Smart lock installation, set up door by door

Keypad deadbolts and app-controlled locks for houses and rentals around Murfreesboro, matched to the door you already have and set up with you before the technician leaves. You hear what the door needs with a free estimate, before any hardware comes out of the box.

Trading a key for a code

Behind the keypad sits an ordinary deadbolt that slides into the frame the way it always has; what changes is how it gets told to move. Instead of a key, people use a code on a keypad, a phone, or both, and the lock keeps track of who came and went.

For a family that means no more spare key under a planter and no more copying keys for a teenager who loses them. For a landlord it means a code that stops working the day a lease ends. Plenty of models can also relock on a timer once the door shuts, which settles the question of whether anyone remembered.

Keypad deadbolt installed on a front door, TN

Keypad, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi

The simplest version is a keypad deadbolt with no app at all: codes are added at the lock, and it never needs the internet. A step up, Bluetooth models talk to a phone standing near the door, which suits people who want the phone to work as a key without adding anything to the home network.

Connected locks, whether they join your Wi-Fi directly or reach it through a little plug-in hub, can be viewed and unlocked from anywhere you have signal. Those are the ones that send an alert when the door unlocks or let you open it for a delivery from work.

Another route keeps your current deadbolt: a conversion kit swaps out just the interior thumb-turn side and leaves the keyed exterior untouched. Which one fits depends on how you live in the house, and that conversation comes before the install.

Leases that turn over every summer

With a university in town, plenty of houses and duplexes change tenants once a year, sometimes once a semester, and a set of keys can pass through half a dozen roommates. A keypad lock turns that into a list of codes: one per tenant group, deleted when they move out, with the owner keeping a separate code of their own.

Codes don't cancel a lost metal key, though: nearly all smart deadbolts keep a cylinder, so a missing key still calls for a rekey. What it does is shrink the number of metal keys in circulation to the one or two the owner holds.

The door has to cooperate

A motor can only push a bolt that moves freely. If the bolt rubs on the strike plate, the lock strains every time it locks, drains its batteries in weeks instead of months, and eventually reports a jam. So the door is checked first: how the bolt lines up with the hole in the frame, whether the strike needs to move, and whether the door sags on its hinges.

Most smart deadbolts go into the hole already drilled for the old one, though door thickness and the distance from the edge of the door have to fall inside what the lock accepts. A door that needs a new bore or a deeper strike gets it, and you hear that with the estimate rather than halfway through the job.

Summer humidity swells wooden doors here, and a bolt that slides easily in March can bind in July. A strike set with a little room to spare keeps the lock happy all year.

Batteries and the key that stays

Smart locks run on ordinary batteries, and most give plenty of warning before they quit: a blinking light, a chirp, a notice in the app. Weeks of warning is normal, which is the time to swap them.

Almost all of them still take a key, and that key is worth keeping somewhere you can reach it, not in a drawer inside the house. If a lock does go dead with nobody holding the key, it is a lockout like any other: call, and the technician gets you back in and looks at why the lock failed.

How an install visit goes

A single trip handles most houses, whatever the number of doors.

Start with a phone call
Say which door it is, what hardware sits on it today, and how you'd like to open it: by code, by phone, or either.
The door is checked
Bolt alignment, strike, door thickness and the existing bore, before anything is removed.
Estimate first, hardware second
Once you agree to the free estimate, the new deadbolt goes on, the bolt is tuned to glide into the frame, and the old lock leaves with the technician.
Handed over working
Each household code is keyed in with you, the phone app is linked at the door, and the spare key is turned in the cylinder to prove it works.

New houses on builder hardware

Subdivisions keep going up around the edges of town, and a new house usually arrives with basic builder locks and keys that went through the hands of a whole construction crew. That is a natural moment to put a keypad deadbolt on the door everyone actually uses, often the one in from the garage, and rekey the rest so the old keys stop working.

Everything can then run on one key plus a code, which beats a ring of four builder keys that all look alike.

Smart lock questions

Will a smart lock fit the door I have?

Usually. Most smart deadbolts drop into the hole that's already drilled. The thickness of the door, how far the bolt sits from the edge and the frame's condition are confirmed, and anything beyond a straight swap shows up in the free estimate.

What happens when the batteries run low?

The lock warns you, often for weeks, with a light, a sound or an app notice. The key cylinder still works if the batteries go flat, so keep that key somewhere you can get to it.

Can each person get their own code?

Yes. A typical keypad deadbolt stores a long list of codes, and any single one can be erased without touching the rest, so a dog walker or a tenant group can be removed without changing anyone else's code.

Do I need Wi-Fi for a smart lock?

No. A code-only lock never touches the internet, and Bluetooth models talk straight to a phone nearby. A home network connection only matters if you want to see or unlock the door from across town.

Is a keypad deadbolt as solid as a regular one?

It throws the same kind of bolt. How well a door holds depends just as much on the strike plate and the screws in the frame, and those are looked at during the install.

Does a smart lock replace rekeying for a rental?

Not entirely. Codes make it easy to cut off past tenants, but if a metal key has gone missing, the cylinder should still be rekeyed. Both can be done in the same visit.

What if the lock dies and I'm outside?

Call. It is handled like any lockout: you get back in, and the technician checks why the lock failed before leaving.

Is the estimate free?

Yes. You see the door assessed and the choices laid out, and nothing starts until you've had the free estimate.

Locked out right now?

Say the street and a technician heads out.

Call now