Commercial · Whitchurch-Stouffville
Access Control Installation
Something went missing from the storeroom over a weekend, and when you ask who was in the building, the honest answer is anyone with a key.
In plain words
Locking hardware varies by opening: an electric strike, fitted into the existing frame, keeps the mechanical latch and releases it briefly for a valid credential; a magnetic lock clamps the door shut with an electromagnet and suits a frame or door that will not take a strike; and some openings use an electromechanical lock or a different controlled lockset entirely. Several of these can also be fitted with a mechanical override cylinder, so a lost signal, a dead battery, or a controller fault still leaves that particular door opening by key, though the option depends on the hardware chosen for it.
How the visit goesAnother employee left and the keys never came back. You changed the locks again, cut copies for everyone who stayed, and paid for a job that repeats itself the next time someone quits, taking a working key out the door with them.
Access Control Installation
How the visit goes
Checking which doors are also exits
A door that leads outside along a path people use to leave the building gets special attention, no matter what lock currently sits on it, so the survey flags every one of those openings early. On an exit door, a magnetic lock only gets considered alongside a request-to-exit device and a tie-in to the fire alarm system, while an electric strike paired with a standard latch usually needs no extra hardware to let people out. Sorting exit doors from interior doors before any hardware is ordered keeps a smooth, one-motion exit part of the plan from day one rather than a fix added afterward.
Wiring the openings back to a controller
Each controlled opening can send and receive several signals: a reader reporting a presented credential, a lock output that releases the hardware, and, where the configuration calls for them, a door position switch reporting open or closed and a request-to-exit input. The locksmith runs the wiring from each opening back to wherever the controller is mounted — as a home run, along a shared bus, or over the network on an IP or PoE device — labels each conductor at both ends, and terminates them into the controller's input and output boards. A building with several openings may share one power supply and battery backup sized to the combined load, or split the load across more than one supply.
Watching the doors through a change of season
Steel and aluminum frames move slightly with temperature, and a wood door can swell in a humid spell or shrink once the heat comes on for winter, either of which can nudge an electric strike or a magnetic lock's armature plate out of the alignment it was installed with. A door that used to release cleanly and now needs a firm pull, or a magnetic lock that seems to hold less securely than it did in the spring, is usually telling you about the door rather than the electronics, and an alignment check at each change of season keeps it from becoming a pattern.
Access Control Installation
In the van
Card and fob readers
Request-to-exit devices
Fire alarm interface relay
Keypad readers
Electric strikes
Access Control Installation
What affects the quote
Whether any door is also a fire exit
An exit route on a magnetic lock brings its own hardware — a request-to-exit device and a fire alarm tie-in — while an electric strike paired with a free-egress lockset can meet the same one-motion exit without those extra components, unlike a purely interior door.
Room left for future doors
Sizing the controller and power supply with some spare capacity for a door or two added later costs a little more at installation but avoids a second controller purchase when the building later adds an opening.
Coordinating a shared or multi-tenant entrance
A shared lobby or parking entrance in a multi-tenant building needs agreement between the property manager and each tenant on which credentials belong where, and that coordination adds time beyond a single business's own doors.
What to have ready
- Who in the business will manage the system once it is installed?
- Do you already have an alarm or camera system in place?
- Is any of these doors also a fire exit or required exit route?
Access Control Installation: questions
QuestionsCan a landlord and several tenants share one system?
Yes. In a multi-tenant building, a shared entrance can run on the landlord's controller while each tenant's suite runs its own credentials, so a tenant's staff can reach their own space without gaining access to another business's door. The property manager and each tenant work out together which doors belong on which list before the system is programmed.
Can we see a log of who entered and when?
Yes. The controller keeps a running record of which credential was presented at which door and when, available to the administrator at any time, not only after an incident. It can be checked for a specific door, date, or credential, which is useful for everyday questions as much as investigating something unusual, though it identifies the credential used rather than confirming who was physically holding it.
What's the difference between an electric strike and a magnetic lock?
An electric strike fits into the existing door frame and works with the door's own latch or bolt, releasing it briefly for a valid credential while otherwise behaving like an ordinary strike plate. A magnetic lock instead clamps the door shut with an electromagnet mounted at the head of the frame, and it is always installed with a request-to-exit device so someone leaving is never held up looking for a way out.
Related services
- Master Key System DesignThe new wing was built with its own brand of cylinder, so the two-year-old keys from the original building do not open a single door in the addition.
- Panic & Exit HardwareAfter the fit-out, the gym floor now holds more people than the old office space ever did, and the exit door at the back still has the same turn-lock it had when the room held desks.
- Commercial-Grade Lock ReplacementHead office wants every branch keyed alike under one system, and half the locations are still running whatever lockset the original contractor happened to install years ago.