I locked myself out of my detached garage. The remote to open it no longer works.
It’s a really old garage and the opener is from 1999.
Trying to lift it obviously doesnt work. There’s an emergency release you can activate with a key, but the keyhole is crammed full of old hard metallic paint that I can’t get out.
Anything else I can do? Or do I have do smash the thing down?
Any way to dissolve the paint in the keyhole chemically?
I’d start with spraying some WD40 in there, or maybe some paint thinner first. You could use your key as an applicator for paint thinner. But I’d bet that the paint only covers the hole and maybe seeped in a little bit, so you probably just need to break up that initial bubble to get the key in there, then something that will spread to all corners should help loosen it up if it’s still bound when you stick the key in.
I’d definitely stick with that door as the angle to get in. You could take a hammer to the door knob as a last resort (assuming it’s not a deadbolt lock, though even those will fail against tools and violence unless you’re using hardened steel) and replacing those will be cheaper than anything on a garage door, assuming you don’t get the pull cord release suggested in another comment to work.
A locksmith might help, depending on how bound the paint is. Or if you need to destroy the lock and replace it, they could likely help with that, too.