How to Select Door Locks

Megan: Door locks all look relatively the same. You have got your key, you have got your key hold but guess what? They are not and I am here today at Baldwin to learn about the different types of door locks. I am hitting the road, searching for answers and finding great designs. It is a quest of beauty, function and of course, inspiration. What are the different types of locks because there are so many different types from interior to exterior doors? What do you need on your exterior doors? Tom: There are lots of options. Of course, we just talk about the Mortise lock and this is what a Mortise lock looks like. The term mortise means to put inside which means you actually cut a large pocket near the edge of the door and then this is inserted inside the door. Everything is inside this box. The latch bolt, the dead bolt of this; it is all in placed inside this case. The other type of lock that you will see on exterior applications will be like this one. This is what we called tubular design. In this particular type of lock, you have a separate latch bolt and a separate dead bolt. Now this also has a one-inch throw and there is a soft-rib pen in here as well. You cannot see it because of how the lock is constructed, but it is designed to do the same thing. You start to cut through it once you saw it against to that it would roll. So you have it there even though it is not visible like it is in the Mortise lock. Megan: Are all tubular locks, do they always have the top part separate from the bottom part? Is that how you can tell them? Tom: No. you can tell it from the edge of the door because unlike here—where you are going to have all-in-one. Megan: Where it is altogether. Tom: You are going to have a separate phase placed for the latch and a separate one for the dead bolt. But determining the outside could be what we call a sectional trim line this or it could be a full discussion trim as well. Megan: Which type of lock is better for your exterior doors? If you are to choose, which one is more secured and which one gives you more flexibility? Tom: For the flexibility standpoint, you have many more options with the Mortise lock. We have more trimmed designs available, many more finishes available. However, there are door conditions or instances when that may not be appropriate for the homeowner depending on what they have which is why we have this line. The other consideration is its cost. This is a less expensive way to get there than with the Mortise lock. But we do offer many designs and many functions in the tubular designs. That little fixture about any type of door. Megan: Can Mortise lock not good in all doors? Tom: That is correct. Mortise locks cannot go on all doors. Sometimes, the style is too thin. You do not have enough room to insert something this big. Now we have different boxes and we have smaller designs, but still there are applications where it is not going to work. In some instances, the only way to go is with a tubular design. Megan: Now, can tubular designs go on all doors? Not if you already have door for the Mortise. Can it? Because you would already have the big hole in there? Tom: Yes, it requires so much work to modify the door and repair the door that would come to aid something like this. It is probably better off with Mortise locking back in. Megan: So basically, the type of lock you get depends on the type of folds you already have drawn in your door. Tom: It depends on how the door is prepared. It depends on how thick the door is. With the tubular designs, the maximum door thickness that you can go to is 2-¼ inches. Now the standard for exterior doors is 1-3/4 inches, but we see a lot of custom doors come through here are requested for hardware for custom doors in 2-1/4 inches, the next standard size. But we see an even thicker than that. Up to 2-1/4 inches, we can accommodate that with the images’ product line. But when you get thicker than those, then you have to move to the state product line and a Mortise lock. Megan: When you do interior doors, you do not have these big dead bolts