Lock Installation & Replacement in Ajax

Some front doors in Pickering Village and on the wartime streets are on their fourth or fifth lock in eighty years, and each swap left holes, oversized bores or a mortise pocket that modern hardware won't drop into.

We fit new locks cleanly to old doors — adapter plates, wood repairs where a mortise was cut, correct backset every time — while in newer stock it's usually a straight swap. Tell us the rough age of the door and send a photo of its edge for a free quote.

The split in Ajax is stark: doors from the Applecroft era onward take standard modern bores, so a deadbolt upgrade or full handleset swap is quick, while the older south-end doors often need the previous hardware's scars addressed first. For rental houses and basement suites near the Ajax GO station, we regularly set up keyed-alike locks so a landlord carries one key across every door.

Ajax is a town that literally began as a Second World War munitions plant, and its oldest neighbourhoods — the wartime streets south of Highway 401 near the harbour — still carry compact 1940s homes built quickly for Defence Industries Limited workers. Pickering Village, on the town's west edge, is older still, with 19th-century homes along Church Street. From there the town grew in bands: post-war and 60s–70s stock through central Ajax, 80s–90s subdivisions, and the big 2000s-era growth in northeast Ajax around Audley Road and Taunton.

More on the local housing stock: handyman services in Ajax.

Rather than a made-up number, here's an honest look at what affects the cost of lock installation & replacement in Ajax:

• Existing bores — standard-sized holes accept new hardware directly, while older or non-standard preps need adapting, and doors without a deadbolt need fresh drilling
• Door material — wood drills easily, steel doors need care to avoid tearing the skin, and fibreglass has its own rules; each changes the time per door
• Number of doors — securing a whole house in one visit is far more economical than door-by-door calls, especially keyed alike
• Door and frame condition — a sagging door or chewed strike area needs correcting first, or the new lock inherits the old lock's grinding death
• The era of the home — Ajax has a wide mix, and a 1960s build and a recent build can need quite different work for the same job.
• Keying preferences — keyed alike, keyed different, or matching an existing key system each affect how the locks are sourced

For the full breakdown of what lock installation & replacement involves, see our Lock Installation & Replacement guide, or read how handyman pricing works in the GTA — then request a free Ajax quote for your actual job.