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IT’ S LIKE A MODERN-DAY WILD WEST: EXPERT LOCKSMITHS, CANADA
» AT TLJ, WE ENJOY INTERVIEWING locksmiths from overseas to gain a fresh perspective on the trade and life in different parts of the world. We interviewed Collin Goertzen of Expert Locksmiths, based in Saskatchewan, Western Canada, where crime is rife, and the weather, well, just adds to the challenge!
Saskatchewan has warm summers( 20 – 35 ° C) from June to September. Winters are cold, with snow, high winds creating blizzard conditions, January highs around-25 ° C.
About Expert Locksmiths: A Typical Day
I have worked for Expert Locksmiths since April 2008. The shop was opened in 1982 and today has five employees. I work as an in-shop locksmith, and normally we have two service guys out in the field. Lately, it’ s been a pretty busy and trying time with all the changes happening around us.
My day starts by opening the shop: grabbing the cash tray from the safe, unlocking the doors, switching on the lights, and tidying up my workstation. Our busy periods usually hit around 10am, noon and 3pm; right when companies take their coffee breaks and people swing by to visit.
Popular Lock Brands
Most of our residential work is based on Schlage or Kwikset locks both American brands— or copies and variations of them. Commercially, we’ ve seen a big influx of Yale hardware. In the shop, we mostly sell Schlage because it’ s the most adaptable for our clients when it comes to masterkeying, parts access, and ease of maintenance. Schlage is reliable, and their warranty support has always been solid. Compared to Sargent, Yale, or Corbin, it just makes life easier.
Security Challenges Security issues are a daily part of what we see, especially with apartment buildings and shops that have glass and aluminium doors. A lot of the time, the locks weren’ t installed properly, or the deadbolt fires too far out. The gap between the door and frame gets too wide, making it easy to push the latch back and break in. You can fit interlocking astragals onto those doors, but they’ re heavy and can cause sagging— basically swapping one problem for another.
If it were up to me, I’ d like to see more panic hardware installed on office buildings and rental buildings, so the latch is behind the doorstop. That would make these doors a lot more secure than just a regular lock. Weather doesn’ t help either— frost and temperature changes cause the ground to shift, and that moves doorways around. We’ re constantly adjusting doors from winter through summer.
Adjustable strikes can be tricky too. They change value depending on how hard the door closes, and if it pushes inward, it messes with the latch and deadlock pin. A lot of the time, it’ s about relieving just enough pressure to get everything working smoothly again. Multipoint locks don’ t work well here because of all the movement— they’ re fine for interior office doors, but for residential work, we stick to a good
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MAY 2025
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