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CalamityCorners Locksmith Co.Open 24/7 (226) 271-6061
Close view of a satin-nickel deadbolt thumbturn and edge faceplate on a painted timber door. — Deadbolt Installation, Calamity Corners

Change or rekey · Calamity Corners

Deadbolt Installation

The front door has a handsome lever and a keyed knob, and that is all. Nothing above it.

In plain words

If your door already has a knob or lever bore and nothing above it, adding a deadbolt is a boring job in the literal sense. A jig clamps to the door at the right height, usually 140 to 150 mm above the knob centre, and guides a hole saw through the face and a smaller bit through the edge. The locksmith mortises the edge so the bolt faceplate sits flush, sets the bolt to the door's backset, then fits the cylinder outside and the thumb-turn inside. The frame is marked from the bolt itself, bored and chiselled for the strike, and the lock is tested open and closed.

Sound familiar?Calamity Corners

The call
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. You want it done properly, not just swapped.

NextHow the visit goes

Deadbolt Installation · Calamity Corners

How the visit goes

Illustrative locksmith scene — Calamity Corners
  1. Scene 1

    Exit, fire and who lives here

    The last part of the first look is about the people, not the door. The locksmith asks whether this is the door the household leaves through, whether children, older relatives or anyone with limited hand strength use it, and whether it is a rental where the landlord holds keys. A door that serves as a way out gets a thumb-turn planned for it, so nobody has to hunt for a key to leave. A lever thumb-turn is easier for small or stiff hands than a knurled one, and a rental may need a note to the building manager. None of this takes long, and it shapes which box comes off the van.

  2. Scene 2

    Working on a steel-clad or fibreglass door

    Insulated doors are cut with the skin in mind. A hole saw with fine teeth is run at low speed through the metal face, with the jig doing the steering so the saw does not skate on the smooth surface, and the cut is finished from the second face to keep both skins clean. Swarf is vacuumed out of the core so it cannot work into the bolt. The edge is usually a wood or composite stile inside a folded metal lip, and the bolt is finished with a drive-in collar or a plate screwed into the stile rather than a chiselled mortise. Fibreglass is scored first so the skin does not chip, then cut the same way.

  3. Scene 3

    Looking after it through the seasons

    A deadbolt asks for very little, and most of it happens twice a year. In spring and again in autumn, throw the bolt with the door closed and notice whether it still slides in freely; wood doors swell in humid summers and shrink in dry winter air, and the first sign is a bolt that needs the door pulled before it will lock. If so, a small strike adjustment puts it right. Give the bolt and keyway a puff of whatever lubricant the lock's own maker specifies, often dry PTFE or graphite, since some cylinders are serviced with oil instead. Wipe salt off the outside trim after a slushy week so the finish stays bright.

In the van

  • Strike box
  • Manufacturer's bore template
  • Jamb reinforcer
  • Rekeying pins and key blanks
  • Single-cylinder deadbolt

What shapes the quoteCalamity Corners Locksmith Co.

Rental and building requirements
Matching a building's keyway, providing keys to a landlord or fitting a lock that a condominium corporation specifies can add hardware or bench work, each shown as its own item.
Travel to the property
Distance and access are part of any call-out: a house on a suburban street and a rural property down a long road involve different driving time, and the quote says so.
Grade and type of deadbolt
A builder-grade bolt, a residential model with a high security grade, and a heavy commercial-pattern deadbolt sit at different points in the hardware part of the quote, and the locksmith explains the differences.

FeesSame any hour

Have it ready

Before you call · 0 / 3

(226) 271-6061

Let's clear a few things up

I just moved in. Should the new deadbolt be keyed to a new key?

It is a good moment for it. Nobody knows how many copies of a previous owner's key exist, so pinning the new bolt, and the rest of the exterior doors, to one fresh key retires all of them at once. Lock manufacturers list a move as one of the main reasons to rekey. You come away with a known number of keys, each tested in every door it is meant to open.

Do I need a deadbolt on the door from the garage into the house?

It is worth having. The door between an attached garage and the living space is in practice often the softest way in, since a garage door left open leaves a passage knob as the only barrier. A thumb-turn deadbolt there costs a few minutes a day and closes that gap.

Can a deadbolt be added to a door that only has a knob?

Yes, on nearly any wood, steel-clad or fibreglass entry door. The locksmith marks a spot above the knob, clamps a jig to the door and bores a cross hole through the face and a smaller hole through the edge, then cuts a pocket and fits a strike on the frame. The main things checked first are the door's thickness, what is inside it at that height and whether glass sits close by.

Calamity Cornersinformation

MiddlesexOntario

Town
Calamity Corners, Middlesex
In business
27 years
Hours
Open 24/7
Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
Visits
On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.

2021 census: what it means at the door

Every square is one home in a hundred.

  • 52 in 100 homes · older homes
  • About 52% of homes in London were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.In neighbourhoods of established homes, keys have often been copied many times over many owners. Rekeying every exterior door to one fresh key is the common first job, and it works on old cylinders just as well as on new ones.
  • Single-detached houses make up about 49% of homes in London (2021 Census).Mixed housing brings mixed hardware ages as well as types. A locksmith may rebuild a mortise lock on a semi-detached house and then set up a keypad on a townhouse door across the road, and treats each with the care its owner expects.

Source: Statistics Canada, Census Profile

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On-site assessment

Request a visit.

The front door has a handsome lever and a keyed knob, and that is all.

(226) 271-6061, open 24/7.