Change or rekey · Midhurst
Deadbolt Installation in Midhurst
The front door has a handsome lever and a keyed knob, and that is all.
In plain words
A deadbolt installation is also the moment to sort out keys. The new cylinder can be pinned to match the key you already use, so the household stays on one key, or set to a fresh key if you would rather retire whatever copies are in circulation. Many keypad and smart deadbolts fit the same standard bore as a mechanical one, so a door prepared today for a keyed bolt often accepts one later, though the exact model's bore and thickness still need checking. Either way you leave with keys that work in every door they are meant to, tested one by one.
How the visit goesYou moved in three weeks ago. The previous owner left a handful of keys, none labelled, and the bolt on the side door rattles in its housing. You would like every exterior door to bolt, and to know exactly who can open it.
Deadbolt Installation
How the visit goes
The frame behind the strike
A bolt is only as good as what it throws into, so the jamb gets a hard look before anything is ordered. The locksmith checks whether the jamb is wood or steel, whether it is backed by solid framing at lock height or by a gap of shims and air, and whether earlier screws have torn out or been stripped. A jamb that flexes under a palm tells its own story. Where a strike has been fitted before, the old pocket is examined for depth and position, since a shallow or offset pocket is the usual reason an existing deadbolt feels stiff. This check decides between a plain strike, a reinforced strike with long screws, or a full-length jamb reinforcer.
Testing open, then closed, then keyed alike
The finished lock is proved in three stages. With the door open, the thumb-turn and then the key are cycled several times to confirm the bolt throws fully and returns freely. With the door closed, the same tests show whether the bolt clears the strike opening and seats in the pocket; any drag is marked with chalk and the strike is dressed or shifted until the bolt moves with fingertip effort. If the cylinder is being keyed to the household key, it is repinned on the bench and tested from outside with the door closed, and every key that should work is tried before the tools go back in the van.
A bolt with a full, deadlocked throw
What you feel at the end is a bolt that travels its whole length into the frame with one turn and stops with a definite click, which is the deadlocking position that stops the bolt being pushed back from the edge. From outside, the key turns a cylinder that sits in a collar which spins if gripped. From inside, the thumb-turn moves the same bolt without a key. The locksmith shows you both, throws the bolt with the door closed so you hear it seat, and hands over the packaging with the model, finish and backset written on it for the day a matching lock is wanted on another door.
Deadbolt Installation
In the van
75 mm (3 in) strike screws
25 mm auger bit
Strike box
Single-cylinder deadbolt
Reinforced strike plate
Deadbolt Installation
What affects the quote
Number of doors
One front door is the simplest case. Front, back, side and garage-to-house doors done in one visit share the travel and setup, so the per-door figure usually eases as the count rises.
Hardware supplied by you or by the locksmith
If you have already bought the lock, the quote covers labour and any adaptation of the door to that kit. Hardware supplied from the van is listed separately with its grade and finish.
Mechanical, keypad or smart lock
Electronic deadbolts carry a different hardware line and add setup time for codes, pairing to a phone and a walk-through, all of which appear as their own entries.
What to have ready
- Is the door solid wood, steel-clad or fibreglass, and roughly how thick is it?
- Does anyone in the household have trouble with small knobs or stiff thumb-turns?
- Is there glass in the door or a sidelight beside it within arm's reach of the lock?
Deadbolt Installation: questions
QuestionsThe door has to be pulled before the old bolt will lock. Will a new one fix that?
The new bolt will only lock as smoothly as the door and frame let it, so the locksmith deals with the cause as part of the installation. A door that has sagged on loose hinges gets longer hinge screws or a shim, thick weatherstrip is trimmed, and the strike is set from the bolt's actual position with the door closed. The pocket is bored deep enough for a full throw. Afterwards the bolt should slide with fingertip effort.
What do lock grades mean when I am picking a deadbolt?
Residential deadbolts are graded under an industry standard in three categories, security, durability and finish, with letter grades from C through A, so a lock marked with three A grades has met the highest level in each. Heavier commercial-pattern bolts are graded 1, 2 or 3, with 1 the highest. The grades let you match hardware to a busy family door or an exposed side entrance without relying on the weight of the box.
What do backset and bore mean, and why does the locksmith ask?
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.
Related services
- Lock Replacement & UpgradeThe keys the seller handed over came in a sandwich bag: six unlabelled copies for two locks of different makes from different decades.
- Vintage Mortise Lock ServiceYou bought a house with its original hardware and a bag of loose keys.
- Smart Lock InstallationThe rental turns over every few months and each time you drive across town to swap keys, then wonder whether copies were made.