One important locksmith function is to have the ability and knowledge to solve hardware problems after the original builders have left the job site. Hardware problems can either be a builders hardware oversight or the building owners have changed their security requirements and the original hardware does not meet their present needs. This so-called aftermarket business has been a profitable part of the locksmith business for a century or more.
A new wrinkle in the aftermarket arena is the emergence of direct factory sales. Probably the best example of this has been the hotel lock changeover from key-operated to card-operated lock systems. Hundreds of thousands of mechanical locks have been changed to electronic varieties in a short amount of time. Competition has been fierce between the relatively small group of companies which produce electronic hotel locks and in most cases the locksmith community has not been involved in either the sales, service or installations during the hotel lock changeover frenzy.
A major amount of the hotel lock changeovers have now taken place. While there were many thousands of hotel room door locks to replace, there are also millions of commercial doors which can be candidates for electronic lock conversions. Apparently some manufacturers have moved into factory-direct sales of access control products to commercial building end-users. This article explains how one locksmith business waited their turn and eventually profited from a factory installation miscue.
Two years ago a commercial customer called this locksmith business for an estimate on the cost of replacing his apartment complex mechanical locks with electronic locks. The customer had a regular occurring account with this locksmith and wanted a special type of access control system installed. The system he wanted would allow a tenant key to be electronically changed at a central office location without having to visit the individual apartment doors.
The locksmith worked closely with his locksmith distributor in order to offer the lowest possible bid while still leaving room for a very small amount of profit. The bid was not accepted. Since product costs are similar for all locksmith dealers who purchase through locksmith distributors, it was hard for this locksmith to understand how the bid was lost unless he was bidding against a manufacturer.
Recently the same commercial customer called this locksmith for service. His apartment complex was located very close to Lake Michigan. Between frigid Midwestern winters and a windswept location where blowing snow, rain and sleet were regular events, the electronic locks installed on exterior doors by the low bidder had begun to fail. These electronic locks were apparently not designed for exterior installations.
Exterior doors in the apartment complex had fortunately been manufactured to accept a standard front door lockset. Hole patterns for the old mechanical locks and the electronic locks were identical. However, the electronic locks had required a secondary hole to be drilled to run wires from the exterior to the interior of the doors (Photo 1). Cover plates were fashioned to fit above the outer escutcheon plate of the new lockset (Photo2).
A Corbin Russwin mortise lockset with a deadlatching feature fit the door opening perfectly. Standard mortise cylinders were replaced with high security cylinders for better key control.
Some of the exterior doors were located high on the roof of the building (Photo 3). These locks are seldom used but do face the brunt of Chicago winters. An offset HPC guard plate was cut to size and used as a retainer for a weather flap. Rubberized material was fastened to the offset guard plate (Photo 4). Final installations on the rooftop doors provided ease of usage for maintenance employees, positive protection against weather elements and a dependable, secure locking system. As opposed to the electronic locks, this installation will be good for many years to come.
