Keyless · Keypads · Smart locks
Home Security Systems
Smart locks, keypads, keyless entry and the mechanical groundwork that makes any of it worth having. Fitted properly, explained plainly.
Order of operations
Electronics Do Not Fix A Weak Door
The right sequence saves most people a lot of money.
Home security has a natural order, and almost everybody does it backwards. People start with the exciting part — an app, a camera, a keypad — and finish, if ever, with the boring part, which is the door itself.
The boring part is where break-ins are actually decided. A forced entry does not defeat a cylinder or outsmart an app; it splits the jamb trim beside the lock with one kick. If that is still true of your door, a smart lock has changed who can open it politely and changed nothing at all about who can open it rudely.
So the sequence we recommend is: make the door and frame physically sound, then control who has access, then add monitoring if you want it. Done in that order every stage builds on the last. Done backwards you end up with an expensive way to watch your own break-in.
What we install
Access Control For A Home
Everything here is fitted, tested and handed over working — not left in a box with a QR code.
Smart deadbolts
A motorised deadbolt driven by a keypad, an app, a fob or a fingerprint. The right choice for most homes, provided it has a mechanical key override. We fit, program and hand over with the codes documented.
Keypad entry
No phone, no app, no account — just a code. The most reliable form of keyless entry and the easiest to live with, especially for children, older family members and anyone who does not want another app.
Keyless retrofit cylinders
Where you want to keep the existing handset and finish, a retrofit unit replaces only the interior thumbturn. The outside of your door looks exactly as it did.
Temporary and scheduled codes
A cleaner who has access on Tuesdays, a dog walker with weekday afternoons, a contractor with a code that expires on Friday. This is what keyless entry is genuinely good at.
Garage and side entry integration
The most-forgotten door on any property. If the front door is keyless and the garage entry is a builder-grade knobset, the upgrade has not achieved much.
Video doorbells
Useful for deliveries and for knowing who called. Not a substitute for a lock, and worth siting properly so it sees faces rather than the tops of heads.
Cameras
Coverage of approaches and entry points rather than pointing at the street. See residential CCTV installation for how we plan placement.
Frame and strike reinforcement
The unglamorous foundation. A box strike with three-inch screws into the stud, long hinge screws, solid backing where the frame is hollow.
Rescue and reprogramming
Dead batteries, forgotten codes, a lock left behind by previous owners, a system nobody has the admin credentials for. Very common, and usually fixable without replacing anything.
Living with keyless
What Nobody Tells You Before You Buy
Smart locks are good products that get sold badly. The marketing is about convenience; the things that actually determine whether you are happy in two years never appear on the box.
Batteries are the big one. A motorised deadbolt draws real current every time it cycles, and cold weather shortens battery life considerably — which in Whitby means the low-battery warning tends to arrive in January. Treat batteries as a scheduled maintenance item, twice a year, and the problem disappears.
The second is the override. Some models have no mechanical key at all, which means a dead battery or a failed motor is a locksmith call rather than an inconvenience. We will fit those if you want them, but you should choose that knowingly.
The third is ownership of the codes. A surprising number of homes we visit are running on an installer code, a builder default, or a previous owner’s account. If you cannot personally add and remove users, you do not control your own door.
Rules for any keyless lock
✓ Choose a model with a mechanical key override.
✓ Change the installer or factory code on day one.
✓ Replace batteries on a schedule, not on a warning.
✓ Keep a physical key somewhere accessible off-site.
✓ Make sure you hold the admin account, not the installer.
✓ Delete codes the day somebody stops needing access.
None of this is difficult. All of it is skipped in almost every installation we are called out to rescue.
The foundation
The Twenty-Dollar Upgrade That Beats The Thousand-Dollar One
A standard strike plate is held by two short screws that reach only the jamb trim — a thin strip of wood nailed to the frame. One solid kick splits that trim and takes the strike with it. The deadbolt is still locked, still perfect, still holding a piece of broken timber.
A box strike anchored with three-inch screws reaches past the trim into the structural stud behind the frame. Long screws in the top hinge anchor the hinge side to the same structure. Where the framing is hollow or shimmed, solid backing goes in behind the strike.
That is the whole upgrade. It costs less than dinner, it takes about twenty minutes, and it changes a break-in from one kick to a sustained, noisy, visible effort. We fit it on almost every residential security visit, and it is the change customers come back and tell us about.
Layers
Four Layers, In The Right Order
01
Physical
Solid doors, Grade 2 or better deadbolts, reinforced strikes and hinges, working window locks, and a secondary pin on patio doors.
02
Access
Rekeying so you know how many keys exist, then keyless entry so you control who can open the door and when.
03
Visibility
Lighting at side and rear entries, trimmed shrubs, and cameras placed to see faces at the approach rather than to admire the street.
04
Awareness
Notifications that tell you a door opened, a doorbell that shows who called, and knowing your neighbours well enough that an unfamiliar van gets noticed.
Left With A System Nobody Can Log Into?
It happens constantly. A house sells, the smart lock stays, and the new owners have hardware they cannot administer — codes they did not set, an app tied to somebody else’s email, and no idea who else still has access.
In most cases this is recoverable. Many locks can be factory reset from the interior unit, re-enrolled to a new account, and given a fresh set of codes. Where the model genuinely cannot be reset, a retrofit or replacement is usually straightforward because the door is already prepared for it.
Either way, do not live with it. A lock you cannot administer is a lock somebody else can.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Are smart locks actually secure?
The electronics are rarely the weak point — the door and frame are. A good smart deadbolt in a reinforced frame is genuinely secure. The same lock in a jamb held by two short screws is not, and neither would a mechanical one be.
What happens when the batteries die?
With a mechanical key override, nothing much — you use the key. Without one, it is a locksmith call. That is why the override is the first thing we look for when recommending a model.
Do keypads work in a Whitby winter?
Good ones do, but cold shortens battery life significantly. Change batteries twice a year rather than waiting for the low-battery warning, which tends to arrive in January.
Can I keep my existing handle and just go keyless?
Often yes. A retrofit unit replaces the interior thumbturn only, so the outside of the door looks unchanged and your existing key still works.
Do I need Wi-Fi for a smart lock?
No. Plenty of keypad locks work entirely offline. Wi-Fi adds remote access and notifications, and adds a dependency on your network and the manufacturer’s service.
Can you rescue a lock the previous owner set up?
Usually. Most models can be factory reset from the interior unit and re-enrolled to your own account with fresh codes. Bring us the make and model and we will tell you before we come out.
Choosing
How To Pick A Smart Lock Without Regretting It
Five questions that eliminate most of the market in about a minute.
Does it have a mechanical key override? This is the first filter and it removes a surprising number of products. Without a physical key, a dead battery, a failed motor or a corrupted firmware update turns your front door into a locksmith call. With one, all of those become mildly annoying instead.
Does it fit your door? Door thickness, backset, bore size and the existing prep all matter. Multipoint and mortise doors in particular need a lock designed for them — a standard smart deadbolt will not go into a UPVC back door, and no amount of enthusiasm changes that.
Does it work without the internet? A keypad lock that stores its codes locally will keep working through a router failure, an outage, or a manufacturer discontinuing a service. A cloud-dependent lock is only as durable as the company behind it, and this category has already seen products stop working when a service was shut down.
Who owns the administration? If an installer, a builder or a previous owner holds the admin account, you do not control your own door. You should be able to add and remove codes yourself, from day one, without contacting anyone.
How does it behave in the cold? Whitby routinely sees temperatures well below anything a consumer keypad is enthusiastically tested for. Look for a rated operating range that actually covers a Canadian winter, and expect battery life to be shorter than the box claims.
Households
Keyless Entry Suits Some Homes More Than Others
Convenience is not evenly distributed.
Families with school-age children. The strongest case there is. A code cannot be lost on a bus, left in a coat pocket at a friend’s house, or dropped in the snow, and you get a notification when your child gets home. It removes an entire recurring category of household stress.
Homes with regular visitors. A cleaner, a dog walker, a carer, a contractor. Scheduled and temporary codes mean access that starts and ends when it should, without cutting keys that then live in somebody else’s drawer indefinitely.
Older residents. Genuinely mixed. A keypad removes the fine motor problem of getting a small key into a small hole in the cold, which is a real benefit. But a lock that depends on remembering a code, or on a phone, can be worse than a key rather than better. The right answer is often a keypad with the physical key retained and clearly labelled.
Rentals and short-term lets. Almost always worth it. Codes change between tenants without a locksmith visit, and there is no key to be returned or not returned. Just make sure there is a mechanical override and that somebody local knows where the key is.
Quiet single-occupancy homes. The weakest case. If nobody else ever needs access and you have carried the same key for years without incident, the money is better spent on the frame, the strike and the hinges than on a motor and a battery.
Service area
We Come To You
We are a mobile service — there is no shop counter to drive to. Whitby is our home base, and we cover Durham Region and the eastern GTA, day and night.
Not on the list? If you are anywhere in Durham Region, call and ask.
▸ Pringle Creek
▸ Lynde Creek
▸ Blue Grass Meadows
▸ Ashburn
▸ Myrtle Station
▸ Columbus
Locked Out? We Answer The Phone.
24/7 mobile locksmith service across Whitby, Brooklin and Durham Region. Real prices on the phone, a marked vehicle at your door, and a written invoice when we are done.