Opening
1960s floor safe, no code, no key
Chatham office clearance. Manipulated open in 90 minutes, dial re-timed and a new three-number combination handed to the client.
Kent · London · South East England
They fished a safe out of the water. We opened and restored it.
Preview
Imagine this: A rusty safe, covered in mud and algae, that had been lying at the bottom of a lake for over a month. Local fishermen pulled it ashore with their nets. Everyone thought it was just a piece of scrap metal.
But we knew: Even a safe like this can be opened and brought back to life.
We opened it without causing any damage, restored the mechanism – and today it works like new again. The documents inside had stayed dry – we took care of that, too.
If your safe is rusted, jammed, has fallen into water, or simply won't open anymore – don't throw it away prematurely. We master even the most hopeless cases.
30+ years
on safes and vaults
6,000+
safes opened and serviced
94%
opened without damage
1–3 days
typical attendance
What the workshop does
Safe opening, safe repair, servicing, vault engineering, lock upgrades and safe key cutting — carried out personally by Nick Haddock from the workshop in Kent, England.
Safe opening
Locked out, lost combination, dead electronic keypad or a broken key snapped in the lock — opened on site, in most cases without any damage to the door.
Safe repair & servicing
Boltwork, relockers, hinges, handles, dials and key locks stripped, cleaned, re-shimmed and re-timed to manufacturer tolerances.
Water & fire recovery
Flooded, submerged or fire-affected safes de-rusted, dried and rebuilt. Contents recovered and documents dried before corrosion spreads.
Restoration
Victorian and Edwardian safes brought back to life: shot-blasting, filling, hand pinstriping, gold leaf signwriting and new interiors.
Vault engineering
Strongroom doors, day gates, deposit lockers and vault ventilation surveyed, serviced and upgraded for banks, jewellers and auction houses.
Lock upgrades & keys
Insurance-grade lock upgrades, EN 1300 certified locks, time delay units and safe keys cut to code from original patterns.
Inside the workshop
Benches full of boltwork, dials and lock plates — plus the parts stock that makes repairing an old safe cheaper than replacing it.
How a job runs
01
Send a photo
Message a photo of the safe, the lock and any maker's plate. Most jobs are diagnosed the same day.
02
Fixed quotation
You receive a written price before any work starts — call-out, labour and parts, clearly separated.
03
Open & assess
Non-destructive opening first. If drilling is required, it is agreed with you and repaired afterwards.
04
Repair or restore
Mechanism rebuilt in the Kent workshop or on site, tested through 50 open/close cycles, then handed back with new codes.
Recent jobs
Restoration
Victorian iron safe, seized for 40 years
Complete strip-down, new lever lock, hand-painted pinstriping and gold-leaf lettering. Now used daily in a family jewellers.
Keys
Two double-bit keys cut to code
Original keys lost in a house move. New keys cut from the lock's code series and tested before the customer left the workshop.
What customers say
The safe had been under water for weeks and we assumed it was scrap. It was open the same afternoon and the deeds inside were dried and readable.
Our vault door had jammed with staff inside the strongroom. Attended within two hours, released and serviced the same day.
A 1890s safe restored for our reception. The signwriting is genuinely beautiful and the lock is smoother than anything modern.
Common questions
+Can a rusted or water-damaged safe really be saved?
Usually, yes. Rust attacks the outer body long before it destroys the lock. Once the mechanism is stripped, de-rusted and re-lubricated, most safes return to full working order. Speed matters — the sooner a wet safe is opened and dried, the more of the contents survive.
+Will you damage the safe to open it?
Non-destructive methods are always attempted first: manipulation, code recovery, key impressioning and bypass. Where drilling is the only realistic option it is discussed with you first, kept to a single small scope point and repaired and re-plated afterwards.
+What proof of ownership do you need?
Photo ID plus evidence linking you to the safe's address — a utility bill, tenancy agreement, probate paperwork or a letter of instruction from a solicitor or executor.
+How quickly can you attend?
Standard appointments across Kent, London and the South East are typically within 1–3 working days. Emergency same-day attendance is available subject to workload and travel distance.
+Do you work for businesses as well as households?
Yes. Regular clients include jewellers, pharmacies, hotels, letting agents, insolvency practitioners, auction houses, schools and local authorities.
Talk to the engineer, not a call centre
Every enquiry is handled by Nick Haddock himself. Send a photo of the safe and the lock, and you will get an honest answer on whether it is worth saving.
- Trading as
- Nick Haddock Lock & Safe Engineers
- Workshop
- 19 Rooks View, Bobbing, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME9 8GB, United Kingdom
- Telephone
- +44 1795 555011 · +44 7855 807646
- [email protected]
- Opening hours
- Mon–Fri 08:00–18:00 · Sat 09:00–14:00 · Emergency call-outs by arrangement
Customer & legal information
Full UK consumer information for BigNomad (bignomad.com), operated by Nicholas Peter Haddock, Sole trader (individual business owner).