Sound familiar?Cataract
- The call
- After a wet summer the entry door sits lower in its frame. The lock works perfectly when the door is open, but with it shut you have to lift the handle and shoulder the door to get the deadbolt to throw.
The key turns freely in the round cylinder on the door, all the way around and back, without the bolt shifting at all. The cylinder itself wobbles slightly when you press it, as if it has come loose inside the door.
In plain words
Occasionally a case really is finished, with a cracked body, a bolt worn to a sliver or a hub broken in two, and the answer is a replacement that respects the door. Reproduction mortise cases are made in common vintage sizes and backsets, and a modern case with a pin-tumbler cylinder can fit many old pockets with little woodwork once its faceplate and hub also line up. The locksmith measures the case, backset, faceplate and trim spacing before ordering, aiming for the new case to drop in with your original knobs and escutcheons going back on. From the hallway, the door looks untouched; it just works.
Vintage Mortise Lock Service · Cataract
How the visit goes
Scene 1
The door before the lock
Before blaming a lock that may be perfectly sound, the locksmith looks at the door. With it open, the lock is cycled; with it closed, the latch and deadbolt are tried again. A lock that works open and fights when shut is telling you the door has moved. The gap around the door is checked top to bottom, the hinges are watched for a sag when the door is lifted, and the strike plate is inspected for bright wear marks where the bolt has been scraping past. In an older home with a solid wood door this is a routine finding, and correcting it is often most of the repair.
Scene 2
When a case is fitted new
If the old case could not be saved, the replacement is fitted to the door rather than the door to the replacement. A reproduction or modern mortise case matching the measured height, depth, backset, faceplate and hub is chosen with the goal of it dropping into the existing pocket; where a small difference remains, the pocket is trimmed with a chisel by the least amount that works, never bored out. The original knobs, escutcheons and strike are refitted wherever their spacing allows, and a new cylinder is keyed to match the rest of the house if wanted. The result reads as the original lock from either side of the door, with the reliability of a fresh mechanism.
Scene 3
The interior doors in step
Where a set of interior mortise latches was serviced together, you leave with bedroom and bathroom doors that close and stay closed, privacy turns that actually lock, and, if you wanted it, a single bit key that operates every interior lock the way the builder intended. A note of which key fits which door goes into the house file. Interior cases need almost no care beyond a drop of oil every couple of years and a check that a turn button has not been painted over. A child who locks a bathroom and cannot reopen it is released from outside with the bit key, so keep it somewhere the adults can reach.
In the van
- Reproduction mortise case
- Hardwood dowel and wood glue
- Deadbolt lever springs
- Dry graphite or PTFE lubricant
- Light lock oil
What shapes the quoteTamarac Estates Locksmith Specialists
- Number of locks in the visit
- One entry lock is the simplest case. A whole floor of interior latches, or the front and back doors together, is a longer visit, and each case is quoted on its own so the total is easy to follow.
- Condition of the wood
- Stripped screw holes, a loosened pocket or a split at the door edge need dowelling, shimming or gluing before the case can be trusted. That woodwork is quoted once the locksmith has seen the pocket empty.
- Replacement cylinder
- When a pin-tumbler cylinder is past rekeying, a new mortise cylinder of the right thread and cam is fitted. A standard cylinder and a high-security one are different hardware and are quoted as such.
FeesSame any hour
Short answers to common questions
Can you make a key for a lock that has none?
Yes. A bit key is cut to the lock rather than copied from another key: the locksmith chooses a blank of the right size and files the bit until it clears the wards and lifts the levers inside your case, testing as they go. A pin-tumbler cylinder on a later lock is decoded or rekeyed and keys cut to it. Bring any loose keys that came with the house, since one may be close enough to serve as a starting pattern.
What if the case is too worn to repair?
Then a replacement case goes into the existing pocket. Reproduction mortise cases are made in the common vintage sizes and backsets, and a modern mortise case with a cylinder fits many old pockets with minor trimming. The locksmith measures the case height, depth, backset and trim spacing before ordering, aiming for the new case to drop in with the original knobs and plates going back on, though a small pocket trim or fixing change is sometimes needed. Cutting the door for a different kind of lock is the last choice.
Does a rented home need the landlord involved for this work?
Repairing a lock so it works as before is ordinary maintenance, but anything that changes who can open the door, such as a rekeyed cylinder or new keys, is something a tenant and landlord are expected to agree on and share keys for. The locksmith asks up front who should receive keys and can leave a note of what was done for the property manager, so both sides know what is on the door.
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Cataractinformation
PeelOntario
Vintage Mortise Lock Service · Caledon, Erin, Tamarac Estates, Alton, Belfountain, Caledon Village, Inglewood
- Town
- Cataract, Peel
- In business
- 32 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7
- Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (289) 206-1975
- 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.
- 30 in 100 homes · newer homes
- 81 in 100 homes · mostly houses
- About 30% of homes in Caledon were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Where housing is new, garage entries, side doors and the front door were usually fitted at the same time but not always to the same key. Keying them alike is a small job that makes the household's ring simpler from the start.
- Single-detached houses make up about 81% of homes in Caledon (2021 Census).Homeowners in houses often want a spare key that lives outside safely. A locksmith can fit a proper key safe or set up a keypad so a hidden key under a pot is no longer part of the plan.
On-site assessment
Request a visit.
The key turns freely in the round cylinder on the door, all the way around and back, without the bolt shifting at all.
(289) 206-1975, open 24/7.