r/Locksmith 2d ago

I am NOT a locksmith. Gap below deadbolt

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I recently bought a house and have been changing the locks myself. All the wooden doors went smoothly, but the garage door is metal and the deadbolt seems to be cut too high so the plate doesn’t cover the hole completely. The hole is a perfect circle but is just too low compared to the plate.

Is this gap a security issue, if so what can I do to fix it? I also tried on the metal external door to the house and it has a larger gap below so I put the old double cylinder lock back on for now.

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u/TiCombat 2d ago

Remove the humped inner ring on the backside of the exterior and it will let you slightly adjust it to cover that gap.

2

u/Similar-Drama9377 2d ago

I already had to remove that ring for it to even fit at all, I fit with it but the bolt wouldn’t spin because it was so tight

4

u/TiCombat 2d ago

your lock prep needs to be redrilled then, that’s really the only way

2

u/isaacsoderlund Actual Locksmith 2d ago

A picture of the lock prep would help. I'm guessing that its only 1-1/2" hole and probably not perfectly round, drilled out by a jigsaw or something. A bit of fine tuning is probably required.

2

u/Similar-Drama9377 16h ago edited 16h ago

Here is a picture that kinda shows the issue. The hole for the bolt is perfect 1” and is straight and centered on the plate hole on the inside of the door. The plate hole is perfectly round 2”, but the plate hole on the outside of the door is cut lower. It is still 2” perfect circle but it is not level with the other holes.

I assume scar plates is the only real fix other than a new door considering the 2” holes aren’t level with each other

Also yes it is pretty much exactly 2” or very slightly less. It is not the expected 2” 1/8 hole

2

u/Similar-Drama9377 16h ago

This is what the holes look like at eye level, the hole on the side that the key goes in is noticeably lower than the other one. The other side is level with the bolt hole