Change or rekey · Wexford Heights
Smart Lock Installation in Wexford Heights
There are four copies of the front-door key floating around: one with the cleaner, one with a neighbour, one on a hook at your parents' place, and one you honestly cannot account for.
In plain words
For a landlord, a host or anyone who shares a door with people who come and go, the appeal is control without key cutting. Each tenant, guest, cleaner or contractor gets a code of their own, with a start and end date where the model allows, and removing someone takes seconds instead of a trip across town. The installation includes setting up that structure: an owner account, a small register of who holds what, and a routine for retiring codes at turnover. In a rented home the change is agreed with the tenant or landlord first, since both sides need a working way in.
How the visit goesYour mother still lives on her own, and the personal support worker, the pharmacy delivery and two siblings all need to get in on different days. Cutting keys for everyone feels wrong; a code for each person, with a log, feels right.
Smart Lock Installation
How the visit goes
Measuring the door and its holes
Smart locks are built around the standard residential preparation, so the locksmith measures before choosing. Door thickness is usually between 35 and 45 millimetres; thicker doors need an extension kit and very thin ones may need a different model. The large cross bore for the cylinder, the smaller edge bore for the bolt and the backset from the door edge to the centre of the hole are each checked against the new lock's range. A lever set also needs the handing confirmed. Steel and fibreglass doors, doors with a mortise pocket from an older lock, and doors with glass close to the handle each change what will fit and how it is mounted.
Rekeying the override so the old key retires
Most keypad deadbolts keep a small conventional backup cylinder, and leaving it on the old key would undo half the point of the upgrade. The locksmith removes it, slides the plug out with a follower, repins it to a fresh combination, then cuts and tests new keys. Where the household wants one key for everything and the cylinders share a compatible keyway, the back and side doors are rekeyed to the same combination so a single key runs the override and the mechanical locks alike. Some makers reset the cylinder with a tool and the new key rather than by repinning; the method changes, the outcome is the same. The old key no longer opens any cylinder that was rekeyed.
A door that locks with a tap and still takes a key
You come away with a front door that responds to a code, a phone or a fob, and, on a keyed model, still accepts a conventional key in the rekeyed override. The bolt slides home without a shoulder on the door because the alignment was corrected before the lock went on, and the reinforced strike holds it. Everything has been tested with the door closed: each code, the app from inside and outside the house, the auto-lock delay and, where the model has one, the key. The finish matches the rest of the hardware, the packaging and manual are left with you, and the old lock is either handed over or taken away as you prefer.
Smart Lock Installation
In the van
Hinge shims and long hinge screws
Adjustable-backset bolt and faceplate
Smart deadbolt or smart lever set
Dry PTFE lubricant
Hole saw, spade bit and drilling jig
Smart Lock Installation
What affects the quote
Retrofit versus full replacement
An interior-only unit that turns your existing deadbolt involves less door work than a complete new deadbolt with a keypad outside, and the two are quoted differently in both hardware and time.
Condition and fit of the door
A door that already closes true with standard holes is the simplest install. One that needs hinges shimmed, a strike pocket deepened or holes enlarged adds preparation time, and that work is quoted as its own line.
Taking over an existing smart lock
Resetting, re-enrolling and cleaning the permissions on a lock that came with the property is a different job from fitting new hardware: less cutting, more account work, and it is quoted on its own footing.
What to have ready
- Which door is the smart lock for, and what is it made of?
- Is there a storm door in front of it?
- Which other doors should share the same key or the same system?
Smart Lock Installation: questions
QuestionsDoes the locksmith keep any of my codes or my account details?
No. The administrator account is created by you, on your phone, with your email, and the codes are entered by you or read out by you and typed while you watch. The service note records the model, the door work and the keys cut, never a code or a password. If a technician programmed a temporary code for testing, it is deleted in front of you before the visit ends.
I am a landlord. Are smart locks a good fit for my rental?
They suit turnover well: a departing tenant's code is deleted and a new one created without cutting keys or wondering about copies. Two things to plan for. The tenant in place must always have a working way in, which usually means their own code plus a key to the override cylinder, and any lock change on an occupied unit is done with the tenant's knowledge. Set the administrator account up under the property, not a departing employee, so control stays with you.
Does the lock still work if the internet goes down?
Yes for the things that matter at the door. Codes, fobs, fingerprints and the key talk to the lock directly, and schedules stored in the lock carry on, so you get in and out normally through a router reboot or an outage. What pauses is remote control from far away and the alerts, which return when the connection does. The locksmith will name exactly which features on your model need the network so there are no surprises.
Related services
- Deadbolt InstallationThe old deadbolt has grown lazy.
- Lock Replacement & UpgradeThe house is fifteen years old and every exterior door still wears the light hardware the builder fitted: a short bolt, a thin strike held by two small screws, and a knob lock that never suited a street entrance.
- Vintage Mortise Lock ServiceThe interior bedroom doors on the second floor have the original mortise latches, and none of them close any more.