One of our most common requests for service work comes from customers whose doors have stopped working properly. Of course, any mechanical product breaks down over time. Many doors experience constant use, as well as exposure to the elements. Therefore, they face many potential issues in the years following their installation. Fortunately, we have the solutions for these issues. In this post, we share some of the ways we go about addressing door security issues that arise due to heavy use, weather, and a variety of other factors.
We’ll begin by looking at a couple pieces of equipment we install on doors that no longer operate correctly. Specifically, door closers and continuous hinges can help restore the functionality of well-worn door hardware. From there, we’ll share the solutions to issues that affect both door functionality and security. In particular, we’ll focus on some high-quality products that will last, and also create additional safety and security. Finally, we’ll examine some often-overlooked, safety-oriented lock equipment. Failing to install these “odds and ends” after upgrading door hardware can lead to unsafe and unsecure situations. Therefore, we always aim to educate customers on their options to help address this issue. Now, let’s get started with a focus on a couple popular options for addressing door security issues!
Installing door closers, such as this model by Norton, helps ensure that doors open and close smoothly, without damaging the door or frame.
Door Closers
Door closers can help solve a couple common issues that doors often develop over the years. These spring-loaded devices, such as the one pictured, help ensure that doors operate as designed. We often get calls from customers whose doors “crash” back into the frame too quickly. Adjusting the door closer, or installing a new one when needed, can solve this problem. This can help save doors and frames from getting damaged by the wear and tear of the impact caused by the door’s closing. More importantly, it can prevent injuries that a quickly-closing door can cause.
Conversely, some doors open further than they should. This can send the door hitting the wall beside it, damaging the wall and door at the same time. Repairing or replacing the door’s closer can also solve this issue. When we hear that doors are causing damage — or becoming damaged — the door closer is one of the first things we examine. Now, let’s take a look at one more piece of equipment that can address common issues we find in doors.
Continuous Hinges
Over time, the hinges on heavy-duty doors often start to wear down. This can create a situation where people have to force a door into place when closing it due to the door no longer fitting inside its frame properly. In extreme cases, some doors even end up dragging on the ground due to its hinges no longer supporting its weight! Installing a continuous hinge provides the solution to these issues. This device acts as one large, heavy-duty hinge that runs the entire length of the door. The hinge’s design spreads the weight of the door evenly. In turn, this ensures the continuous hinge experiences much less stress than a standard door hinge. The strength and design of the continuous hinge keeps your door working properly for the long run. Next up, we’ll check out some lock hardware that helps us with addressing door security issues.
Top-Quality Levers and Exit Devices
The hardware used to open and close doors undertakes an extreme amount of wear and tear on a daily basis. Therefore, many of our lock-related service calls revolve around this equipment. Installing and maintaining high-quality door hardware accomplishes two goals. For starters, it keeps your door opening and closing smoothly and properly. In addition, it helps ensure that your keys will continue to operate the doors that they should.
Furthermore, choosing quality over “value” in this department adds security. Low-quality levers and exit bars are much easier to breach than their more robust counterparts. This rings even more true as times passes by, because cheaper locks will deteriorate quickly. For these reasons, we recommend hiring a professional locksmith service (such as ourselves!) to help you add both security and functionality to your commercial doors. Let’s take a look at another, smaller door-security related device that many customers often fail to choose carefully!
High-Security Lock Cylinders
When customers operate their commercial levers, they use keys that fit inside the lever’s cylinders. Solid, commercial-grade levers have high-quality keys and cylinders. This helps prevent picking locks or drilling them. However, as you can probably guess, the inverse also proves true. Lower-cost levers come with low-quality cylinders. We can address this issue in a couple ways. Of course, we can always change out your property’s levers. Unfortunately, this often does not prove cost-effective. For a simpler solution, we can retrofit commercial-grade cylinders in your existing levers. Doing so will help with security on a couple levels.
For starters, your new levers will provide better security against picking and blunt-force attacks. Additionally, higher-quality cylinders allow you to create a master key system. These systems allow you to choose which keys work which doors, sometimes with one key working several doors. For example, office workers may receive a key that opens the property’s main door, as well as the door to their offices. Higher-level employees can recieve a master key that works every door on the premise.
The ability to create these key systems adds security by keeping the keys for certain doors out of the wrong hands. Additionally, it allows you to cut the fewest amount of keys possible while still allowing users to enter every room they should receive access to. For more information, feel free to read up on our tips for Creating an Effective Master Key System. Last but not least, let’s look at a couple ways we “close up” common trouble areas on doors.
Latch protectors, such as this Don Jo model, block anyone attempting to pry open a lever’s latch.
Hole Fillers and Latch Protectors
As lock equipment gets updated, the types of locking hardware often changes over time. This can lead to locks getting installed in different places on a door, leaving holes behind in some instances. Unfortunately, these holes can lead to injuries to the fingers and hands of those operating the doors. In particular, this danger affects young children, who often operate doors from below without the ability to actually see all of the door’s locking hardware. In these cases, we install door hole fillers. These unique pieces of door harware are designed to fit the most common parts of doors that get left empty based on the owner’s door hardware choice. In particular, we generally install hole filler plates in the holes left by deadbolts and latches from previous lock equipment.
Additionally, we also install latch protectors on doors whose latches can be easily pried open. As you can see in the picture, the lip of these devices makes it very difficult for those ouitside of a door to access the latch behind it. This creates easy and efficient door security. Using these “odds and ends” while addressing door security issues can help tighten up your door safety and security at any property!
Addressing Door Security Issues Efficiently and Effectively
We hope that this post has helped you understand the various ways we approach addressing door security issues. Moreover, we encourage you to contact us if you have any questions about the material presented here. We will happily answer any door security-related questions that you bring to us. Additionally, we also offer free site surveys to both new and existing customers alike. While on site, we can diagnose any door issues you may have and take steps to fix them. Furthermore, we can also make our own recommendations based on our observations of your door and locking hardware. Together, we can create a plan to keep your doors — as well as everyone who enters through them — as safe and secure as possible!