Hear from Our Customers
You shouldn’t have to fight your front door every time you come home. When your door knob sticks, spins without catching, or feels loose under your hand, it’s not just annoying—it’s a security risk you’re living with every day.
Professional door knob installation means the latch aligns perfectly with the strike plate. The mechanism engages smoothly every single time. The screws are set into solid wood, not just surface-mounted into a hole that’s been stripped out from years of wiggling.
Most hardware store knobs use plastic internal components that wear down fast. The ones we install use metal parts designed to handle thousands of cycles without failing. You get hardware that matches your door’s thickness, your frame’s backset, and your security needs—not whatever was on sale in aisle seven.
We’ve been in the locksmith business since the late 1800s. Today, fourth-generation locksmith Tom McCausland and his daughter Chrissy run the largest locksmith operation in the Delaware Valley—right here in Prospect Park, minutes from Ridley Park.
We’re not a call center dispatching whoever’s available. When you call us, you’re getting technicians who’ve installed door hardware in hundreds of Delaware County homes, many of them built in the 1950s like most of Ridley Park’s housing stock. We know the quirks of older construction, the common frame issues, and how to make modern hardware work in homes that weren’t built for it.
You’ll see our vans around town. We’ve been here long enough that families come back generation after generation—because when you do the work right the first time, people remember.
First, we look at what you’re dealing with. Is the door sagging? Is the frame square? Is the existing hole drilled correctly, or has it been enlarged over the years by loose hardware? These things matter because a new knob won’t fix a misaligned door.
We measure the backset—the distance from the edge of your door to the center of the knob. Most residential doors use either a 2-3/8″ or 2-3/4″ backset, and if you get this wrong, your latch won’t line up with the strike plate. We also check door thickness because not all knobs fit all doors.
Then we install the new hardware using the right tools and techniques. The latch gets seated flush. The strike plate gets anchored into the frame with screws long enough to bite into solid wood, not just the trim. The knob assembly gets tightened to spec so it doesn’t loosen up in six months.
Before we leave, we test it. Multiple times. You shouldn’t have to wonder if it’s going to work.
Ready to get started?
We carry Kwikset, Schlage, and Medeco—brands that use metal internal components and stand behind their products. These aren’t the $20 builder-grade knobs you’ll find at the hardware store with plastic gears that strip out after a year of use.
For Ridley Park homes, we often recommend lever-style handles for front and back doors. They’re easier to operate when your hands are full, and they meet ADA accessibility standards if that matters to you now or down the road. For bedrooms and bathrooms, traditional knobs work fine since they’re not getting the same heavy use.
If you’re replacing exterior door hardware, we’ll talk about deadbolt integration. A good knob with a weak deadbolt doesn’t make sense. We can rekey everything to work on the same key, install matching finishes, and make sure your entire entry system works as one unit. Most of Ridley Park’s homes have solid wood doors that can handle quality hardware—we just need to install it correctly so it actually performs the way it’s designed to.
Installation typically runs between $150 and $300 per door, depending on the hardware you choose and whether we’re working with existing holes or need to drill new ones. That includes the service call, labor, and professional-grade hardware from manufacturers like Schlage or Kwikset.
If your door needs prep work—like fixing a stripped hole, adjusting a sagging door, or routing out space for a larger latch—that adds to the cost. But it’s work that needs to happen anyway if you want the new knob to function properly. We’ll tell you what’s needed before we start.
Big-box stores advertise cheaper knobs, but they’re usually quoting hardware-only prices. By the time you factor in your time, the risk of incorrect installation, and the likelihood you’ll need to call someone when it doesn’t work right, professional installation makes sense. You’re paying for it to work the first time and keep working.
Yes. Most of Ridley Park’s homes were built in the 1950s, and we install new hardware in older doors regularly. The key is making sure the door itself is still in good shape—solid wood, not rotted or warped, and hung properly in the frame.
Older doors sometimes have non-standard hole sizes or backsets because previous owners installed whatever they had on hand. We can work with existing holes if they’re in decent shape, or we can fill and re-drill if needed. Sometimes the door has been painted so many times that hardware doesn’t sit flush anymore—we’ll plane or chisel as needed to get a clean fit.
The advantage of older solid wood doors is that they’re actually better than most modern hollow-core doors. They’re heavier, more stable, and they can support quality hardware without flexing. As long as the door is square in the frame and the wood is sound, we can make new hardware work.
Levers operate with a downward push, while knobs require a twisting grip. For most people, levers are easier—especially when you’re carrying groceries, your hands are wet, or you have arthritis. They’re also required by ADA accessibility standards for commercial buildings, though that doesn’t apply to residential homes.
Knobs are more traditional looking and they’re fine for interior doors where ease of use isn’t as critical. Some people prefer them for bedrooms because they’re harder for small kids to operate. For exterior doors, either works—it’s more about what feels right to you.
From a security standpoint, there’s no meaningful difference. What matters is the quality of the internal mechanism and how well the latch engages with the strike plate. A cheap lever is no better than a cheap knob, and a quality knob is just as secure as a quality lever. We install both, and we’ll show you options that fit your budget and your door.
Quality hardware installed correctly should last 15 to 25 years with normal residential use. The brands we install—Schlage, Kwikset, Medeco—use metal internal components rated for hundreds of thousands of cycles. That’s decades of daily use before anything wears out.
What kills door hardware early is poor installation. If the latch doesn’t align with the strike plate, you’re forcing it every time you close the door. That wears down the mechanism fast. If the knob isn’t tightened properly, it works loose and the internal parts start grinding against each other. If the screws aren’t anchored into solid wood, the whole assembly shifts over time.
We also use OEM parts, which matters for repairs down the road. If something does eventually wear out, you can get a replacement part that fits. With off-brand hardware, you’re often replacing the entire unit because parts aren’t available. Spending a little more upfront on quality hardware and professional installation means you’re not dealing with this again in three years.
Yes, and it’s something you should think about if you’re upgrading your door hardware. Rekeying means changing the internal pins so your old keys no longer work—you get new keys that operate the new locks. It’s useful if you’ve lost track of who has keys to your house over the years.
We can also key all your exterior doors to work on the same key, which most people prefer over carrying separate keys for front, back, and side doors. If you’re replacing one door’s hardware, we can match the new lock to your existing key so you don’t need to carry extra keys.
Rekeying adds about $20 to $30 per lock to the total cost, and we can do it on the spot. Our vans carry the tools and pin kits needed for most residential locks. It’s faster and cheaper than replacing all your locks, and it gives you the same security benefit—nobody with an old key can get in.
Yes. We install electronic locks, smart locks, and keypad entry systems for residential customers throughout Ridley Park. Brands like Schlage Encode, Kwikset Kevo, and August Smart Lock all work in standard residential door prep, and they offer features like keyless entry, smartphone control, and temporary access codes.
The installation process is similar to traditional hardware, but we also handle the programming and connectivity setup. That includes pairing the lock with your phone, setting up access codes, and making sure it integrates with your home system if you’re running something like Ring or Google Home.
Battery-powered smart locks work fine in Ridley Park’s climate. You’ll get low-battery warnings with plenty of time to replace them, and most units have backup key access if the batteries die completely. If you’re worried about technology failing, we can install a traditional deadbolt alongside the smart knob so you’ve got a mechanical backup. We’ll walk you through the options and install whatever makes sense for how you actually use your door.
Local Resources
