Deadbolt supply and fitting
Most of the price is the door and the frame, not the lock.
A deadbolt is a bolt with no spring in it. Nothing pushes it back, so it cannot be shimmed or carded like a spring latch, and it holds whatever the frame around it can hold. That last part is the whole job. A graded deadbolt fitted into a soft jamb with short screws is a graded deadbolt in name only, which is why a competent installation spends more time on the strike side than on the lock side.
What a licensed locksmith actually does
- 01
The door and frame get measured
Door thickness, backset, existing bore sizes, jamb condition and how square the door still sits. New Jersey has a lot of doors that have not been square since the Eisenhower administration.
- 02
Boring, or working with what is already bored
A standard deadbolt prep is a 2-1/8 inch crossbore through the face and a 1 inch bore into the edge, at a backset of either 2-3/8 or 2-3/4 inches. A door already bored to those dimensions is a much shorter job than a solid door being bored for the first time.
- 03
The lock body goes in and gets aligned
The bolt has to throw its full travel by hand with the door open, before anything is tested with the door closed. Resistance now becomes a failure later.
- 04
The strike is mortised into the jamb
A strike sitting on the surface of the jamb is a strike waiting to tear out. It gets recessed, and the bolt pocket behind it gets cut deep enough for the full bolt throw.
- 05
Long screws into the framing
Short screws hold the strike to the jamb trim. Three inch screws reach past the jamb into the framing stud behind it, which is where the actual resistance lives.
- 06
Function test from both sides
Key outside, turn inside, door open and door closed, several times. A deadbolt you have to lift the door to throw is not finished.
The grades, and what they are actually testing
Deadbolts are graded under ANSI/BHMA A156.5. Three grades, and the numbers behind them are ordinary mechanical testing rather than marketing.
| Grade | Operational cycles | What else is harder |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 | about 250,000 | Highest impact and torque resistance, one inch bolt throw |
| Grade 2 | about 150,000 | Mid-tier impact and torque, one inch bolt throw |
| Grade 3 | about 100,000 | Entry-level resistance testing |
A cycle is one lock and unlock. Grade 3 hardware is not fake, it is tested to a lower bar. What the grade does not measure is your door, your jamb, or the person who installed it, and those three variables move real-world performance further than the grade does.
Why the frame is the job
Force applied to a locked door goes bolt, strike, jamb, framing. The chain fails at its weakest link, and on most New Jersey houses that link is the jamb.
A strike plate fastened with the three-quarter inch screws that ship in the box holds to jamb trim only. Trim is a decorative board nailed to the frame. Three inch screws pass through the jamb and bite into the structural stud behind it. Same plate, same lock, very different result, and the difference costs a locksmith about a minute and costs you nothing.
The same logic applies to the strike pocket. If the bolt only throws part of its travel because the pocket behind the strike is too shallow, a one inch bolt is doing a half inch of work.
What New Jersey doors do to this job
Old stock is the recurring theme in this state. About 19 percent of homes here predate 1940, and in Hudson County it is closer to 22.6 percent.
- Non-standard thickness. Modern deadbolts assume a door of 1-3/8 or 1-3/4 inches. Older doors are frequently neither.
- Mortise cases. Many pre-war doors carry a mortise lockset rather than bored hardware. Adding a bored deadbolt above it is a different piece of carpentry.
- Frames that have moved. Freeze and thaw over a century leaves a door that closes but no longer aligns, and installing new hardware into that without correcting the alignment produces a deadbolt that binds by March.
- Steel and fiberglass entry doors. Common in post-war Edison, Woodbridge, Toms River and Cherry Hill stock. Boring one is possible and is not the same fifteen minute job as boring a solid wood door.
Multi-family is a separate conversation
If you rent, or if you own a unit in a two-family or three-family, the hardware on your door is partly a code question. New Jersey requires a medium-duty dead-latching lockset or a separate deadbolt on each unit entrance, plus a chain door guard and a viewing device on the main unit door, and it requires a heavy-duty dead-latching lockset with an automatic dead-locking plunger on building entrance doors serving two or more units.
The practical consequence: the stoop door and the vestibule door belong to the building. Changing them is the landlord’s or the management company’s call, and a locksmith who swaps a compliant building entrance lockset for something else on a tenant’s say-so has created a problem for the owner.
What you should end up holding
A written invoice with the licensed business name and license number on it, the make, model and grade of what was fitted, every key that operates the new cylinder, and a bolt that throws all the way with the door closed and one finger.
Ask these
- What grade is the hardware you are quoting, and what is the model, so I can look it up myself?
- Is my door already bored for this, or does it need new prep? What does that add?
- Will the strike be mortised into the jamb and secured with three inch screws into the framing?
- Is the price you gave me inclusive of hardware, labor, tax and any after-hours charge?
- If the jamb turns out to be rotted or split, what happens then and what does it cost?
- What is your licensed business name and license number?
Red flags
- A quote for hardware with no grade and no model named.
- A strike screwed to the surface of the jamb with the short screws that came in the box.
- An installer who bores the door before confirming the backset and thickness.
- A recommendation to replace an entire door when only the strike side has been examined.
- Pressure to add a second and third deadbolt to a door that already has one working correctly.
- An unmarked vehicle, or an invoice with no license number on it.
Sources
Common questions
What do the ANSI grades actually mean?
ANSI/BHMA A156.5 tests auxiliary locks, which is where deadbolts sit, and sorts them into three grades by operational cycles and by resistance to force. Grade 1 is tested to roughly 250,000 cycles, Grade 2 to about 150,000, and Grade 3 to about 100,000, alongside impact and torque testing that gets progressively harder at each grade. Grade 1 and Grade 2 deadbolts also require a one inch bolt throw.
Which grade should I buy?
This page will not answer that, and the reason is legal rather than coy. New Jersey places consulting and technical advice on the selection of hardware and locking systems inside the licensed definition of locksmithing under N.J.S.A. 45:5A-2(n). A licensed New Jersey locksmith standing at your door can make that recommendation. A website cannot, and one that does is telling you something about itself.
Does a better deadbolt help if my frame is old?
Only up to the point the frame gives. A century-old jamb in a Trenton rowhouse or a Paterson mill house may need repair or reinforcement before any grade of hardware is meaningful. A locksmith who inspects the jamb and says so before quoting hardware is doing the job properly.
Can I add a deadbolt to my apartment door?
Check the lease first. Beyond that, New Jersey's Hotel and Multiple Dwelling rules already require specific hardware on unit entrance doors and on building entrance doors serving two or more units, including a chain door guard and a viewing device on the main unit door. Changing hardware on a shared entrance door can put the building out of compliance, which makes it the super's decision and not yours.
Is a deadbolt that needs a key on both sides a good idea?
It is a life-safety and code question, not a preference. A door you cannot open from the inside without finding a key is a problem during a fire. Whether one is permitted on a given door in a given municipality is for the licensed locksmith and your local construction official to answer together.