Lock Replacement in Columbia, MO

Old doors and newer ones

Columbia's housing is young. Census Bureau numbers for 2024 show 40.6 percent of its homes built in 2000 or later and only 3.8 percent before 1940. What older stock there is gathers in a historic core that circles downtown, running west along Broadway and south into East Campus. The city has nine National Register historic districts, among them Downtown, East Campus and West Broadway.

East Campus has 262 contributing buildings from about 1895 to 1945, most of them Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival or bungalow houses. Houses from that period may still carry mortise locks, or door bores that differ from today's standard. Replacing the lock on one may take a matching mortise body, a cover plate over the old holes, or a lock chosen to fit the existing cutouts, so the original door does not have to be re-bored.

A newer house is usually the simpler case. The door tends to accept standard hardware already, so the decision is about the lock itself.

Signs it is time to replace

• The deadbolt sticks or wobbles, or no longer throws fully into the frame even after the strike is adjusted.
• The key turns but the bolt does not respond, or the lock has already been repaired more than once.
• The throw is short. For rental units, the city's inspection checklist cites International Property Maintenance Code sections 304.15 and 304.18.1 and calls for an egress-door deadbolt with a throw of at least 1 inch.
• You want a lever for an easier grip, or a keypad; see smart lock installation.

This is general information, not legal advice.

What to include

Measure the door thickness and the backset, the distance from the door edge to the center of the knob hole, and photograph the door edge with the latch plate showing. Say whether the lock is a mortise type, with the keyhole set in a tall rectangular plate, and whether the house is in East Campus or another older neighborhood.