Lock Replacement in Milwaukee, WI

Older homes and their doors

In the Census Bureau's 2024 estimates, 33.9 percent of Milwaukee homes sit in buildings from 1939 or earlier, and another 27.9 percent in buildings from the 1940s and 1950s.

Two historic districts shape the choices. Bay View's has been on the National Register since 1982, and most of its roughly 330 buildings date from 1870 to 1915. The Historic Third Ward's district, designated in 1984, covers 70 buildings. In buildings like these, replacement is a question of fit as much as security: match the door, not just the lock.

Where an original door still carries a mortise lock, meaning the lock body is set into a pocket cut in the door edge, ask about lock repair or rekeying first. Replace when the mechanism has failed.

What a new deadbolt has to meet

Chapter 217 of Milwaukee's ordinances covers residential buildings other than hotels, motels and rooming houses regulated under chapter 275. It reaches swinging exterior doors that stairs lead to or that sit within 10 feet of the ground, and doors between a unit and a shared corridor. The standards come down to three points, and the building's age decides which set applies:

• Bolt. A deadbolt with a bolt of at least one inch in buildings dating from June 24, 1989 or later (s. 217-3), or at least 1/2 inch in older ones (s. 217-13). A surface-mounted vertical bolt lock is the alternative in both.
• Cylinder. Flush-mounted or protected against wrenching; newer buildings also need at least five pin tumblers.
• Strike. In a wood frame, the newer standard is a metal strike box attached to the wall studs with 2-1/2-inch minimum screws or metal lugs; the older one is a strike held by at least two screws.

A building with an operating intrusion alarm in every dwelling unit is excepted, and in a building put up before 1989, s. 217-11 excepts a unit occupied by its owner. This is general information, not legal advice.

Describing the door

Say which door, roughly when the building went up and whether you own or rent, and send a photo of the door edge and the lock.