Change or rekey · Chestnut Hills
Vintage Mortise Lock Service in Chestnut Hills
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.
Call now · open 24/7(289) 804-7704In plain words
Interior doors are as much a part of this work as the entry. Bedroom, bathroom and closet doors in an older home usually carry a lighter mortise latch with a privacy turn button, and after decades without lubrication they stop catching or the turn button seizes. These small cases are short jobs on the bench: a clean, a spring, a new turn button spindle where the old one has sheared. Sets of interior locks are often serviced in one visit, and a bit key can be cut that operates all of them, which is how they were originally supplied when the house was built.
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 · Chestnut Hills
How the visit goes
- 1
Bit key or cylinder
Older mortise locks come in two families, and the check sorts out which one is on the door. A keyhole shaped like a small keyhole silhouette takes a bit key, the skeleton key style, and the case works on wards and levers that the key's bit must match. A round face on the door with a slot for a flat key is a pin-tumbler cylinder threaded into the case. The distinction matters for everything that follows: how a lost key is replaced, whether the lock can be rekeyed, and what to do if the mechanism is worn out. It also settles whether a spare can be filed on the bench or cut on a key machine.
- 2
Springs, levers and followers
Springs are the usual culprits and the easiest fix. Broken coil and flat springs are matched from stock by length, wire gauge and shape, and fitted so the latch snaps out and the knob returns to level. A worn or cracked lever is matched from a donor case where one exists; where it does not, a replacement is filed from stock to the original's profile, which is slow, careful bench work rather than magic. A rounded hub is replaced or bushed. When every part moves as it should, the case is closed and cycled by hand with the cover on until the action is smooth and even in both directions.
- 3
A clear way out
If the entry door's deadbolt was keyed from both sides, the service leaves the inside operable without a key: a thumb-turn fitted to the bolt tail, or a knob function that releases the latch from inside. This is simply good sense for a door people use to leave the home, so nobody is stuck hunting for a key inside their own house. You are shown how the inside release works and asked to try it, and everyone in the household should know it too, especially anyone who grew up with the old habit of leaving the key in the door on the inside.
In the van
- Reproduction mortise case
- Deadbolt lever springs
- Warding files
- Cylinder set screw
- Mortise cylinder and cam
What affects the quote
- 1
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.
- 2
Keying doors alike
Bringing several interior locks onto one bit key, or several cylinders onto one flat key, is extra bench work per lock and is simplest to arrange while all the cases are out on the same visit.
- 3
Extras you choose on the day
A high-security cylinder, a lockbox for a spare bit key or a separate modern deadbolt above the original are optional additions. None is required to make the old lock work, and each is priced as its own line.
Same fees day, night or weekend.
Vintage Mortise Lock Service: questions
Which parts usually need replacing?
Springs, first and foremost: the latch spring, the hub spring that returns the knob, and the small springs on the deadbolt levers. After that, the spindle and knob set screws, a hub whose square has worn round, a worn deadbolt lever or follower, and on later locks the cylinder set screw or the cylinder itself. Bolts, cases and trim are almost always kept, cleaned and refitted rather than replaced.
Can the work be done with the lock left in the door?
Rarely, and it is not the better route. Almost everything that fails is inside the case, and the case only opens once it is out of the pocket, which takes a few minutes and leaves no mark. Working through the keyhole with an unapproved or over-applied spray tends to wash out what little lubricant should stay and gums the levers later. Removing the case, cleaning it properly and refitting it is the repair that lasts.
What does the service visit involve, step by step?
The locksmith checks your authority to request the work, examines the door and lock, and tells you what it needs. The knobs, plates and cylinder come off, the case slides out of the door edge and is opened on a bench, cleaned, re-sprung and repaired. Keys are made or the cylinder rekeyed, the door pocket is tidied, everything goes back on, and the strike is adjusted. You test the finished lock from both sides.
Vintage Mortise Lock Service near you
Toronto, Ontario
Chestnut Hills information
- Town
- Chestnut Hills, Toronto, Ontario
- In business
- 16 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7 · nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (289) 804-7704
- Visits
- On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.
What the census means at the door
58%
Older homes. About 58% of homes in Toronto were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.
Where housing is mostly older, many entries still have only a knob lock and no deadbolt at all. Adding one is a straightforward job on a solid wood door, and it is the single upgrade that changes most for a house of this kind.
23%
Single-detached houses make up about 23% of homes in Toronto (2021 Census).
In buildings, the suite door often has a closer and a heavy frame, and the deadbolt sits in a metal or metal-clad door. A locksmith fitting or rekeying one brings the tools and cylinders that suit that construction rather than a wooden house door.
Open 24/7
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.
Call now · open 24/7(289) 804-7704- On-site assessment preferred
- Same fees day, night or weekend
- 16 years in business