Lock Replacement & Installation in San Jose

New deadbolts, handlesets and high-security cylinders fitted to doors that were built in 1958 and have moved since

A lock is replaced for one of three honest reasons: it has worn out, it never suited the door, or the door needs something the old lock cannot do. Worn out is the commonest here. The tract houses that filled Cambrian Park, Blossom Valley and Evergreen through the fifties and sixties are on their original knob sets far more often than people expect, and after sixty years of keys the pins no longer find a clean shear line — the tell is a key that has to be jiggled, or one that turns when it is not quite home. Never suited the door covers the builder-grade deadbolt with a half-inch throw on a front door, and the knob-only entry on a door with glass beside it. And the third reason is usually a household changing: a lever instead of a knob for hands that no longer grip, a thumbturn instead of a key on the inside of a door people need to get out of quickly.

The part nobody quotes for is the door itself, which is where the job actually lives. A house that has settled has a jamb out of square, and a new bolt into an old strike will bind within a season, so the strike is repositioned and the mortise deepened until the bolt throws its full length without being pushed. Bore diameter and backset are measured before anything is ordered: 2-1/8 inch bore and either a 2-3/8 or 2-3/4 inch backset covers most doors here, but not the aluminium-framed entries in the Fairglen Eichlers, which take a narrow-stile lock instead. Where the old hardware left a mark or a larger bore in the face of the door, that is discussed before it is removed, because on a period door the visible outcome matters as much as the security.

Lock replacement and installation is $115 to $295. A single standard deadbolt swapped like for like sits at the bottom. A handleset with matching interior trim, a high-security cylinder with a restricted key, or a door that needs its strike relocated and its edge made good runs to the top. Hardware you bought yourself is fitted at the same labour, and if it will not suit the door you hear that before the packaging is opened rather than after. The $89 visit is inside the figure; between 8pm and midnight the $115 job reads $155, and overnight $190.

One piece of advice worth more than any brand: keying matters more than grade for most houses. A Grade 1 deadbolt on a door whose strike is held by three-quarter-inch screws into soft trim is a strong lock on a weak frame, and a burglar does not pick locks in this city — they kick strikes. So the standard fitting here puts three-inch screws through the strike into the stud behind it, whatever the lock cost. And where several doors are being done, they can be brought onto one key at the same visit, so a new deadbolt on the front and a rekeyed cylinder on the back share a key rather than adding one to the ring.