Installation
A lock is only as good as the way it was fitted. Square preparation, a bolt that meets its keeper cleanly, and a door that closes without being asked twice.
What this covers
Everything listed here is work we actually carry out. If your situation is not on the list, describe it when you call and we will tell you honestly whether it is ours.
Adding a deadlock where a door currently relies on a latch alone.
Handle and lock sets fitted to front and rear doors.
Laundry, side, garage internal and rear access doors.
Replacing existing hardware and making good the preparation left behind.
Strike positioning, hinge adjustment and easing so the lock is not fighting the door.
The same lock can feel excellent or awful depending on how it went on. A mortice cut slightly out of square, a strike a few millimetres high, a door that needs lifting — any of those and you will be forcing the key within a year.
Installation therefore starts with the door, not the box. If the door or hinges need attention first, that gets sorted before the new hardware is judged.
Plenty of St Kilda doors are decades older than the hardware being fitted to them. Period timber doors, layers of paint, previous installations in the wrong place, and sometimes a rebate cut for something long discontinued.
Those doors are usually very worth keeping. It just means the preparation is careful work — filling and re-cutting where needed, and choosing hardware that suits the door rather than forcing the door to suit the hardware.
If you have already bought a lock, bring it into the conversation — a lot of retail hardware suits some doors and not others, particularly aluminium sections, doors with narrow stiles and doors with security screens in front of them.
We would rather tell you before installation day that a set will not suit your door than fit something that will disappoint you.
Related
One problem tends to sit next to another. These are the services that most often come up in the same conversation.
Questions
In most cases yes, depending on the door construction, stile width and what is already fitted. Timber doors are usually straightforward; aluminium and narrow-stile doors need hardware suited to the section.
Often, but check with us first. Some retail hardware does not suit certain doors, and it is better to know that before the work is booked than during it.
Where hardware is replaced with a different footprint, the previous preparation is made good as far as practical. If a visible difference cannot be avoided, we will tell you before starting rather than after.
Location
We work from Acland Street, which means the properties on this page are the ones around us — not a suburb we drive through occasionally.
Get in touch
Tell us what you need help with and we’ll help you find the right locksmith service.
