Ever try fitting a smart lock on a 1920s door? That’s a whole different level of improvising...
Totally get what you mean. I tried putting a digital deadbolt on a 1930s mahogany entry—turns out the “universal” plate was about an inch off. Do you ever wonder if these older doors were just made for show, not function? Or is it just that hardware standards didn’t exist yet?
No more fumbling for keys: did you know this?
Haha, I hear you. Tried to put a smart lock on my 1940s front door and ended up with a pile of wood shavings and a lot of swearing. I think back then, every carpenter just did their own thing—no two doors in my neighborhood are the same size. It’s like they were daring future generations to upgrade anything. Universal hardware is a myth when it comes to these old beauties... but man, they do have character.
You nailed it—old doors are a whole different beast. I tried retrofitting one of those smart deadbolts onto my 1938 entryway and ended up with a lock that looked like it was installed by a raccoon. Ended up making a custom mounting plate out of an old cutting board. Not pretty, but it works... mostly. Sometimes the charm is just learning to live with the quirks.
Yeah, those old doors really don’t play nice with modern hardware. I’ve run into similar headaches on a few properties—sometimes the wood’s warped just enough that nothing lines up, or the mortise is some oddball size you can’t find a template for. I get the appeal of smart locks, but honestly, half the time I end up weighing whether it’s worth hacking together a solution or just leaving things as they are.
Your cutting board workaround is pretty clever, though. I’ve seen people use metal plates or even 3D print adapters, but sometimes you just have to use what’s lying around. There’s definitely a certain charm to those quirks, but from a practical standpoint, it can be a pain if you’re managing multiple units or trying to keep things uniform.
I do think there’s value in preserving some of that original character, even if it means living with a few oddities. Not everything needs to be perfectly streamlined—sometimes function wins over form, at least until something better comes along.
I get the appeal of smart locks, but honestly, half the time I end up weighing whether it’s worth hacking together a solution or just leaving things as they are.
That’s exactly where I get stuck. I tried to retrofit a keypad lock onto my 1920s front door, and after three trips to the hardware store and a lot of cursing at splintered wood, I just patched it up and called it a day. I do like the idea of keeping the old charm, but sometimes I wonder—has anyone found a budget-friendly smart lock that actually fits these weird doors without major surgery? Or is it always a trade-off between cost and hassle?
