Mobile Locksmith in Birch Acres

Kwartel, Valk, Swaan: say the street and the extension

A lot of Birch Acres addresses sound alike when you say them over the phone. OpenStreetMap shows how many of the streets share bird names, and some of them are very close:

• Swaan Avenue and Swawel Road are both in the main part of Birch Acres;
• Valk Road, Blouvalk Avenue and Edelvalk Crescent are three different streets;
• Kwartel Road is a through-road and the easiest one to give as a starting point;
• in Birch Acres Ext 3 you'll find streets like Lewerik Crescent, Bontrokkie Crescent and Piet My Vrou Avenue.

When you call, give the house number, the street type (road, avenue, crescent or place) and the extension if you know it. If the street is spelled with "voël" or "vink", spell it out for us. That small step stops the technician from turning into the wrong crescent at night.

Birch Acres, Ext 3, Ext 6 and Ext 7 are all on this page

The 2011 Census split the area into four sub-places. Birch Acres itself had 6,732 people and 2,009 households. Ext 3 had 2,524 people, Ext 6 had 12,401 and Ext 7 just 12. Most people simply say "Birch Acres", and property portals treat it as one suburb. So we do too: whichever extension is on your municipal account, this is your page.

Pongolarivier Drive also runs through Norkem Park, so if you're on that road, tell us which suburb your gate is in. Birch Acres also borders Terenure and the Chloorkop industrial area, so if you run a business there, see our locksmith in Chloorkop page.

Closes behind a boom or a shared gate

Some Birch Acres streets have been closed off into small enclosures. OpenStreetMap marks about a dozen private gates in the main Birch Acres sub-place alone. One house listed on Property24 is described as being in a crescent "boomed off" with security, and another is in Falcon Close, an enclosure off Bosvy Avenue that the listing calls a "secure Birch Acres enclosure".

If you live behind one of these, the technician needs to get past the boom or the shared gate before reaching your front door. Let the guard or the neighbour with the remote know that a locksmith is on the way. If the shared gate or its motor is the problem, we can look at that too, once whoever runs the close agrees. If it's the lock on a pedestrian gate or a security gate that's stuck, we can help with that as well: see security gate lock problems.

What we sort out at Birch Acres houses

Of the 152 Birch Acres properties on Property24 when we checked, 104 were houses, 28 townhouses and 9 flats. With houses come plenty of outside doors and gates, and each one is a lock that can fail. The usual call-outs are:

• locked out with the keys inside, or the keys lost on the way home (emergency lockouts);
• a back-door or kitchen-door lock that has to be jiggled before it turns (lock repair);
• bought a house and don't know who else has keys (lock replacement; see changing the locks after moving in);
• a home safe that won't open (safe opening);
• a car key that's lost or broken (car keys).

We don't cut spare keys and there's no counter to bring a lock to. If you need several keys for a family, choose a lock that comes with enough of them.

After a break-in

Report it to SAPS first and keep the case number. Photograph the forced door, frame and lock before you clean up, as your insurer will want to see them. Then call us to make the house lockable again tonight, whether that means a new cylinder, a new lock or repairs to the keep. Our after a break-in guide has a fuller checklist.

Price and paying

R250 call-out fee. The technician assesses the job on site and gives you the price before any work starts. Nothing is done until you agree. You pay by EFT, cash or card once the work is done. Before we open a house, safe or car, we'll ask to see something showing that you live there or own it, and the technician always tries non-destructive entry first.

Locksmith services available in Birch Acres

• Emergency lockouts

  Shut out of the house, the townhouse, the office or the warehouse, day or night. Phone us and we drive out to wherever you are.

• Residential locksmith

  Locks on freehold houses, townhouses, estate homes, flats and smallholdings: doors, security gates and home safes, sorted at your place.

• Lock replacement

  New cylinders, deadlocks, nightlatches, multipoint parts, gate locks and heavy-duty padlocks, supplied and fitted on site.

• Lock repairs

  Keys that stick, bolts that drag, latches that won't catch and gate locks gone stiff: repaired where they're fitted, when a repair makes sense.

• Break-in lock repairs

  After a burglary or an attempt at your home or business: damaged locks replaced, doors and shutters lockable again, stolen keys made useless.

• Car keys & lockouts

  Keys locked in the car, a car key snapped off or lost altogether: we come to the car, at home, at work or in a parking lot.

All of these are part of our mobile locksmith service in Kempton Park.

Useful guides

• Security Gate Lock Problems
• Changing the Locks After Moving In
• After a Break-In: Securing Your Home or Business

Nearby areas we cover

• Norkem Park
• Terenure
• Chloorkop

All Kempton Park areas