The bolt on the front door is keyed on both sides. Getting out at night means finding the key in the dark, and with a toddler in the house you have decided the inside should turn by hand.
Steel-clad and fibreglass doors, the common insulated entry doors in newer subdivisions, take a deadbolt happily as long as they are cut for it properly. The skin is thin metal or resin over a foam core, often with a wood block at lock height, so the cross bore is made with a hole saw suited to the skin, at low speed, and the edge is finished with a plate rather than a chisel mortise. Solid wood doors in older homes are cut conventionally, with care for splitting at the edge. The locksmith reads the door before drilling and picks the method that leaves a clean opening and a true-running bolt.
Sound familiar?Corktown
Deadbolt Installation · Corktown
Scene 1
Deadbolts are built around two dimensions. The cross bore is the large hole through the face of the door, 54 mm on most residential hardware, though some older or imported locks used 38 mm. The backset is the distance from the door edge to the centre of that hole, 60 mm or 70 mm on nearly every door in this part of the world. If a deadbolt is being replaced, both are measured so the new lock lands in the existing holes without a shim or a gap. On a new installation they are chosen to match the knob below, so the two locks line up and any future keypad or smart deadbolt drops straight in.
Scene 2
The outside housing goes on first, with its tailpiece threaded through the slot in the bolt cam and its mounting posts through the matching holes. Any plastic alignment bracket that ships with the lock is used on a 54 mm bore and removed on a smaller one. The inside thumb-turn plate is set against the door and the two long tapered screws are driven through it into the outside housing, snug rather than crushed, so the housings pull tight to the door without distorting the mechanism. The locksmith turns the thumb-turn before the door is closed to confirm the bolt throws its full length and returns without a catch.
Scene 3
Because the door was prepared to the standard bore and backset, it suits many future options, though the model chosen later still sets its own bore, backset and thickness requirements. Keypad and app-controlled deadbolts fit the same 54 mm cross bore and the same edge bore as the mechanical lock fitted today, so upgrading later means swapping the hardware, not cutting the door again. The backset and bore measurements are written on the packaging left with you. If you want to think about a keypad down the road, ask the locksmith which models suit the door thickness and whether a backup keyed cylinder is worth having for the one day the batteries are flat.
What shapes the quoteBuchanan Lock Services
FeesSame any hour
Two measurements decide whether a deadbolt fits your door. Bore is the diameter of the big hole through the face, 54 mm on most current hardware. Backset is how far the centre of that hole sits from the door's edge, 60 mm or 70 mm on nearly all residential doors. A replacement must match both to use the existing holes, and a fresh installation is cut to match the knob below, so knowing them ahead puts the right hardware on the van.
A replacement into existing holes is generally the shorter visit, and boring a fresh door with a new strike takes longer, roughly an hour or two per door including the frame work and testing. Steel doors, keying alike, frame repairs after a forced entry and fitting a jamb reinforcer each add time. The locksmith can give a realistic estimate once the door and frame have been looked at.
Know which doors you want bolted, what they are made of, and whether each already has a deadbolt or only a knob. A photo of the door face and edge helps. Have any existing keys to hand, decide whether you want everything on one key, and mention glass near the lock, a storm door in the same opening, or a rental agreement. If you have already bought hardware, keep the box and template together.
HamiltonOntario
Deadbolt Installation · Hamilton, Buchanan, Central, Chedoke Park, Cootes Paradise, Hamilton Beach, Hopkins Court, Hopkins Survey, McDonald Court, North End, University Gardens, Waterdown, West Hamilton, Westdale, Pleasant View Survey
Every square is one home in a hundred.
On-site assessment
The bolt on the front door is keyed on both sides.
(289) 203-1527, open 24/7.
On-site assessment preferred · (289) 203-1527, open 24/7
