This is my back door. I've been told that people use these so called "exterior doors" in order to leave the comfort and safety of their homes in order to brave the cold, unforgiving outside world. I will perhaps never understand the motivations of such people. What I do understand, though, is that having to unlock this door with a key is occasionally inconvenient.
It's also not especially secure to only have a locking latchset with no deadbolt.
Although considering that my previous garage door was held together more with paint than actual wood, and nobody ever bothered to give it a slight push in order to gain unauthorized entry, I think it's safe to say I live in a low-crime neighbourhood.
But still, this is a good opportunity to install a keypad deadbolt.
This is a long post, so click below to continue reading.
Now there was never any provision on this door for installing a deadbolt.
Not on the door itself, nor on the jamb.
So we've got some work to do in order to correct that. The deadbolt comes with a paper template to help you lay things out.
Though "help" is maybe being a bit generous. Either way, I have no use for such things, when I have one of these instead.
Standard spacing between the latchset and the deadbolt is apparently 5-1/2 inches, so we mark that out first on the corner of the door. Remember this mark for later.
This door is about 1-3/4" thick.
So 7/8" puts us about right on center.
And we double-check that by measuring from both sides. The combination square also makes quick work of marking out the center point of the hole on the face of the door, 2-3/8" from the edge to match the latchset.
Now the deadbolt can mount in two different sized holes, either 1-1/2" or 2-1/8". The latter is the more common size these days, but I figured I'd go with 1-1/2" so as to leave more wood in the door. It's not that hard to size up the hole later if needed.
Now people often struggle with hole saws like this, but the key is to remember that they will crap up with saw dust almost instantly, so just push them in a little at a time, and then pull them back so the sawdust can clear before shoving it in again.
Also, don't forget to pop out any layers that come loose as you're drilling.
I can definitely confirm that this is a fiberglass-faced door.
As per usual, finish the hole from the other side as soon as the pilot bit pokes through, so you don't cause a blowout.
Drilling the hole for the bolt goes roughly the same, although I did discover one advantage to going with a 2-1/8" hole that I perhaps didn't account for.
This hole saw doesn't quite reach before it bottoms out. Damn. Well, luckily I have a solution for that.
Yup, that'll do.
Unfortunately this is where I realized I had made a minor error. I had grabbed what I thought was the 1" hole saw out of my set. However...
That is very much not a 1" hole saw. The reason for this mistake is even more peculiar: there is no 1" hole saw in this set.
How very weird. Well, a 1-1/8 hole isn't going to do the job, so let's go ahead and plug it back up so we can re-drill it to the right size.
The 1-3/8" hole saw makes a plug that's almost exactly the right size to fit the 1-1/8" hole.
Almost but not quite, it's just a touch big.
Which is good, I want a snug fit, so a little bit of massaging with a coarse file brings things into tolerance.
And that's looking good now.
So it gets a bath in Titebond III and the excess is trimmed flush.
And this makes a good point to stop for lunch while the glue dries.
Getting back at it, the 1" auger bit makes quick work of drilling the right sized hole (I clearly should have just used it in the first place) and we're back on track.
This is also a good opportunity to drill some clearance in the back of the hole for the bolt to fit into, which is I guess another argument in favour of the 2-1/8" hole size.
Anyway, we need to mortise in that plate, so with a bit of layout using the combination square, we've got all the marks we need.
The four center marks above and below the hole are to locate a 1/2" brad-point drill bit, that I'll be using to clear out the radiused corners.
Like so.
Then it's a quick bit of chisel work.
And the mortise is done.
This will need a bit of paint, but it's always needed a bit of paint so that's nothing new.
The strike plate will also need a mortise, so to figure out where to place it, we transfer the center mark from the door to the jamb.
Now you might wonder how far in to place the strike plate, and here's the sneaky secret: when closed, the face of the door is exactly in line with the edge of the jamb. So if the door is, as mine is, 1-3/4" thick, then the center line of the strike plate should be 7/8" from the edge of the jamb, just like it was 7/8" from the edge of the door.
Rinse and repeat with drilling the corners and chiseling the center.
Another tip: pre-drill the center hole with a smaller bit to mark its location while you cut the mortise, then come back with the 1" bit to finish up.
Lastly I use a self-centering drill bit to peck the start of the screw holes to make sure they line up nicely and go in straight.
On both the door and the jamb.
And then the rest of the installation goes exactly as you'd expect.
And now I can enter my back door using just a numeric combination rather than needing my keys. At least, I can if I remember to leave the latchset unlocked.
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