I feel your pain on the old-house surprises... When I installed my keyless entry, I definitely ran into some hiccups. My front door is original—solid wood, slightly warped, and nothing about it is standard-sized. Ended up having to carefully widen the latch hole a bit, but thankfully didn't mess up the look too much. Honestly, the convenience has been worth the minor anxiety attack during installation. Are you planning to DIY or thinking of getting someone experienced with older homes to do it?
Totally relate to the warped door struggles—been there myself. A few things I ran into:
- Keyless entry systems usually assume a perfectly aligned door, which is rare in older homes. Had to shim mine slightly to get it to latch smoothly.
- Battery life surprised me. Thought I'd be swapping batteries constantly, but it's been over a year now and still going strong.
- One thing to watch out for: weather sealing. My old wooden door swells in humid weather, and occasionally the bolt sticks a bit. Might need to sand down the strike plate area just a touch more.
DIY is definitely doable if you're comfortable with basic woodworking and have patience for unexpected issues. But if you're nervous about damaging original woodwork or trim, might be worth getting someone who's used to older houses. Either way, once it's done, you'll wonder how you lived without it...
"My old wooden door swells in humid weather, and occasionally the bolt sticks a bit."
Had the same issue with humidity causing sticking... Have you considered applying a thin coat of beeswax or paraffin to the bolt and strike plate? Worked surprisingly well for me without sanding down original woodwork.
Yeah, beeswax does help a bit—I tried that myself last summer. But honestly, it felt more like a temporary fix for me. After a few weeks of heavy humidity, the sticking came back. Eventually, I ended up adjusting the strike plate slightly—just loosened the screws, nudged it a hair, and tightened them back up. Didn't have to sand or anything drastic, and it's been smooth ever since.
Also, curious about your keyless entry setup... did switching over help with the sticking issue at all, or was that unrelated? I've been considering going keyless myself, but wasn't sure if it'd make any difference with seasonal swelling.
I had a similar issue with humidity last year, and the beeswax trick only lasted a couple weeks for me too. Adjusting the strike plate definitely helped, but honestly, switching to keyless entry didn't really have much impact on the sticking itself—it's more about convenience than anything else. Still, I've found it worth doing for other reasons (no more fumbling with keys when my hands are full!). Sounds like you've already solved the sticking issue anyway, so going keyless would just be icing on the cake at this point.
