Door locks provide security and peace of mind, but they can also become quite irritating when they aren’t working right, or if you accidentally leave your keys on the wrong side of one.
Remember, before you start fiddling with picking locks and breaking down doors that you should be sure you have no other options. Many of these methods take time to learn, so bear that in mind.
Methods to Open a Locked Door
- Using a Bump Key
- Using a Pick Set
- Using a Hex Wrench on an Interior Door
- Using a Credit Card
- Jimmying a Car Door
- Using Brute Force
Method 1 : How to Open a Locked Door Using a Bump Key
- Bump opening a tumbler lock is a useful technique when the door has been closed for a long time, or wish to break into an elderly relative who has struck inside.
- Bumping a lock can damage the lock, so never use it without a good reason.
- Acquire a bump key that will fit the lock. It can be done by filing every cut down to the lowest acceptable depth.
- You can sometimes find them online.
- Fit the bump key into the lock-up to the last pin. Every soft click you feel as you push a key into a lock is a pin being lifted by a tooth of the lock and then dropping onto the cut below it.
- Slam and turn the bump key. If all the upper pin sections are lifted, the lock will be able to turn.
- It may take a few attempts to get the timing right for the turning, so keep up the good work until you succeed.
Method 2 : How to Open a Locked Door Using a Pick Set
- Pick a lock with a tension pick set, can be a specialized skill, and it will time to become a bona fide locksmiths.
- Make your tools for weak locks, a pair of paper clips should work. More hardened bolts might require bobby pins, wire clippers, and a couple of pliers and tension wrench.
- Spring steel is the best material to use because it doesn’t crack as quickly and can be made with a file.
- The tension wrench is made in an “L” shape to apply tension to the bottom of the lock.
- Insert the tension wrench and press it in along the bottom of the lock, and apply constant tension on it. Pull out the pick quickly while listening carefully to the lock.
- Insert the pick above the wrench. Use the leg of the pick to find and push each pin up and out of the tumbler and hope to get a good pick or repeat the process.
Method 3 : How to Open a Locked Door Using a Hex Wrench on an Interior Door
- Open interior doors with a hex wrench when a particular type of doorknob is used that allows the door to be opened in the event of it being locked by accident.
- Find or purchase a set of hex wrenches, also called “Allen wrenches,” that are usually available at most hardware and home stores. They are small, L-shaped pieces of metal that come in an array of widths, both metric and imperial.
- Fit the long end of a hex wrench into the hole on the door handle. You want a reasonably snug fit, but you shouldn’t have to scrape or jam the wrench in. It would be best if you pushed the wrench in straight while turning it back and forth slightly. This will enable you to feel it catch on something.
- Just then, turn the wrench to open the door.
Method 4 : How to Open a Locked Door Using a Credit Card
- Open a simple lock with a credit card which is a famous trick but fewer works on modern doors.
- Laminated cards tend to work the best where you need a card that is flexible and don’t mind getting damaged.
- Put the credit card into the side of the door between the door frame and the locking side of the door, just above where the lock enters the frame.
- Angle the card downward and behind the bolt of the lock.
- Slowly but firmly pull the card towards you while turning the handle to open it.
- This trick will not work if the deadbolt has been set.
Method 5 : How to Open a Locked Door Jimmying a Car Door
- Jimmy a car door is a specialized metal tool for gaining entry to a locked car, generally illegal. You can use the machine with a stiff metal coat hanger.
- Straighten the coat hanger to leave the curved top section alone and straighten the rest of the hook out to make a long metal tool with a hooked tip.
- Lift the weather stripping from the bottom of the drivers-side window.
- Scrape the hanger to feel for a latch which should not be more than a few inches below the window where the interior lock is.
- Hook and pull the latch towards the rear of the car to unlock any manually locked car door.
- If the door has a push-button electric unlocking mechanism, you may slide the straight end of the hanger down from the top of the window instead. Use it as a finger to poke the button inside.
Method 6 : How to Open a Locked Door Using Brute Force
- Break open a door. Beware, it will ruin the door frame, the lock, and often the door itself.
- Stand in a stable stance with face towards the door with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Brace your hands or arms against walls.
- Lift your leg at the knee straight up and let lower leg be pulled along with it. Keep the foot facing the door.
- Kick the lock on the door with the bottom of the foot like a “snap kick.” Snap the leg straight out in front so that the flat of your foot strikes the door.
- It is safer to kick the door to absorb a great deal of force and shoes act as extra armour.
- Never hit the door with shoulder, or it may dislocate it.
- Continue kicking until the lock breaks from the frame.
- Rest and work in alternating periods to get the rhythm of work and rest simultaneously.
- Prefer to use a battering ram on a stubborn door instead, which is reasonably competent.