should a locksmith cost per hour for jammed lock repair on a commercial door?
Hourly billing isn't always the right model for commercial locksmith work — many jobs, including jammed deadbolt repair, cam lock repair, or jimmy proof lock repair on an exit door, are quoted as flat-rate jobs based on the hardware type, parts required, and time of day rather than a running clock. When a job is genuinely time-variable (such as a complex mortise lock disassembly and rebuild), we'll explain that before starting and give you the clearest estimate we can. The factors that move the number are lock complexity, parts cost, and after-hours dispatch.
My smart lock motor is running but the bolt won't move — is that a locksmith repair or a manufacturer issue?
That's a mechanical failure, not a software issue, and it's squarely in our wheelhouse. When a smart lock or keypad lock bolt seizes, the drive gear, cam follower, or bolt itself has typically stripped, corroded, or become misaligned — none of which a firmware update will fix. Our technicians diagnose the mechanical assembly, advise whether the internal components can be rebuilt or whether the unit needs replacement, and handle the work on-site. If the lock is under an active manufacturer warranty, we'll note that in our assessment so you have that information before committing to a repair.
Can you extract a broken key and rekey the lock in the same visit?
In most cases, yes. Once the broken key fragment is removed and the cylinder is inspected and cleared, rekeying is a straightforward next step if you want to invalidate any other copies of that key profile — which is often the right call after a tenant turnover, a relationship change, or simply years of unknown key duplication. We carry pinning kits for the most common residential and commercial cylinder families on every truck, so the extraction and rekey can typically be completed back-to-back without a second appointment.