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Door Knobs and Cabinet Pulls |
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When you purchase an older home,
where no concentrated effort was made to keep things
like door knobs consistent, you will at some point
notice the chaos. You know you are in trouble when
you go to replace a door knob and you have a hard
time determining what exactly is the style of door
knob used throughout the house.
It is easy, when you are in a rush at the hardware
store, to pick-up the cheapest door knob available
to replace one that has malfunctioned.
Over the years, you finally take a look at your door
knobs. I mean really look at your door
knobs.....really, really look close at
your doorknobs. You may see five to maybe ten
different styles and/or finishes.
Then there are the keys. When we moved in,
every door had a different key. Each deadbolt
had a different key. Doors that did not need
locks had locking doors, with no keys. Doors
that needed privacy locks, did not. Complete
chaos.
You get to a point where there is an urgent
situation involving a door and you can't find the
key. You finally step back and say, "enough!"
I reached that point and decided to remedy my
situation in September of 2011.
ONE style of door knob. Locks where there
needed to be locks. No locks on closets. ONE
KEY for the whole house!!
First, I had to do an inventory of
the whole house. How many door knobs and
deadbolts did I actually need? The first time
through, I thought I had counted them all.
When I went back to count again....I found I missed
a few. Then I had to to figure out what type of
door knob or deadbolt I actually needed.
For the exterior doors I needed to think like a
burglar, which helped me determine which type of
deadbolt to purchase. There are two types.
Single deadbolt and double deadbolt. The
double deadbolt requires a key to lock or unlock
either side. The single has a turn latch on
the inside of the house, the key is used on the
outside only. My exterior deadbolts
are on the wrought iron screen doors. It would
be pointless, in my case, to put a single deadbolt
on these screen doors. All a burglar would
need to do was cut the screen with a blade and slip
their hand in to turn the lock. So I could only get
the double deadbolt.
But what about a fire? Not a problem.
Family members know where the keys are hidden near
the doors so that a deadbolt can be quickly unlocked
from the inside, in case of a fire. |
Here is what I needed:
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Entrance knobs |
5
doors, 4 screen doors |
9 |
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Entrance lever |
garage screen door |
1 |
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Double deadbolts |
5
screen doors |
5 |
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Passage knobs (no locking mechanism)
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closets |
9 |
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Privacy knobs (with a lock) |
bedrooms and bathrooms |
7 |
| Dummy
knob |
furnace door |
1 |
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Entrance, privacy, and passage |
1
each extra for back-up |
3 |
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Total |
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35 |
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The one odd door out, was the
garage wrought iron screen door. We wanted the
lever style handle on this door because we needed to
be able to open the door with the back of the hand
or an elbow. The "press the handle down with an
elbow and kick it open" technique is used often
here.
I also needed to order some extra knobs to have
on-hand for back-up. This way I have the extra
knob of the same style in case the company goes out
of business or changes styles.
Now that I knew what I needed, I needed to
find one company that had ALL of the
different knobs in stock in an oil-rubbed bronze, in
one style, at a reasonable price, AND could key all
entrance knobs and deadbolts to just ONE key.
Not as easy as one would think. The big box hardware
stores will rarely have all the knob types in the
same finish in the larger quantities that you want
at a specific point in time. Plus, the prices
tend to be higher.
I started looking for online stores that specialize
in door hardware and can better handle a bulk order.
The company I found was
eBuilderDirect.com located in North
Carolina. They were able to handle the bulk
order, had all of the different knobs in stock at
the time, and were able to honor my request of
keying all entrance locks with the same key.
The prices were also very reasonable. I received my
initial order in about 10 days. |
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The style of knobs I ordered are the
Oil Rubbed Bronze knobs. The
entrance knob is pictured at left. The
feel of the knob is a smooth brushed surface. No hard or shinny edges.
They feel good in my hands. The
quality overall is good for the price you
pay. If you want heavy solid metal you will
need to pay a lot more.
The
entrance lever I bought for the
garage screen door, was solid metal and has
a lot of weight to it. I can see why
their website lists this as one of their
bestsellers.
How has the finish held up two years later?
The only door knob where the brushed finish
has become shiny from wear, is the front door.
This is because the knob got a lot of use
from the contractors I had opening and
closing the door during the winter while
they worked on the
water damage I had.
All of the door knobs work fine and have not
had to replaced so far. I was very
pleased with my purchase.
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I was so pleased with these
knobs, that I replaced
all of the knobs in a second house we have.
With the same identical knobs and the same key.
So now we only need one key to open either house.
The company is very responsive to a problem if you
have one. In one case, a deadbolt I purchased
had a defective screw hole. It was not
machined correctly and the screw would not go in all
of the way. They replaced this part promptly.
In another case they forgot the hinge screws for
some hinges I bought. They sent them right
away.
Their website is also very helpful with diagrams
showing the knobs with their dimensions. You
know exactly what you are getting. |
The photograph to the right
shows the new door knob on the white door on
the left. The brown doors in the house
are also being replaced as part of my
doors project.
In some cases, I placed the new door knobs on
the existing brown doors before I placed the
new door up.
This was because there were a lot
of problems with the old door knobs. I
wanted working door knobs at the time.
The new doors could wait.
The brown door pictured next to the white
door on the right had additional damage to
the door frame that had to be repaired
before a new door was placed on.
The photos below show the before and after
in the hallway with the new door knobs,
doors, and hinges.
Yes, the hinges were replaced when the new
doors went up. |
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The other item I eventually purchased from
eBuilerDirect.com was their
oil rubbed bronze cabinet round ring knob.
I had furniture cabinets throughout the
house with a variety of knob finishes or the
wood knobs on some furniture had been chewed
on or off by the dogs. |
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Cabinet pulls in main bathroom |
I just wanted one style of knob that I could
place on all of these pieces of furniture
and cabinets.
I have used them in the main bathroom
(pictured at left) and in the master
bathroom (pictured below). They are on
my office furniture and TV cabinet in the
master bedroom and downstairs on the laundry
room sink vanity.
Everywhere I needed a knob.
The knobs are a good heavy weight and the
finish has not worn off. The dogs also
no longer have any interest in them.
Yea!!
I will also be using these knobs on the new
vanity I plan to re-face and the cabinets I
will build along the wall in the master
bathroom.
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Cabinet pulls on master bathroom over toilet
cupboard |
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So how is the door
project I mentioned above?
Find out here... |
