The buildings and the hardware
The building stock dictates the hardware we see. Older wood doors often have mortise locks or oversized strikeplates and doors that have shifted, which requires fitting longer bolts, adjusting faceplates, or trimming. Many multi-unit buildings use narrow stile metal doors with light-gauge frames and thin locks that need reinforcing or conversion to standard bored locks. Storefronts tend to have aluminum frames and rim locks or panic hardware that must be matched to the glass-and-frame construction. Those differences change what we bring in the truck: mortise levers, bored cylindrical sets, heavy-duty strikes, longer screws and reinforcing plates for weak jambs.