Sound familiar?Peterborough
- The call
- Every morning the front door key needs the same little dance: push in, lift, wiggle, turn. It has been getting worse for a year, and this week it took three tries in the cold before the deadbolt finally gave.
Three teenagers, a dog walker, a cleaner and one house key that keeps going missing. You are tired of cutting copies and would rather give each person a code you can switch off, with a proper deadbolt behind it.
In plain words
Moving into a home is the classic moment for this service, because you inherit whatever hardware and whatever key copies the previous owners left behind. The locksmith walks every exterior door with you and sorts the locks into three piles: sound hardware worth keeping and rekeying, worn hardware worth replacing, and doors with no deadbolt at all. Everything that stays is pinned to one new key, new locks are keyed to match, and old copies floating around town stop mattering. You leave the visit knowing exactly which key opens which door and how many of them exist.
Lock Replacement & Upgrade · Peterborough
How the visit goes
Scene 1
How the old lock behaves in use
The locksmith works the existing hardware the way you do every day and watches for the tell-tale signs. A key that must be lifted or wiggled points to worn pins or a worn key. A knob that turns too far, or a lever that droops, suggests a tired spindle or spring. A latch that stays retracted, or a bolt that stops short, can be internal wear or something outside the lock altogether. Doing this with the door open first, then closed, separates faults inside the mechanism from faults in the fit of the door, and that distinction decides whether new hardware is the answer or part of the answer.
Scene 2
Adapting older and unusual doors
Not every door is a standard modern slab. A century home with a mortise lock may keep its case and get a new cylinder and strike, or take a filler plate that lets a cylindrical deadbolt sit where the old case was, without hacking at the original stile. A door thicker than 45 millimetres gets extended spindles and screws. A sliding patio door gets a replacement mortise hook lock or a keyed surface bolt sized to the rail. Steel and fibreglass doors are drilled only with the right bits and a jig, and a new deadbolt above an existing knob is bored with a template so it sits square.
Scene 3
Simple habits that keep new hardware new
New locks ask very little. Once or twice a year, or at whatever interval the lock maker specifies, a puff of the lubricant that maker calls for in the keyway and a few turns of the key keep the pins moving freely, since the wrong product for that cylinder gathers grit instead of helping it. In winter, wipe salt spray off the exterior hardware when it appears, since salt is the finish's main enemy here. Each spring and fall, check that the hinge and strike screws are snug, because wood doors move with humidity and a dropped door makes a good lock feel worn. A key that starts to need coaxing is an early word from the cylinder.
In the van
- Handleset with matching deadbolt
- Boring jig and hole saws
- Reinforced strike plate and strike box
- Filler plates and thick-door extension kits
- Graded deadbolt
What shapes the quoteAshburnham Lock Experts
- Keys cut
- Each key is counted, and restricted keys cut against a card are a different item from standard blanks. Say how many people need one and the quote lists them.
- Door material and thickness
- Wood, steel and fibreglass doors are drilled and fitted differently, and a door thicker than the standard 45 millimetres needs extension parts, so the door itself shapes part of the quote.
- Strike reinforcement and jamb repair
- A reinforced strike with long screws is a modest addition; repairing a jamb split from a forced entry, or fitting a strike box into a frame that has never had one, adds labour and materials.
FeesSame any hour
Questions we hear most
Can a lever replace a knob on the same door?
Yes, and it is a common change for anyone who finds a knob hard to grip. Levers use the same bore and backset as knobs, so the swap is usually a direct fit. Levers are handed, so the locksmith checks which way the door swings and chooses or adjusts the lever accordingly. A keyed entry lever pairs well with a deadbolt above it, and interior passage and privacy levers complete the set.
What happens to the old lock?
It is yours. Some people keep a sound old cylinder as a spare or move a decent deadbolt to a shed or garage door, and the locksmith can rekey it to the house key for that purpose. Worn or damaged hardware is taken away for recycling if you prefer. Either way, the old keys should be gathered up and discarded so nobody confuses them with the new set.
Is there anything different about steel or fibreglass doors?
The lock hardware is the same; the door construction changes the method. Steel and fibreglass doors have a wooden or composite block inside the lock stile, and existing bores are used wherever possible. Where a new deadbolt must be added, the locksmith drills with a jig and bits suited to the skin so the hole is clean and square, and fits an edge plate designed for that door. Insulated doors also move less with humidity, so alignment tends to hold well.
Change or Rekey Locks
- Deadbolt InstallationYou bought a keypad deadbolt online and pulled the old one off, only to find the hole in the door is a different size and the…
- Vintage Mortise Lock ServiceThe key turns freely in the round cylinder on the door, all the way around and back, without the bolt shifting at all.
- Smart Lock InstallationYour mother still lives on her own, and the personal support worker, the pharmacy delivery and two siblings all need to get in on…
- Gate & Building Entry LocksA neighbour mentions, in passing, that the key from three tenants ago still lets him into the building's front door.
- Mailbox Lock ReplacementThe little brass key for your curbside mailbox was on the same ring as the one you lost at the gym last week.
Peterboroughinformation
PeterboroughOntario
Lock Replacement & Upgrade · Cavan Monaghan, Otonabee-South Monaghan, Ashburnham, Byersville, Claraday, Coldsprings, Collison Heights, Downers Corners, Greenhill, Jackson Heights, Kawartha Heights, Westmount
- Town
- Peterborough
- In business
- 27 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7
- Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (249) 494-7410
- 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.
- 64 in 100 homes · older homes
- 57 in 100 homes · mixed housing
- About 64% of homes in Peterborough were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Layers of paint build up on older doors and frames, and a lock that seemed to fail is sometimes a latch glued shut by the last coat. Part of the visit in an older area is freeing hardware, cleaning the edges and checking the door swings true.
- Single-detached houses make up about 57% of homes in Peterborough (2021 Census).Where housing is mixed, the same street can hold a solid wood front door, a steel townhouse door and a metal-clad suite door. A locksmith fits each with hardware suited to its construction, so every neighbour ends up with a door that locks properly.
Nearby
On-site assessment
Request a visit.
Three teenagers, a dog walker, a cleaner and one house key that keeps going missing.
(249) 494-7410, open 24/7.