Smart lock and video doorbell installation across North Florida and South Georgia comes down to the door and the doorbell’s power supply. The app gets most of the attention, but the door and the power supply decide whether you’re still happy with the lock and the doorbell a year from now.
Four things decide which smart locks will fit: how thick the door is, the hole already drilled for the lock, whether it takes a deadbolt or a mortise lock (one set into a pocket cut in the door’s edge), and how well the door sits in its frame.
If the door has sagged in its frame, the lock’s bolt will rub and stick, and no software update can fix that. A quick test before buying: close the door and lock the deadbolt by hand. If you have to push, pull or lift the door to lock it, the smart lock’s motor will struggle too, and the lock can jam.
A video doorbell mounted flat against the wall beside the door can end up filming mostly the porch wall, and one mounted too high can miss a package on the mat. Doorbell makers generally suggest about four feet off the ground. It’s worth working out the angle and what the doorbell will face before it’s mounted.
security camera installationExisting doorbell wiring is often old, and sometimes it isn’t there at all. Wired video doorbells run off a small power unit called a transformer, and each doorbell lists the transformer it needs, often 16 volts or more. In an older house, the transformer may run a chime fine and still be too weak to keep a video doorbell running. It’s worth checking whether a wired doorbell will work before one is bought.
Battery doorbells are a real option. How often they need charging depends on how busy the door is: every time the doorbell records movement or you open its live video, it uses charge, and weak Wi-Fi at the door drains it faster.
A lock and a doorbell that each have their own app are two more things to manage. Once they’re on one system, you control them day to day from the same app as everything else in the house. The lock’s and the doorbell’s own apps are still there for setup, updates and any feature the main app doesn’t have.
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Donnie answers the phone Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm.
Four things decide it: how thick the door is, the holes already in it, whether it takes a deadbolt or a mortise lock (one set into a pocket in the door’s edge), and how the door sits in its frame. Most deadbolts are made for a standard door: 1 3/8 to 1 3/4 inches thick, with a 2 1/8 inch hole whose center sits 2 3/8 or 2 3/4 inches in from the edge. That distance from the edge is called the backset. It’s worth measuring before you buy a lock.
Not necessarily. A wired doorbell is generally better if the house already has doorbell wiring. Battery doorbells work too, but they need charging.
On most models, yes. If keeping your key matters, say so before a lock is chosen. Some smart locks fit over the inside of the deadbolt you already have, so the outside of the door and your existing keys stay exactly as they are.
Some do. Some video doorbells only keep recorded video on a paid plan, others keep a few hours of recent clips for free, and some record to a memory card in the doorbell or to a recorder in the house with no plan at all. It’s worth knowing which before one is chosen.
For a lock, the price depends on your door and how many locks you want. For a doorbell, it depends on the wiring already there. Describe your door and doorbell in the quote request form or on the phone, and we’ll give you a quote or explain what else we need.
Donnie answers the phone Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm. Closed Sunday.
Smart lock and video doorbell installation across North Florida and South Georgia, about 120 miles out from Lake City.
