Lock Replacement in Louisville, KY

Older doors set the job

Census estimates show that 36.5 percent of Louisville homes were built before 1960 and 15.6 percent before 1940, the oldest mix among Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and Owensboro. Doors that old may still hold mortise locks, and a modern deadbolt can mean re-cutting the door. A replacement often begins with the door itself: how thick it is, whether a pocket is cut into its edge, and whether earlier repairs have patched the wood.

Old Louisville is the largest preservation district made up almost entirely of Victorian architecture, and Germantown, developed heavily in the 1890s, has the city's largest collection of shotgun houses. A shotgun house with a front and a rear door means two locks to match, so say whether you want them replaced as a pair.

Preservation districts and street-facing hardware

The Landmarks Ordinance (LMCO §§ 32.250–32.263), as amended by Ordinance No. 096, Series 2019, lists seven preservation districts: West Main Street, Limerick, Old Louisville, Cherokee Triangle, Parkland, Butchertown and Clifton. Under § 32.252(D), an exterior alteration to a structure in a district, or to an individual landmark, requires a certificate of appropriateness.

Section 32.256(A) names kick plates and door knockers among the things that are not exterior alterations. A lockset of a different design is not among its examples, so ask Metro's Landmarks staff before changing street-facing hardware. This is general information, not legal advice.

Replace or repair, and what to send

A lock that still sticks or wobbles after repair, or one with a badly worn keyway, is a candidate for replacement; a lock that only needs adjusting may not be. For worn but working hardware, see lock repair.

For a lock replacement request, send the neighborhood, whether the door faces a street in one of the seven districts, the door thickness if you know it, and photos of the door edge and both faces of the lock. For the districts and housing behind these notes, see the Louisville page.