Commercial Lock Repair
Most commercial lock failures are not the lock. They are the door moving away from the strike.
Call (408) 418-0044
Commercial hardware is worked hundreds of times a day and it wears in a recognisable pattern. Springs inside a lever tire and the handle begins to droop. A latch bolt rounds off and stops seating properly. Hinges settle a couple of millimetres and the door now arrives at the frame slightly low, so the bolt catches the lip of the strike instead of dropping into it. The lock takes the blame because it is the part people touch.
That is why a repair visit begins with the door swinging rather than with a screwdriver in the cylinder. Watching where the latch lands, how much the door has to be pulled or lifted, and whether the closer is still bringing it fully home tells you within a swing or two whether the answer is an adjustment, a part, or a replacement.
How the symptom points at the cause
- The door has to be pulled or lifted to lock — alignment. The hinges, the frame or the closer have moved, and the lock is innocent.
- The lever droops and will not spring back — a return spring, either in the lock case or in the trim, and on a heavy door it is more often the trim.
- The latch hits the strike lip and bounces open — the strike needs moving, or the closer is not delivering enough force through the last inch of travel.
- The key turns roughly or needs jiggling — a worn cylinder or a worn key, separated by trying a freshly cut key before condemning the lock.
- The cylinder spins freely and moves nothing — the cam or tailpiece has failed inside the lock, which cannot be reached or fixed through the keyway.
Describe these when you call
- Whether the door fails constantly or only at certain times of day, which often points at temperature and frame movement.
- Whether it started suddenly or crept up over months.
- Whether anything has been kicked, forced, or dragged open against the closer.
- How the door is being coped with in the meantime: propped, double locked, or watched by staff.
- Whether people leave the building through this door, since that limits what can honestly be done as a stopgap.
If the hardware is mechanically sound and the only problem is who is still holding a working key, nothing here needs repairing. see commercial lock rekeying.
Common questions
Our door only fails to latch in the afternoon. Why?
Almost always thermal movement. Metal frames and glazed doors grow through the day, and a door that latched by a hair in the morning misses by that same hair in the heat. It points at a strike sitting right on the edge of its tolerance, which is an adjustment rather than a new lock.
Is commercial hardware worth repairing, or should we replace it?
Heavier commercial locks are built to be serviced: latches, springs, spindles and cylinders are separate parts, and a case can often be rebuilt with far less disruption than a replacement that may need fresh door prep. Light hardware never intended for the traffic it is getting is the case where replacement is the honest answer.
The lever came off in someone's hand. Is the door still secure?
Treat it as not secure. On most commercial trim the lever drives a spindle through the lock case, and once that connection fails the latch can often be retracted from outside with very little effort. Secure the opening another way until somebody has looked at it.
Can a door be made to latch without touching the lock at all?
Frequently. Moving a strike, shimming behind it, driving hinge screws into solid framing, or slowing the closer through the last stretch all change where the bolt lands. Those are tried first because they are reversible and because they address the actual cause rather than the part that is complaining.
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