The buildings and the hardware
The local housing stock affects what we see at the door. Much of the work comes from older houses and row homes with solid wood doors, narrow stile frames, and mortise or rim locks that predate modern cylinder standards; those often need conversion or adapter plates to accept replacement cylinders. There are also plenty of apartments with bored cylindrical locks and multi-family buildings where keyed-alike or master-key systems are common. Storefronts and small commercial units bring heavy-duty exit devices and surface-mounted closers; each building type means different fasteners, backsets, and reinforcement work to get a lock functioning reliably.
