Secondary Access
Front doors get all the attention. The window beside the porch, the bathroom sash, the balcony slider — those are the ones that have been unlockable for years.
What this covers
Everything listed here is work we actually carry out. If your situation is not on the list, describe it when you call and we will tell you honestly whether it is ours.
Key-operated locks suited to older double-hung timber windows.
Hardware for sliding windows and doors, including anti-lift considerations.
Locking hardware appropriate to the stay and frame arrangement.
Ground-floor and accessible upper-level access points.
Old window locks that no longer turn, or whose keys disappeared long ago.
Walk around a property and note every opening that could actually be climbed through. In most St Kilda homes that is a shorter list than people expect — a couple of ground-floor windows, a rear slider, sometimes a balcony reachable from a fence or carport roof.
Those few openings are where window hardware earns its money. The bathroom window on the second floor facing a blank wall is not the problem.
The usual objection to window locks is heat. St Kilda summers are real, and a house that cannot be ventilated is a house whose windows get left open regardless of the hardware.
Some window types can be secured in a partly open position, which is often the arrangement that actually gets used. It is worth discussing how you live with the room rather than fitting hardware that gets defeated by August.
Windows and doors are also how people get out. Keyed hardware on an escape route needs thinking about, particularly where children, older residents or bedrooms are involved.
We will raise it as part of the conversation, and we would encourage keeping keys accessible to occupants — a locked window with a key nobody can find is a different kind of risk.
Related
One problem tends to sit next to another. These are the services that most often come up in the same conversation.
Questions
On accessible windows, yes — they remove the easiest openings and make a property less casually enterable. They are one layer among several, not a guarantee, and they matter most on ground-floor and balcony-accessible windows.
Usually, with hardware suited to double-hung timber windows. Condition matters: badly deteriorated frames may need repair before hardware will hold properly.
Some window types can be secured in a partly open position. Tell us how you use the room and we will suggest hardware you will actually keep using through summer.
Location
We work from Acland Street, which means the properties on this page are the ones around us — not a suburb we drive through occasionally.
Get in touch
Tell us what you need help with and we’ll help you find the right locksmith service.
