Smart Lock Installation in Bridgeport, CT

Will your door take a smart lock

Smart lock installation starts with the door: most smart deadbolts are made for a modern door with a standard bored hole and bolt. Statewide, fewer than 6 percent of homes were built in 2010 or later and about one in five dates from 1939 or earlier, so a smart lock may have to suit a door that is decades older than the lock.

• Mortise doors. An original wood door with a mortise lock usually cannot take a standard smart deadbolt without new holes. Where a door has a separate deadbolt, a model that mounts on the inside and keeps the outside cylinder can avoid cutting the door.
• Warped or swollen doors. A motorized bolt stalls where a hand would push through. If the bolt drags against the strike, fix the alignment before installing.
• Thickness. Measure the door; some older doors are thicker or thinner than smart locks are sold for.

Approvals in shared buildings

• Cooperatives. Seaside Village, in Bridgeport's South End, has been a cooperative since 1955. In a co-op, check before changing any exterior lock.
• Rentals. A tenant normally needs the landlord's consent. Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-16, a tenant may not unreasonably refuse the landlord entry for inspections or repairs after reasonable notice, so settle in advance how the landlord will get in. Under § 47a-7b, a protected tenant's digital lock may get a new entry code instead of new hardware. This is general information, not legal advice.
• Shared entries. A smart lock on a door every household uses needs a code for each unit and a plan for removing codes when tenants move.

Cold, outages and backup keys

Connecticut's average January temperature is 27.2°F, and cold cuts battery output, so a lock that runs for months in fall may warn of low batteries after a cold snap. In the 2011 Halloween nor'easter, more than 700,000 Connecticut residents lost power, some for more than a week, and a lock that relies on Wi-Fi or an app loses remote access when the router is down. Change batteries before winter and keep a mechanical backup key with you or with a neighbor, not inside the house.

Send photos of both sides of the current lock and say who must approve the change. For other work on a home, see residential locksmith.