Lock Replacement in Tacoma, WA

Replacing locks in older Tacoma houses

Lock replacement removes a knob, lever, deadbolt or mortise lock and fits new hardware; rekeying keeps the hardware and changes only the key. In Tacoma, house age often decides how simple that is. The Census Bureau's 2024 estimates put 27.0 percent of the city's homes as built before 1940, against 9.3 percent statewide.

Older doors raise specific questions:

• Mortise pockets. A new mortise lock must fit the pocket already cut into the door edge.
• Doors with a history. A door that has held several locks over the decades may have old holes or a split edge where a new deadbolt would go.
• Worn strikes and frames. A new lock is only as solid as the frame it latches into.

Historic districts and original doors

Tacoma's older neighborhoods and districts include the North Slope, the Wedge, South J Street's row houses from 1889 and 1890, and Stadium-Seminary, whose high-style homes are tied to early lumber barons and railroad executives.

Design guidelines for the North Slope and Wedge, adopted under TMC Chapter 13.07, ask owners to keep historic entry doors whenever feasible. If a non-custom door is proposed instead for security or cost reasons, it should look like wood and fit the style of the house, and exterior work on a contributing house that needs a building permit also goes through design review. If the work reaches the door or frame, ask the City whether design review applies before it starts. This is general information, not legal advice.

When to replace instead of repair or rekey

• the key turns but the bolt no longer moves, or the latch is cracked
• the cylinder is too worn to rekey
• you want a different kind of lock, such as a deadbolt on a door that has only a knob, or a keypad through smart lock installation

A lock that is only stiff or sticky may need lock repair instead.

What to send with a request

• photos of the lock from both sides and the door edge
• whether the house is in a historic district
• how many locks need replacing, and whether they should share one key

The lock replacement page explains the work itself, and the Tacoma page covers the districts named above.