When you are stuck in a building or locker room, and the door has been locked with a key that is missing, you are left with nowhere to turn and no way out. You might find yourself at the mercy of howling wind or vicious rain for hours on end because the nearby storehouse’s fire escape has been cut off. When in this position, it is tempting to just break through the door, but doing so will only open up new problems that can be difficult to rectify. So, how do I open a door if I lost the key ?
Here are tips to safely open a locked door when you have lost the key:
- Gather all you can to break through a door
While it might be tempting to do it the brute-force way and break through the door, it is a whole lot safer to gather all you can to break through a door. All you need is a sturdy piece of wood and some workable leverage.
- Find a sturdy door handle
Find the door handle by feeling around for it with your hands, or by using something like a screwdriver to feel for it. This will be the point you will be leveraging to break through the door.
- Prepare to break through
Put something under the door handle and apply a little bit of force on it. This will put you in the right position to leverage your choice of tool for the door handle.
- Find exactly where the lock is on the door and break through it
Using your handy screwdriver, pick at the lock until you find where it is attached to the door. You should be able to see a small hole that allows you to reach inside and grab whatever you have gathered together under your door handle.
- Insert the tool through the hole and crack it open
Use your small screwdriver to insert it through the hole and apply a little pressure to crack the lock open. Try not to apply too much force, as this could cause more damage than good, leading to a more difficult door opening.
- Repeat steps 1-6 on all other locks
This step is all about consistency. Each lock you break through should be the same as the last.
- Check to see if the door will move, and how much
Repeat step 5 on all other locks and check if the door will move. If so, now you know how much force to use when breaking through a door with a lock that uses a different lock type. If it doesn’t, try removing more of the lock until it moves, then re-apply your force until it does move.