Hear from Our Customers
Your campus has dozens of buildings. Labs that need restricted access. Offices that should lock automatically after hours. Residence halls where student safety isn’t negotiable.
Right now, you’re probably dealing with lost keys, unauthorized access, or outdated card readers that fail when you need them most. Maybe you’ve had a security incident that exposed just how little visibility you actually have across your property.
A proper access control system installation changes that. You’ll see who entered which building and when. You’ll grant or revoke access from your desk instead of chasing down physical keys. When an emergency happens, you can lock down specific areas instantly—not after someone runs across campus with a ring of keys.
The difference isn’t just better security. It’s fewer 2 AM calls about lockouts. It’s not re-keying an entire building because someone lost their keys. It’s knowing your people are safe and your property is protected, even when you’re not physically there to check.
We’ve been in the locksmith business since the late 1800s. That’s not marketing talk—it’s fourth-generation locksmith Tom McCausland and his daughter Chrissy running the largest locksmith operation in the Delaware Valley today.
We’ve installed building access control systems across Delaware County, Montgomery County, and the greater Philadelphia area for over a century. When Haverford College area institutions need door access control systems that integrate with existing infrastructure, they call us because we actually show up and do the work right.
You’re not getting a subcontractor or a call center. You’re getting locksmiths who’ve seen every configuration, every failure point, and every shortcut that causes problems six months later.
We start with a free walk-through of your facility. You show us what you’re dealing with—which doors need card readers, which areas need biometric access, where your current system is failing. We’re looking at door types, existing wiring, how people actually move through your buildings.
Then we map out a system that makes sense for your specific setup. Not a cookie-cutter package. If you’ve got historic buildings with limited wiring options, we account for that. If you need integration with fire alarms or existing CCTV, we design for that. You’ll know exactly what hardware goes where and why.
Installation happens on your timeline. We’re not ripping out doors or leaving buildings unsecured overnight. Our techs install card readers, magnetic locks, control panels, and any biometric hardware during hours that don’t disrupt your operations. Everything gets tested before we consider the job done.
After installation, you get a walkthrough of the system controls. How to add users, revoke credentials, pull access reports, lock down areas remotely. We make sure your team knows how to use what you’re paying for. And when something needs service down the road, you’ve got our number—same company, same techs who installed it.
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Access control systems installation includes the full hardware setup—card readers at entry points, magnetic locks or electric strikes on doors, control panels that manage permissions, and the software interface where you control everything. We work with quality manufacturers like Medeco, Schlage, and other commercial-grade systems built to handle high-traffic campus environments.
For Haverford College area institutions, that often means integrating with existing infrastructure. Your fire alarm system needs to release magnetic locks during emergencies. Your CCTV should sync with access events so you can see who entered when an alert triggers. We handle those integrations so your security systems work together instead of operating in silos.
You’ll also get mobile credential capability if your system supports it—students and staff can use their phones instead of cards. Cloud-based access control options mean you manage permissions from anywhere, not just from a server room on campus. And if you need biometric readers for high-security areas like research labs, we install and calibrate those too.
The goal is a system that scales with you. Add buildings later? We can extend your existing setup. Need to integrate with future technology? We design with that flexibility in mind. Pennsylvania colleges and commercial properties have different needs than a small office building, and your access control system should reflect that.
There’s no honest one-size answer because every facility is different. A small office building with five doors and basic card readers costs far less than a multi-building campus with biometric access, mobile credentials, and full CCTV integration.
What drives cost is the number of access points, the type of hardware you need, and how much integration work is involved. Retrofitting historic buildings with limited electrical infrastructure costs more than new construction with modern wiring. Adding biometric readers or high-security locks for sensitive areas increases the price. Cloud-based systems have different cost structures than on-premise servers.
We give you a real quote after walking your property. You’ll know what you’re paying for each component and why. No inflated “security packages” with features you don’t need. The investment typically pays for itself in reduced re-keying costs, fewer lockouts, and actual security instead of hoping nobody lost their keys this week.
Yes, and that integration is often the most valuable part of the system. When your door access control systems talk to your CCTV, you can pull video of who entered a building when an unauthorized access alert fires. When integrated with fire alarms, magnetic locks release automatically during emergencies—no one gets trapped because of a security system.
The integration work depends on what you currently have installed. Most modern commercial systems can communicate with each other through standard protocols. Older systems sometimes need additional hardware or software bridges to connect properly. We assess your existing setup during the walk-through and tell you exactly what’s possible.
The end result is one interface where you monitor everything. You’re not logging into three different systems to figure out what happened. Access events, video footage, and alarm status all appear in one place. For campus security teams managing multiple buildings, that consolidated view is the difference between responding in minutes versus scrambling to piece together information from disconnected systems.
Properly installed systems have fail-safe mechanisms built in. Magnetic locks typically fail-secure or fail-safe depending on the door’s purpose—exterior doors might stay locked during power loss for security, while interior doors release so people aren’t trapped. Fire-rated doors always fail-safe to meet code requirements.
Most commercial access control systems include battery backup for control panels and critical readers. That gives you several hours of operation during power outages. The system logs all events even during backup power mode, so you don’t lose your access history. When power returns, everything resumes normal operation automatically.
If hardware fails—a card reader stops working or a magnetic lock malfunctions—you’ve got our number. We stock common replacement parts and can get to Haverford College area properties quickly. The system is designed so one failed component doesn’t bring down your entire security infrastructure. Other doors keep working while we repair or replace the problem hardware.
A complete campus installation typically takes anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on how many buildings and access points you’re securing. A single building with ten doors might take two to three days. A full campus with twenty buildings and a hundred access points is a phased project we schedule around your operations.
We don’t shut down your entire facility to do the work. Installation happens building by building or wing by wing, so you maintain security and access throughout the project. We coordinate with your schedule—if certain buildings can’t be disrupted during business hours, we work evenings or weekends for those areas.
The timeline also depends on integration complexity. Connecting to existing CCTV and alarm systems adds time. Running new wiring in buildings without existing infrastructure takes longer than installing readers where wiring already exists. Custom configurations for high-security areas need additional setup and testing. We give you a realistic timeline during the proposal phase, and we stick to it.
Not necessarily. Many existing doors can be retrofitted with electric strikes or magnetic locks that work with your current hardware. If your doors are in good condition and meet security requirements, we often integrate access control without replacing the entire lockset.
Some situations do require new hardware. Doors that need panic bars for code compliance get those installed as part of the access control project. High-security areas might need upgraded locks that meet specific standards. Glass doors or gates sometimes need specialized mounting hardware for card readers and electric locks.
During the walk-through, we assess every door and tell you exactly what stays and what needs upgrading. You’re not paying to replace functional hardware just to install access control. But if your current locks are worn out or don’t meet security standards, we’ll recommend replacements that make sense for your long-term needs. The goal is a system that’s both secure and cost-effective—not unnecessary replacements that inflate the project cost.
You can absolutely manage day-to-day access control yourself. Adding users, revoking credentials, pulling access reports, adjusting schedules—that’s all done through your system interface. We train your team during installation so you’re not calling us every time someone needs building access.
Where ongoing service matters is hardware maintenance and system updates. Card readers wear out in high-traffic areas. Magnetic locks eventually need replacement. Software updates keep your system secure and compatible with new technology. Some organizations handle that in-house if they have dedicated facilities staff. Others prefer service agreements so they’re not troubleshooting hardware failures themselves.
We don’t force service contracts. You call us when you need us. But for larger campuses with dozens of access points, a maintenance agreement usually makes sense—you get priority response, regular system health checks, and predictable costs instead of emergency repair bills. It’s your choice based on your team’s capacity and how critical uninterrupted access control is to your operations.
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