Our story

Built for the calls nobody plans for

We understand that lock and key emergencies rarely happen at a convenient time. That is exactly why 1 for All Locksmith exists.

What started as a small mobile operation answering after-hours call-outs has grown into a team of qualified technicians covering Johannesburg, Pretoria and greater Gauteng, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The work has not changed: somebody is stuck, and they need a professional who arrives quickly, fixes it properly and charges fairly.

With years of industry experience, our technicians are equipped to handle everything from vehicle lockouts and ignition repairs to residential lock changes, commercial security solutions and safe opening. Whether you have locked your keys in the car, lost access to your home, need urgent lock repairs after a break-in, or require assistance with a commercial security system, we are ready to help.

Satisfaction guaranteed

Qualified technicians, fully covered work

We guarantee fast and efficient locksmith services with highly skilled technicians able to assist with all locksmith work anywhere in Johannesburg, Pretoria and surrounding areas.

• Fully licensed, bonded & insured
• Fast response times, day or night
• 24/7 emergency assistance
• Professional & reliable service
• Competitive, upfront pricing
• Residential, commercial & automotive specialists
• Experienced locksmith technicians
• Service across Johannesburg, Pretoria & surrounds

Our approach

What 24 hours actually means

Plenty of locksmiths advertise 24 hours and route the after-hours calls to a voicemail that gets picked up at eight the next morning. If you have ever been on the wrong end of that, you know the difference.

We run shifts. There is a technician awake and a phone being answered through the night, over weekends and on public holidays — the days when the rest of the trade is closed and callers have the fewest options.

Night work also changes how a job is approached. We arrive with lighting, we verify who you are before opening anything, and we prioritise getting the property secure over getting it perfect, then return in daylight if a frame or gate needs proper attention.

• Real overnight, weekend and holiday cover
• Lighting and equipment for night work
• Identification checked before we open anything
• Property secured first, cosmetic work after
• One number, any hour: 060 950 4888

Our approach

Opened without breaking anything

A car lockout in a shopping centre parking lot or on the side of the M1 is not the moment for a coat hanger and a hopeful shove. Modern door cards, airbag wiring and frameless glass are expensive to get wrong.

We open vehicles with proper automotive tools, which means the door, the lock, the trim and the glass are all still in one piece afterwards. Boot lockouts where the spare key is inside the boot are one of the most common calls we take, and they are usually a quick job.

We also repair and replace faulty ignitions — the jammed barrel, the key that spins without catching, the steering lock that has seized. That work happens on site so the car does not need to be towed anywhere.

• Vehicle lockouts and door opening
• Keys locked in the boot retrieved
• Ignition repair and replacement on site
• Ignition barrel and lock repairs
• Mobile — we come to the vehicle

Our approach

When it cannot wait until morning

An emergency locksmith call is rarely about the lock. It is about a boot that will not open with a child's bag inside, a shop that cannot trade until the roller door lifts, a front door standing open after a break-in with nobody willing to sleep behind it.

That is the work we are set up for. Somebody answers the phone at any hour, gives you an honest read on how far away the nearest technician is, and tells you the price before anyone is dispatched. No call centre passing you around.

Our teams cover the Johannesburg CBD, Rosebank, Parktown, Melville, Braamfontein, Yeoville, Observatory and the surrounding suburbs, and carry common residential and commercial lock stock on the van so most jobs finish in a single visit.

• Answered 24 hours, including public holidays
• Non-destructive entry attempted first, every time
• Break-in repairs and same-day lock replacement
• Itemised invoice for insurance claims
• Priced upfront, before the technician leaves

Our approach

The keys you cannot account for

Every lock change comes down to the same question: who else can open this door? A previous tenant, a builder, a domestic worker who left three years ago, an ex-partner, a staff member who resigned badly. Nobody knows how many copies are out there, which is exactly the problem.

We change or rekey the cylinder so old keys stop working, and we can key several doors alike so you carry one key instead of five. If your existing hardware is decent, rekeying is usually cheaper than replacing the whole lock and we will say so.

After a break-in the job is bigger than the lock — strike plates pull out of frames, keeps bend, gate locks get levered. We repair what can be saved, replace what cannot, and give you an itemised invoice that insurers accept.

• Lock replacement and rekeying
• Several doors keyed alike to one key
• Break-in repairs to locks, keeps and frames
• Security upgrades to stronger cylinders
• Itemised invoices for insurance claims

Local knowledge

Covered from both directions

Centurion has an advantage most areas do not: it sits between our Pretoria and Midrand teams, so whichever is free comes to you. On a busy Friday night that redundancy is the difference between twenty minutes and an hour.

Highveld and Die Hoewes bring the office and business park work — access control, filing room locks, after-hours lockouts when a keyholder has already left for the weekend. Wierdapark, Eldoraigne and Rooihuiskraal are steady residential: lock changes on transfer, gate locks, and the 3am lockout.

Safes come up more here than in most areas, largely home and gun safes in the older residential streets, and the usual culprit is a dead keypad rather than anything actually wrong with the lock.

• Backed by both Pretoria and Midrand teams
• Business park and office access control
• Residential lock changes and lockouts
• Security gate and driveway gate locks
• Home and gun safe opening

Local knowledge

Estate access, handled properly

Fourways is estate country. Dainfern, Lonehill and the cluster complexes along Witkoppen all run controlled access, and the thing that actually slows a locksmith down here is not distance — it is the boom.

We work with it rather than against it. Our technicians arrive identifiable, we ask you to log the call with your estate or complex security, and we are happy to wait for their clearance. Trying to talk your way past a guard at midnight helps nobody.

The work itself is mostly residential: cluster front doors, patio sliders, garage side doors, security gates, and the lock change that follows a new tenant, a domestic staff change or a divorce. Safes are common here too, particularly gun safes and wall safes with dead keypads.

• Estate and cluster complex call-outs
• House lockouts and door opening, 24/7
• Lock changes for new tenants and owners
• Patio slider, garage and gate locks
• Home and gun safe opening

Local knowledge

Halfway between two cities, which works in your favour

Midrand is where we position teams precisely because it sits between Johannesburg and Pretoria. A technician staged here can be in Sandton, Centurion, Kempton Park or Fourways quickly — and it means Midrand itself almost always has somebody a few minutes away.

The work here skews new-build. Waterfall City, Carlswald and the estates along Allandale Road are full of recent handovers, and new owners consistently want the same two things: the developer's locks changed, and several doors keyed alike so they carry one key instead of a bunch.

The commercial side is warehousing and offices along the N1 corridor and around Mall of Africa — roller shutter locks, stockroom access, and after-hours lockouts when a shift ends and the keyholder has gone home.

• New-build handovers: locks changed and keyed alike
• Estate and complex residential call-outs
• Warehouse, roller shutter and stockroom locks
• Vehicle lockouts along the N1 corridor
• Teams staged in Midrand, so response is fast

Local knowledge

A city with three different lock problems

Pretoria is big enough that the work changes noticeably depending on where in it you are. Pretoria East — Faerie Glen, Garsfontein, Menlyn, Lynnwood — is estates and townhouse complexes, so it is lock changes, gate locks and after-hours lockouts behind a boom.

The old suburbs closer in, Brooklyn, Waterkloof and the Moot, have substantial older homes with heavy hardware, steel gates and original mortice locks that need matching rather than replacing. Hatfield adds student accommodation, where the volume is tenant turnover and rekeying between leases.

In the CBD and around the government precincts the work is commercial: office suites, filing rooms, deposit safes and access control. We also handle a steady stream of vehicle lockouts at Menlyn Park and the Brooklyn centres.

• Pretoria East estates and complexes
• Older Brooklyn, Waterkloof and Moot hardware
• Student accommodation rekeying between leases
• CBD commercial access control and safes
• Vehicle lockouts across the city, 24/7

Local knowledge

Older suburbs, older hardware

Randburg and the suburbs around it — Linden, Northcliff, Blairgowrie — have housing stock that goes back decades, and the locks often go back nearly as far. Steel-framed windows, original mortice locks, security gates fitted in the eighties and never serviced since.

That changes the job. A lot of our Randburg work is repair rather than replacement: a gate lock that has seized from years of weather, a mortice that needs the right cylinder rather than the nearest one at a hardware store, a burglar-bar lock nobody makes any more.

We carry stock for the common older fittings and can usually match what is there instead of butchering a door to fit something modern. Where an upgrade genuinely is the better option, we will say so and explain why.

• Older mortice and cylinder lock specialists
• Security gate and burglar bar lock repairs
• House lockouts, 24 hours a day
• Lock changes for new owners and tenants
• Matching older fittings rather than replacing doors

Local knowledge

West Rand cover that does not depend on the highway

The West Rand is the part of Gauteng most often promised a long wait, usually because the locksmith is coming from the other side of the city and the N1 is not cooperating. We keep technicians working this side instead.

Roodepoort work is broad. Weltevredenpark and Wilgeheuwel bring steady residential lock changes and lockouts; Constantia Kloof and the office parks around Clearwater bring commercial access control; Florida and Discovery bring a lot of gate and burglar-bar lock repair on older properties.

Vehicle lockouts around the shopping centres are constant — Clearwater in particular. If you are stuck in a parking garage, give us the level and bay number and we will find you.

• Technicians working the West Rand, not driving across town
• Residential lock changes and house lockouts
• Office park and commercial access control
• Gate and burglar bar lock repairs
• Vehicle lockouts at Clearwater and surrounds

Local knowledge

Two very different kinds of Sandton call

Sandton splits our work almost evenly. During the day it is commercial — office suites around the CBD and Nelson Mandela Square, tenants moving between floors, staff changes that leave keys unaccounted for, server rooms and stockrooms that need access control rather than a key everyone copies.

After hours it becomes residential. Bryanston, Morningside and Rivonia are full of estates and complexes with boomed access, and getting a technician in at 11pm needs a bit of coordination with security. We are used to it: our technicians arrive identifiable, with a reference for the resident who called, which is what most estates want before opening the boom.

Because Sandton sits in the middle of our northern coverage, response times here are among our shortest in Gauteng.

• Office and commercial access control
• Estate and complex call-outs, day or night
• Residential lockouts and lock changes
• Security gate and burglar bar locks
• Vehicle lockouts in parking garages

Our approach

Opened, and still worth keeping

Most people who call us about a safe have already tried everything they can think of, and a few have tried things they now regret. A safe is designed to resist exactly that, which is why forcing one usually destroys the contents along with the door.

Safe work is its own speciality. Our technicians open household safes, gun safes, hotel-style room safes, office deposit safes and strongroom doors, and the aim is always to get it open in a way that leaves the safe serviceable.

Dead keypads and flat batteries are the most common call by a wide margin, followed by combinations that were written down somewhere nobody can find. Once it is open we can fit a new lock, keypad or combination so you are not back in the same position next year.

• Household, gun and commercial safes
• Digital and keypad safe assistance
• Forgotten combinations and lost keys
• New safe locks, keypads and combinations fitted
• Safe serviced so it stays usable