Lock Replacement in Idaho Falls, ID

Old doors, new hardware

Replacing a lock means fitting new hardware to the door you already have, and in Idaho Falls the doors come from very different periods. Three settings show the range.

Ridge Avenue: stone, basalt and brick

The Ridge Avenue Historic District, east of the railroad, grew from a building boom that began in 1896 and ran about 25 years. Its first homes were stone and basalt, and later ones wood siding and pressed brick. A door set in a masonry wall cannot easily be moved or reframed, so a replacement has to fit the opening that is already there. Before choosing hardware, measure:

• the backset, from the door edge to the center of the knob hole
• the diameter of the knob hole and of any deadbolt hole
• the door thickness

Eleventh Street: bungalows from 1905 to 1921

South Boulevard and Holmes Avenue bound the numbered streets, the city's first planned neighborhood. Craftsman bungalows lead among house styles in their Eleventh Street Historic District, and most went up between 1905 and 1921. If the door edge shows a long, narrow faceplate, the lock may be a mortise lock, a box set into a pocket cut in the door edge, and a like-for-like replacement has to suit that pocket. Photograph the door edge as well as the face.

1950s houses

By 2024 Census Bureau estimates, 27.8 percent of Idaho Falls homes were built before 1960, and a 1950s house may still have its original knob locks, sometimes with no separate deadbolt. Replacement is a good time to add one. If the knob only turns loosely or the latch misses the strike, ask about lock repair before replacing anything.

What to send

1. Cross streets or neighborhood, and roughly when the house was built.
2. Photos of the lock from outside and inside, the door edge and the strike plate on the frame.
3. The measurements above, if you can take them.
4. Whether the new locks should share a key with the others.

Local homes are covered on Idaho Falls; the service itself is on the lock replacement page.