Many of our customers are renovating rather than starting from scratch. Theirs is a "different kettle of fish" to the "New Home" builders choice mentioned previously. To start with they have existing locks in the doors which they may wish to replace. The doors may have a varnished or polished finish which further restricts the type of door furniture to select.   In addition we often find that some of the doors are constructed of soft timbers such as cedar or western red cedar.

If the doors have an existing painted finish the restrictions are nothing like as great, as repair work on these doors can easily be painted over. Not so with polished timber doors as any filling used to fill old holes where ancient locks were installed will shine through the varnish and cannot be covered up.

If you plan to re-paint the doors then you really do not have too much of a problem with any door furniture you chose except that you must take into account the extra labour charges to fill the holes and re-paint the door before installing the new locks. These extra costs can exceed the cost of actually installing the locks as filling and repairing timber doors is labour intensive. Locksmiths do not re-paint doors as this is the owners responsibility.

A further problem can develop with soft timber doors especially where pairs of rebated doors requiring flush bolts on the fixed leaf are concerned due to the weakness of the timber. This will be discussed at length later.

We often have customers wanting to install new door furniture to replace a knob set such as that shown above. If the door is polished and you do not wish to install an exactly similar lock to the one being removed then you immediately have a problem. Existing knob sets such as these generally have a 55mm hole in the door! (Customers should check this before discussing the problem with our staff).

What type of lock can you install which will cover up a 50 mm hole without having to fill it? The answer is not too many. Most door furniture mounted on rectangular backing plates or even round roses will not be wide enough to cover the existing 50 mm hole in the door.

You may decide that you want to install new and wider "Gainsborough" or similar porcelain knob or lever sets. Again this is not possible as the existing large hole in the door does not permit the screw fixings for the mounting plates.

We would recommend in this case that you select knob set furniture with tie-bar construction that has screwed rods which tie the two sides of the lock together obviating the need to fill the existing large hole in the door. A typical quality lock here would be a range manufactured by Weiser in America.  We have an extensive stock including the "Brilliance" range which have a lifetime guarantee for their finishes against tarnishing.

Another common problem that customers have is that they have an internal door (say a bedroom door) which may be 50 years old which is fitted with a 2 or 3 lever mortise lock and they want to replace the lock or have keys made to the door.   Keys to these low security bedroom locks are now individually hand made by locksmiths as the original pre-cut keys are no longer available. The labour involved in making new keys to these old locks far outweighs the cost of buying new locks complete with two keys and popping them back into the same holes in the door yourself.  It is sometimes necessary to make minor adjustments to the existing hole with a chisel but generally these replacement locks fit into the existing mortise cut out in the lock stile of the door.

Fortunately the keyhole centres and the door knob spindle centres generally line up with the English standard which is still used today and so most of the "Delf" or "Superior" range of brassware may be used with existing mortise locks such as those discussed above.

You cannot use porcelain knobs and porcelain escutcheons together with these locks as there is usually insufficient room to fit both within the confines of the centres of the lock spindle and keyhole. If your interior decorator wants to install this arrangement then you must generally fit mortise locks which have the keyhole to the side of the lock instead of below the handle spindle.

Security at last!

All of the locks so far discussed have been of low security or privacy types. We will now progress to the security locks on your perimeter doors. With the current crime wave and break-and-enter rates forever on the increase these locks are probably your most important home investment.   Most homes accumulate a great deal of sought after goodies which to the burglar are well worth "knocking off".  Not to mention any jewels, you most likely will have $20,000 - $60,000 worth of furniture, furnishings and personal effects and there is little sense in trying to secure these with "two bob locks" even if you are insured.

If you have bought a "spec built" home the chances are that the security locks on the front and back doors are of the cheapest types that the builder could lay his hands on.   After all he has to make a profit on the house and still sell it to you at a bargain price.   The same goes for most budget types of home unit apartment buildings.

We find that many of these locks are of the cylinder rim lock type which take only minutes to install and can be purchased very cheaply from any hardware store. They frequently are manufactured offshore and can be bought from about $10 upwards complete with 3 keys!.

The 530 series Lockwood range of entrance sets are a great deal more secure than these cheap counterparts but most spec builders are not prepared to pay for this quality.

In any case we do not recommend that you rely solely on this type of lock for security as a "monkey wrench" will play havoc with both makes of locks irrespective of the quality.   If you must install or replace locks such as that shown here then we strongly recommend an additional "deadbolt" also be installed on the same door below the entrance set.   Deadbolts cannot be wrenched off with "monkey  wrenches" and thus provide you with have a hefty improvement in security.

If you look at the interior doors of some existing apartment blocks you will often find that the owners have already added the extra deadbolts to the doors themselves. This usually results in a hotch potch of assorted locks with different keys to each of the locks installed.   However as stated above it does provide that extra peace of mind as long as they have been correctly installed.

The forgoing types of lock installations provide the minimum security which you should consider. Today however your master locksmith can show you many other locking devices which greatly improve both the security, the decor and the convenience of your installation.

Most people use their front door keys many times a day, 365 days a year, so why put up with a bunch of keys in your pocket or purse which is so large that it takes minutes to sort through every time you want to open the door.   Our locksmith staff can overcome this simple problem by modifying the pinning or lever arrangements within the various locks you chose so that you need only use the same ONE master key to open every door in the entire house.   This initially costs a few extra dollars but the convenience lasts a lifetime and it is always less expensive to have the keying work done by the supplier at the time of purchase.  This is a very sound reason why you should purchase all of your security locks from a supplier affiliated with a licensed locksmith such as "Westside Locksmiths" because of their unique in-house locksmith capability at the retail level.

So when choosing other variations to the cylinder type rim locks and deadbolts mentioned above you should keep in mind this "keying-alike" facility. 

You cannot key-alike the mortise lever mechanism type bit keys to match the "Yale" or cylinder type keys, as obviously the key-ways are incompatible.

Once you have made a selection of a certain type of lock and keyway then you should try and chose all of your locks with a similar key-way, otherwise you will not be able to master key them.   In other words try not to mix lever type locks with cylinder type locks in your project.

Now having made a decision as to which type of keyway we are going to settle on we can discuss the choice of locking devices.

Rim locks mounted on the surface (or rim) of the door often do not enhance your choice of door fittings.  If the locks are installed within the body of the door on the edge and out of sight then you have a far greater range of lever or knob fittings to add to the presentation of the door.  These concealed type of locks are known as "mortise" locks and they usually add more security to the installation apart from their concealed presence.

Mortise locks

Mortise locks which comply with the insurance company's requirements obviously cost more than the mortise lock you install on your bedroom or bathroom door. They usually cost about the same as the rim locks we talked about earlier.

Mortise locks come in various designs by many manufacturers. You are able to select the type of key you prefer at this point of time. i.e. Yale type cylinder key or the larger "bit" type of key, but once a decision has been made in this respect then you should chose similar locks for all of your security doors so that they may be properly master keyed.

This short self help tutorial will hopefully assist you in your selection of door locks and fittings.  The subject can be very confusing occasionally, however our staff are able to answer any of your queries by either fax, E-mail or telephone during business hours.