Plan ahead High security · Squires Beach
High Security Locks in Squires Beach
You jiggle the key a little and the old deadbolt opens even when the cut does not look quite right. If your worn key can do that, you wonder what a stranger with the right tools could do.
Call now · open 24/7(289) 275-9650In plain words
Upgrading to high security rarely means new doors or a big disruption. Many high security cylinders retrofit into the existing deadbolt or lever, so the door preparation stays as it is and only the cylinder and keys change. A heavier deadbolt uses the same bore as the old one in most cases. The strike and hinge screws are swapped for long ones that bite into the framing. The visible difference afterwards is small; the practical difference is that the door resists the tools and tricks that defeat ordinary hardware, and that nobody can copy your key without you knowing.
How the visit goesYou have lost count of how many people have had a key to your house over the years: cleaners, a contractor, a former partner, the previous owner's family. The lock still works, but you no longer know who else it works for.
High Security Locks · Squires Beach
How the visit goes
- 1
The fit of new hardware to old doors
Older houses in this region have doors that predate modern hardware: narrower stiles, a mortise pocket already cut, a thick slab door or a steel-clad door with a specific backset. The locksmith measures the bore, backset, door thickness and edge preparation so the chosen deadbolt or cylinder fits without hacking at the door. Where a mortise lock is present, a high-security mortise cylinder often replaces the old one directly. Where a knob lock is the only lock, the assessment includes where a new deadbolt bore would sit and whether the frame can take a proper strike.
- 2
Reinforcing the strike and frame
The strike is where a forced door actually fails, so it gets serious attention. The stamped plate comes off and the pocket is deepened to accept a box strike or a long reinforced strike, fastened with three-inch screws that pass through the jamb into the wall framing. Stripped or split wood is filled and doweled first so the screws have something to hold. Where the frame is thin, a wrap-around reinforcer around the door edge and a full-length jamb plate are options. The result is a bolt that ties the door into the house rather than into a strip of trim.
- 3
A door that shuts like a vault door, quietly
With a heavy bolt, a deep strike and long screws in the frame, the door feels different when you lock it: the bolt travels its full length and seats with a solid, quiet stop. That feel is your ongoing check. If the bolt ever starts to drag or you need to lift the door to lock it, the door or hinges have moved with the seasons and a small adjustment restores it. Wood doors swell in humid summers and shrink in dry winters; a glance at the hinge screws and the strike each spring and autumn keeps everything aligned.
In the van
- Hardened cylinder guard ring
- Pinning kit and plug follower
- Patented key blanks
- Commercial mortise lock body
- Three-inch strike and hinge screws
What affects the quote
- 1
Exit devices and closers on the same door
Where a commercial door carries a push bar or closer, the new lock must work with them, and adjusting or replacing that hardware is part of the same visit.
- 2
Number of keys cut
Every key is cut from code on a machine that handles side bitting or angled cuts, so the count of keys you want at handover is a real line rather than a rounding error.
- 3
Retiring the old keyway
If other doors stay on the old key for now, they may need rekeying so an unknown copy has nowhere to go; that is additional cylinder work alongside the upgrade.
Same fees day, night or weekend.
High Security Locks: questions
What actually makes a lock high security?
Three things working together. The cylinder has a second locking mechanism, usually a sidebar released by finger pins or rotating pins, plus hardened steel in the path of a drill, so picking, bumping and drilling take far longer than on an ordinary lock. The deadbolt and strike are heavier and fastened into the framing. And the key is cut on a patented or restricted blank that only an authorised person can have copied. Remove any one and the door is weaker than the label suggests.
Do I need to replace my whole deadbolt or just the cylinder?
It depends on what you have. If the deadbolt is a good heavy unit that throws a full inch into a proper strike, a high security cylinder can replace the ordinary one and the rest stays. If the deadbolt is light, worn or throws a short bolt, a new graded deadbolt with a hardened bolt is the sensible base and the high security cylinder goes into that. The assessment tells you which, door by door.
Can a hardware store or kiosk copy my new key?
No. The blank for a patented keyway is distributed only through the manufacturer's network to locksmiths who hold the system, and the side milling or angled cuts need a machine set up for that line. A kiosk would have neither the blank nor the cut. Extra keys come through your locksmith, cut from code, once an authorised person has approved the order. That routine is a small inconvenience compared with never knowing who has a copy.
High Security Locks
High Security Locks near you
Durham, Ontario
Squires Beach information
- Town
- Squires Beach, Durham, Ontario
- In business
- 11 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7 · nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (289) 275-9650
- Visits
- On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.
What the census means at the door
31%
Newer homes. About 31% of homes in Pickering 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.
60%
A mix of homes. Single-detached houses make up about 60% of homes in Pickering (2021 Census).
Mixed housing brings mixed hardware ages as well as types. A locksmith may rebuild a mortise lock on a semi-detached house and then set up a keypad on a townhouse door across the road, and treats each with the care its owner expects.
Open 24/7
Request a visit
You jiggle the key a little and the old deadbolt opens even when the cut does not look quite right.
Call now · open 24/7(289) 275-9650- On-site assessment preferred
- Same fees day, night or weekend
- 11 years in business