day in the life of a locksmith

[cledry]

My favorite part of the job happened today: schooling a grumpy contractor.

Due to laws and regulatory compliance, we often have to sub contract jobs (capital money, Title III funds, etc.). I hate it but what can you do? Sometimes I'm involved, sometimes I'm not. If warranty work has to occur on a project, I'm usually the one that spearheads it.

We had a pull handle come off a recently installed pair of aluminum store front doors today. I called the contractor. He wasn't pleasant from the start. He was hesitant to even warranty the work. Told me he shouldn't because someone "must be abusing those doors". Finally I had enough. I wasn't very polite when I told him that on commercial applications, you through bolt when possible. It doesn't much change aesthetics and it results in a much stronger and longer lasting installation. I told him I felt silly having to teach someone this as it was one of the first things I learned. I told him that it's actually cheaper and faster for him to order his doors prepped with 2 through bolt holes. Rather than fumble around with Allen wrenches to tighten either 2 or 4 screws at awkward angles, you can simply drive the 2 through bolts into the handle with an impact driver and never have to worry about it again.

Some people.

Typically in the storefront door industry aluminum door pulls are not through bolted. The normal installation is to use a rivnut and thread into that.

[cledry]

Today the first job was installing an electrified mortise lock and electrified hinge at a military installation, of course we also have to core the door. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photographs in the facility so I am sharing some from a couple of previous installs in less sensitive locations.

This is the jig we use to core the doors. If you want to do fire doors and re-certify them this is the tool for the job, the tool has to be calibrated each year so that you can re-certify the fire doors. You also have to take the course etc....



Here's the jig set up on a couple of doors.





Here one of our locksmiths, Chris, is boring the door. As you can see there sometimes isn't much room for the long drill bit, so we start with a shorter 2 foot long bit.





Here you can see the drill bit just poking through into the mortise pocket, note the block of wood used to prevent mortise pocket from collapsing..



Here's a couple of other shots showing the hole in each end of the door.





The rest of the day was less interesting. Next job was repair some Kenstan Keymatic locks in a jewelry store. Then in the same mall I had to rekey a clothing store. Then finally back to a previous job to rekey a couple of delayed egress panic bars.

Rest of the day was spent sending quotes and photos, invoices and scheduling calls.

[billdeserthills]

Wow Cledry, you get to use all the cool lock tools,
My first call was two hours before I usually go to work, guy down the street locked himself out and wanted back in. I drove over and picked his door, and had to rush to get my morning shower. Later on, before work it was time for some crow eating, when I met up with my contractor and surprise, he actually began preparing the land for my concrete slab, which has taken over a year to get going. That made me late to work, but nobody seemed to care. Busy sitting around for a half-hour and then off to my first call, client just opening her new business and wanted her office door keyed to match the other office door, but no key for one of them. I picked open the lever & rekeyed it, it almost seems sometimes like I'm working too fast-got paid and went home to sit around and wait for the phone to ring. Finally it did, the Ace Hdwr store gave my next client my business card and she needed a lock replaced on her door. Turned out to be a Weiser knob, and I keep one around just for these folks, as all the locks in their housing subdivision are Weiser. Of course since Black & Decker already bought out and wrecked Weiser, the new lock is more like a Kwikset, but she didn't mind paying three times what a Kwikset lock is worth, so I keyed it to her door key & put it on. One delighted client later, and now I'm back home once more.

[shutterstuff]

Wow Cledry, you get to use all the cool lock tools,
My first call was two hours before I usually go to work, guy down the street locked himself out and wanted back in. I drove over and picked his door, and had to rush to get my morning shower. Later on, before work it was time for some crow eating, when I met up with my contractor and surprise, he actually began preparing the land for my concrete slab, which has taken over a year to get going. That made me late to work, but nobody seemed to care. Busy sitting around for a half-hour and then off to my first call, client just opening her new business and wanted her office door keyed to match the other office door, but no key for one of them. I picked open the lever & rekeyed it, it almost seems sometimes like I'm working too fast-got paid and went home to sit around and wait for the phone to ring. Finally it did, the Ace Hdwr store gave my next client my business card and she needed a lock replaced on her door. Turned out to be a Weiser knob, and I keep one around just for these folks, as all the locks in their housing subdivision are Weiser. Of course since Black & Decker already bought out and wrecked Weiser, the new lock is more like a Kwikset, but she didn't mind paying three times what a Kwikset lock is worth, so I keyed it to her door key & put it on. One delighted client later, and now I'm back home once more.

Cledry does have some cool tools, but they usually involve extra work.

I hate those calls that come before I get my shower! Throws my whole day off for some reason.

Just curious, do you carry the actual Wesier brand locksets or a compatible?

[billdeserthills]

I actually carry the real thing, but I only stock one or two of the weiser locks. I always carried schlage and kwikset, but I have been stocking the compatible locls lately as well, cause not everybody thinks paying $80 for a schlage B560 deadbolt is very funny anymore...Scary when I pull out an old one that is priced at like $35, boy you hafta get that marker out real fast to scratch that off!!

[cledry]

My boss is pretty good about purchasing tools to make the jobs go smoothly. This jig paid for itself in 2 jobs, and since we bought it we have done about 8 other coring jobs, it is not something we do all the time. The nice thing is, firstly it looks impressive and customers like to see impressive looking tools for some reason , secondly we get a lot of ancillary work. Mostly this is fairly high end commercial work which adds up quickly. It is the same with installing CDX10 locks, the jig looks impressive but it makes the job go smoothly, paid for in 2 jobs and the rest is gravy. The cost if you mess up an istallation is far greater than the cost of the tool. Basically if the tool can pay for itself in about 3 jobs we will generally buy it. Then we advertise the fact that we can undertake these sort of jobs through social media and word of mouth.

[Tyler J. Thomas]

Typically in the storefront door industry aluminum door pulls are not through bolted. The normal installation is to use a rivnut and thread into that.

Part of being good at this line of work is foresight. Commercial applications, especially schools, should be through bolted. Door closers, pull handles, panic devices, through bolted. The door and hardware he specified didn't make it 8 weeks.

[cledry]

Typically in the storefront door industry aluminum door pulls are not through bolted. The normal installation is to use a rivnut and thread into that.

Part of being good at this line of work is foresight. Commercial applications, especially schools, should be through bolted. Door closers, pull handles, panic devices, through bolted. The door and hardware he specified didn't make it 8 weeks.

The through bolted handles on storefront doors are not so common, CRL has them with a finish washer and screw on the inside. It uses a standard 1/4-20 so could be replaced with a tamper resistant screw easily. Did the hardware schedule specify a through bolted pull? Many times contractors are given specific model numbers that they cannot deviate from without a lot of aggravating paperwork. We see many times where the incorrect lock is specified but only after the COI can we change it to the correct hardware. One instance I can think of from last week; a schedule specified classroom function locks on doors with card readers and electrified strikes. They should have been storeroom, but we will wait until the COI then remove all the new classroom function locks and replace with storeroom function locks.

[Tyler J. Thomas]

The through bolted handles on storefront doors are not so common, CRL has them with a finish washer and screw on the inside. It uses a standard 1/4-20 so could be replaced with a tamper resistant screw easily. Did the hardware schedule specify a through bolted pull?

The only hardware schedule we have specifies the requirement of through bolts where possible - I put it in there. This guy either choose to ignore that or didn't know any better. And since the people in charge of the project didn't know to check, it went unnoticed until it was yanked from the door.

Regardless, he should have known better. You don't thread steel posts into aluminum and hope it will hold with high traffic. And he definitely shouldn't have tried to argue that it was a result of "abuse". Those doors are never locked; he would know because he didn't spec locking hardware with them.

[cledry]

The through bolted handles on storefront doors are not so common, CRL has them with a finish washer and screw on the inside. It uses a standard 1/4-20 so could be replaced with a tamper resistant screw easily. Did the hardware schedule specify a through bolted pull?

The only hardware schedule we have specifies the requirement of through bolts where possible - I put it in there. This guy either choose to ignore that or didn't know any better. And since the people in charge of the project didn't know to check, it went unnoticed until it was yanked from the door.

Regardless, he should have known better. You don't thread steel posts into aluminum and hope it will hold with high traffic. And he definitely shouldn't have tried to argue that it was a result of "abuse". Those doors are never locked; he would know because he didn't spec locking hardware with them.

Certainly if specified it should have been followed. Schedules we get always list not only ANSI spec but part numbers. For example schools in the area where I live will only accept LCN, Von Duprin, MckKinney and Schlage. It limits us but we are all bidding on a level field and it helps the school keep consistent.

The should have known better doesn't fly. If the handle specified is installed with rivnuts then it is installed correctly. If it is specified as a through bolted product then yes, he was wrong.

[Tyler J. Thomas]

The should have known better doesn't fly.

Except that it does. We have clauses in place in our vendor agreement for situations just like this. Every institution does for that matter. Tort, liability, indemnification, etc. Insurance requirements aren't solely for accidents, negligence comes into play too. Ignorance is no defense.

[billdeserthills]

The should have known better doesn't fly.

Except that it does. We have clauses in place in our vendor agreement for situations just like this. Every institution does for that matter. Tort, liability, indemnification, etc. Insurance requirements aren't solely for accidents, negligence comes into play too. Ignorance is no defense.

In my state of Arizona the registrar of contractors board of licensing would make that guy fix anything that doesn't last a year.
They sometimes make the contractor stop work at any or all their other projects to fix a serious defect still inside the warranty
period. Also a licensed contractor here has a sizeable bond fund, that is easy to claim.



I have see dumb lock specifications from folks who don't
know the difference between a storeroom lock and an entry set, who prolly shouldn't be drawing blueprints


Always makes me wonder how well the rest of the new building is put together when something like the door handle falls off

[cledry]

The should have known better doesn't fly.

Except that it does. We have clauses in place in our vendor agreement for situations just like this. Every institution does for that matter. Tort, liability, indemnification, etc. Insurance requirements aren't solely for accidents, negligence comes into play too. Ignorance is no defense.

Certainly if he was negligent you are protected. What I meant was; just because someone assumes a contractor should know better, it doesn't mean they do.

[cledry]

The should have known better doesn't fly.

Except that it does. We have clauses in place in our vendor agreement for situations just like this. Every institution does for that matter. Tort, liability, indemnification, etc. Insurance requirements aren't solely for accidents, negligence comes into play too. Ignorance is no defense.

In my state of Arizona the registrar of contractors board of licensing would make that guy fix anything that doesn't last a year.
They sometimes make the contractor stop work at any or all their other projects to fix a serious defect still inside the warranty
period. Also a licensed contractor here has a sizeable bond fund, that is easy to claim.



I have see dumb lock specifications from folks who don't
know the difference between a storeroom lock and an entry set, who prolly shouldn't be drawing blueprints


Always makes me wonder how well the rest of the new building is put together when something like the door handle falls off

On new builds most states have something similar. On existing our state is 90 days on labor.

Our school board requires the labor warranty to equal the manufacturer warranty! No locksmith will touch their work.

[cledry]

I was on call this weekend, we do a rotation for the on call week. Friday night was slow, a couple of car calls and residential which I turned down. Then about 10 AM on Saturday I get an emergency call from a NSP, a local store cannot open their only way into the store. It is only 15 minutes from the house so I head out, but just as I am leaving I get a call from another NSP, another emergency, a T-Mobile can't open their roll down security gate.

Get to the first job and they are open and in. The lock works smoothly. However I can see lots of corrosion probably from the mall pressure washing things. The manager explained that the key would turn and then stop and the same thing also happens with the thumb turn. So I replace the Adams Rite lock and spray it with lithium and am off on my way to T-Mobile after doing all the IVR crap and sending photos from the site.

The T-Mobile is about 20 miles away and there is no easy way to get there, so it is up the interstate or parking lot as I like to call it. I get there and the manager and two employees are standing there. I am just calling in to the NSP when a call comes in from another NSP, another emergency, this time a safe locked up and the store can't do business as all their cash is in the safe. I tell them it will be probably a couple of hours for me to get there. She said she would call back if they didn't find another locksmith.

Back to the job at hand, hey unlock the door and the alarm goes off, so I pop in some ear plugs. The key turns fine but the gate won't unlock. So I try the usual things, squirt a bit of lube in the lock as best as I can, the cylinder is sealed at the rear. Tapped on the gate with a deadblow, pushed down, lifted up, shook it. Nothing. I called QMI tech support, and their tech support said I haven't got a clue. That was a waste of 5 minutes. Finally I ask if they have multiples of the Instakey key, they do. So I grab one with my vise-grips and try to turn, nothing. I pick the larger of the girls who work there and ask her to bounce up and down on the handle, I then start working the key back and forth with the vise-grips and finally it opened. Big sigh of relief.

Drive back home and take a nap. Phone rings, it is the NSP about the safe (4 hours have passed). They called another locksmith and dispatched him but he never showed up and he isn't answering his phone, can I help. I tell them yes, but they are getting charged a service call and one hour of safe labor even if I show up and someone else is there. I told them also to leave a message with the other locksmith telling him to cancel the job.

I get to the store and am shown to the back room to a rather large Sentry safe. Put in the combo and I here a normal click but the handle won't turn to pull back the bolts. So I try deadblow on the door, lifting up on the door, nothing. I ask if the safe has been acting weird and the manager said the safe was working but stopped, so they replaced the battery and then used the emergency key but it still wouldn't open. Hmm, this safe doesn't have an emergency key, so I ask for the key. It is a long 5/16" hex key. The manager used it to remove the handle to supposedly get into the safe. LOL I explained that was to be used for tightening loose handles, not to remove the handle. Anyway the handle was back on by the time I got there and no harm done. So I pop the keypad off and test the battery on my tongue, weak. Pop a fresh battering in and it opens up. Pulled the inside cover just to make sure everything was in order and off back home.

Only three commercial calls all day. All the rest were residential and cars which I don't do.