Lock Change & Replacement

Replacing a lock means new hardware on the door rather than new pins inside the old cylinder. It is the right answer less often than the industry likes to pretend — but when it is right, it is properly right, and doing it well involves more than unscrewing one thing and screwing on another.

Reasons to replace rather than rekey

• The lock is worn — the key needs jiggling, lifting or holding at an angle
• There has been a break-in or an attempted one, and the hardware took the damage
• The lock is below the security grade you want on that door
• You want a different function — keyed both sides, thumbturn, keypad
• The finish or style no longer matches after other work on the house
• The cylinder cannot be rekeyed because the keyway is obsolete

Grades, and why they matter more than brand

Deadbolts are graded by ANSI/BHMA, an industry performance standard rather than a building code, on a scale where Grade 1 is the most demanding and Grade 3 the least. Grade 3 is the builder-grade unit fitted to most new homes. Grade 2 is a meaningful step up. Grade 1 is commercial-standard hardware and is what we suggest for an exterior door on a house that has already had a problem.

Two things matter as much as the lock itself and are almost always overlooked. The strike plate — the metal plate in the frame — is what actually resists a kick, and the short screws supplied in most boxes bite only into the door jamb rather than the stud behind it. Fitting a reinforced strike with long screws does more for a door than upgrading the deadbolt alone. The second is throw: a one-inch bolt projection is the figure commonly specified for residential deadbolts, and plenty of installed bolts fall short of it.

Doors that need thinking about

Not every door takes any lock. Fibreglass and metal-skinned doors have limits on what can be bored. Doors with existing hardware leave a backset and bore pattern that new hardware has to match, or the old holes show. Multipoint locks on patio and French doors are a different mechanism entirely, and the failure is usually in the linkage rather than the cylinder. Older homes in Maryland frequently have mortise locks, which are repairable far more often than the people who want to sell you a new door will admit.

• Deadbolts, single and double cylinder, in residential and commercial grades
• Knob and lever sets, including ADA-compliant levers
• Mortise locks and replacement mortise cylinders
• Multipoint locks for patio, French and sliding doors
• Keypad and smart locks, covered on their own page
• High-security cylinders with restricted keys that cannot be copied at a kiosk
• Reinforced strike plates and door frame reinforcement

Before you buy hardware yourself

You are welcome to supply your own locks and we will fit them. It is worth a phone call first, because the most common outcome of buying blind is hardware that does not match the backset, the bore or the door thickness, and a return trip to the shop. Tell us the door and we will tell you what fits.

Should I replace all my locks or just the front door?

Whichever door is easiest to attack sets your actual security level, and it is rarely the front. Back doors, side doors into garages and basement doors are the ones usually left on original hardware.

Can you match new locks to my existing key?

Often yes — new cylinders can be keyed to an existing key if the keyway is compatible, so you are not carrying two keys after a partial replacement.

Do you charge for the visit if replacement turns out to be unnecessary?

We give you the price before dispatch. If we arrive and the honest answer is that a repair or a rekey solves it, we will tell you, and the job changes to the cheaper one rather than continuing regardless.