Change or rekey · Gorewood Acres
Vintage Mortise Lock Service in Gorewood Acres
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.
Call now · open 24/7(289) 901-5802In plain words
Most old mortise locks fail for boring reasons. A coil spring that has been compressed a hundred thousand times since the house was built finally breaks, or the grease inside the case dries into something like wax and the levers stick in it. Neither justifies cutting a new hole in a solid oak door. The service opens the case, cleans out the old lubricant, replaces the springs with the right size, matches any worn follower or lever and lubricates the mechanism lightly. The same case goes back into the same pocket, and the knob returns to level with the crisp snap it had decades ago.
How the visit goesYou bought a house with its original hardware and a bag of loose keys. Some open interior doors, some fit nothing, and the front door lock has a keyhole shaped for a key you do not have. You would like the original lock kept and made to work.
Vintage Mortise Lock Service · Gorewood Acres
How the visit goes
- 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.
- 2
Taking the lock out without marking the door
Removal is done in a set order so nothing is forced. The knob set screws are backed off and the knobs and spindle drawn out, then the escutcheons are lifted away, their screw positions photographed for reassembly. On a cylinder lock, the small set screw in the faceplate is released and the cylinder is unthreaded from the case. The faceplate screws come out, and the case is eased from its pocket with a gentle rock, never a pry bar, because the wood at the edge of an old door is thin. Everything that comes off is bagged and labelled, and the pocket is looked at while it is empty.
- 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
- Mortise cylinder and cam
- Deadbolt lever springs
- Dry graphite or PTFE lubricant
- Latch and hub springs
- Hub followers and lever packs
What affects the quote
- 1
Making the inside key-free
Fitting a thumb-turn or interior release to a deadbolt that was keyed on both sides is its own small item, and one most owners of an entry door choose to include.
- 2
Travel and access
Distance to the property and how easy it is to work at the door, on a busy entry or a third-floor walk-up, are part of any call-out and are stated when the visit is booked.
- 3
What is actually broken inside
A clean and new springs is the lightest job. A worn hub, a cracked lever or a part that has to be fabricated to match the original adds bench time, and the assessment names which applies before any of it starts.
Same fees day, night or weekend.
Vintage Mortise Lock Service: questions
The lock works with the door open but not when it is closed. Is the lock broken?
Almost certainly not. That pattern means the door has moved in its frame so the latch and bolt no longer meet the strike squarely. Solid wood doors in older houses swell in humid weather and settle on their hinges over the years. The service adjusts or shims the strike and tightens or packs the hinges so the bolt throws without lifting the door, and the lock itself is usually cleaned and lubricated at the same time.
Why does my knob turn without moving the latch?
Most often the square hole in the hub inside the case has rounded with age, or the spindle has worn, so the knob turns a good way before it grips. Loose knob set screws produce the same slack. Less often a latch spring has broken and the latch is simply sitting inside the door. All of these are corrected during service by replacing the spindle and screws, bushing or replacing the hub, or fitting a new spring.
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.
Vintage Mortise Lock Service near you
Peel, Ontario
Gorewood Acres information
- Town
- Gorewood Acres, Peel, Ontario
- In business
- 15 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7 · nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (289) 901-5802
- Visits
- On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.
What the census means at the door
23%
Newer homes. About 23% of homes in Brampton were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.
In areas of recent construction, doors mostly carry builder-grade locks that were chosen for the whole development at once. They work, but a household that wants more can upgrade the cylinder or the whole set without any surprises about fit.
53%
A mix of homes. Single-detached houses make up about 53% of homes in Brampton (2021 Census).
Mixed housing means a locksmith sees a bungalow in the morning and a condo tower in the afternoon. The stocked van has house-door deadbolts, suite-door cylinders and the finishes for each, so neither kind of customer waits for a second visit.
Nearby
Open 24/7
Request a visit
After a wet summer the entry door sits lower in its frame.
Call now · open 24/7(289) 901-5802- On-site assessment preferred
- Same fees day, night or weekend
- 15 years in business