Commercial Lock Installation
On a commercial door the lock is chosen by the door, not the other way round.
Call (408) 418-0044
Fitting a lock to a business door starts with the hole that is already in it. Commercial doors leave the factory with a specific preparation — a rectangular pocket in the edge for a mortise lock, a large round bore through the face for a cylindrical lever, a narrow cutout in a storefront stile — and the realistic choice of hardware is whatever suits that preparation or can be adapted to it with a wrap plate.
The second constraint is what the door does. A door on an exit route has to open from the inside in a single motion, with no key, no thumbturn to find first and no second latch to release. That rules out an entire category of hardware which is sold freely and looks perfectly sensible on a shelf, and it is why a stockroom lock and a front door lock are not interchangeable even when they look identical.
What gets measured before anything is ordered
- Door material and thickness — hollow metal, solid core timber and aluminium stile doors take different fixings and different lock bodies.
- The existing prep — mortise pocket, bored cylindrical hole or narrow stile cutout, plus the backset from the door edge to the centre of the hole.
- Handing. Which way the door swings and which side the hinges sit on decides the lever, the latch bevel and frequently the lock itself.
- The function. Storeroom, classroom, office, passage and entry functions look similar on a shelf and behave very differently once the door closes behind somebody.
- Egress. Where the opening is on an exit route, the inside lever or push bar has to release the latch in one motion without a key.
Worth confirming before the visit
- Whether the opening sits on an exit route from an occupied space.
- Whether the door is part of a rated assembly that has to self-close and latch, which limits what may be fitted to it.
- Roughly how many people use the door on a normal day, since traffic decides how heavy the hardware needs to be.
- Whether the new lock should share a key with anything else in the building.
- Whether building management has to approve changes to exterior hardware.
If the existing hardware is the right type and is simply worn, sticking or out of alignment, replacing it is often solving a problem the door does not have. see commercial lock repair.
Common questions
What is the difference between a mortise lock and a cylindrical lock?
A mortise lock sits in a deep rectangular pocket machined into the door edge and carries its latch, deadbolt and lever mechanism inside one steel case. A cylindrical lock passes through a round bore in the face of the door. Mortise hardware is heavier and more serviceable; cylindrical is quicker to fit and simpler to replace. The prep already in the door usually settles which you get.
Can a lock be added where there is no prep at all?
Yes, but it means machining the door. On hollow metal and aluminium that is precise work and it cannot be undone, so being certain about the function and the handing first matters more than usual. Surface mounted hardware sometimes avoids the cutting altogether and is worth asking about.
Can new hardware be keyed to our existing keys?
Usually. Most commercial locks accept a separate cylinder, so a cylinder in your existing keyway can be fitted and the door joins the system on the day it goes in. Say so before the hardware is ordered, because a lockset supplied with a fixed non-removable core takes that option away.
What is a storeroom function and why does it matter?
It is a lock whose outside lever is always locked and needs a key, while the inside lever always retracts the latch. That suits a stockroom, because the door cannot be left unlocked by accident. It is a poor choice for an office where people expect to be able to leave the door on the latch during the day.
Related locksmith services
Describe the lock or key problem
A short description of what happened gets the right tools on the vehicle.
Call (408) 418-0044