Going Keyless on Our Garage Door with Schlage


[Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Schlage. Thanks for supporting the brands that support this blog.]

Our new house came with lots of new keys. We have a different key for our front door, back door, side door, side fence gate, and garage door. That’s a heck of a lot of keys to lug around! My goal is to pare down the number of keys we have to simplify things around here. We keep a lot of tools in our garage and as we’ve unpacked and settled in, I found myself going back and forth to the garage multiple times a day. The problem is you need a key to unlock it every single time! Ugh, annoying. I decided to upgrade to a keyless deadbolt on our garage door and it has been a gamechanger!

My Garage Door – Before

Here’s my garage door before. The hardware was looking very weathered and it was in need of an upgrade! I hated that we had to lock both the top and the bottom locks on these and was constantly fumbling with my keys to find the correct one. Our garage door hardware before

I also wanted to change the color to matte black to match the rest of the hardware on the inside of our house. You can read more about the interior doors and knobs we chose in this post. We are obsessed with the knobs inside and I knew that matte back would look so crisp out here!

Choosing a Keyless Deadbolt

Because I had a lock on both the top (the deadbolt) and the bottom (the knob), I was a little confused as to how to narrow it down to just one lock that would be keyless. I originally thought I would go with this touchscreen lever to open and close the door. But I couldn’t figure out what I would do about the deadbolt. I didn’t want to put a new deadbolt on and then accidentally lock it and be unable to get in with the touchscreen code. Hmmmm…what to do?! Keyless deadbolt from Schlage

That’s when I saw this keyless touchscreen deadbolt from Schlage. This could be the mechanism that would lock and unlock the garage door and then I could just use a non-locking knob down below! I had finally found a good solution to my problem! I ended up going with this keyless deadbolt in matte black along with this matte black knob. Schlage black door knob

Tips to Install New Door HardwareOur new keyless deadbolt from Schlage

I’ve actually never changed out door hardware before! Our contractor ended up installing all of the interior knobs when he installed the new doors, and I never changed a door knob at our old condo. So I really had no idea how complex this DIY might be.

Luckily, I quickly learned that it’s incredibly easy to upgrade your hardware by yourself! I actually started by changing out our side door hardware (we upgraded to this knob and this deadbolt) to see how it would go. It took me about fifteen minutes and I ended up sharing the entire process on Insta Stories. So easy!

In terms of supplies, you’ll want to grab a tape measure and screwdriver. That’s it!

Remove the Old HardwareRemoving the old hardware

First, remove the old hardware. This should just involve loosening a few screws and removing the deadbolt, knobs, latch, and faceplates. I started by getting all of the old stuff off and I threw it into a box to keep all of the parts together (I always recommend holding onto the old stuff until you’re 100% finished installing the new. So be sure to keep everything in one spot so it doesn’t intermix with the new hardware and parts).

Follow the DirectionsAdding a new latch to the door hardware

My best advice from here? Follow the directions! Each knob will be slightly different so make sure you give the directions a good read before getting started. I began by installing the latch for the knobs. Installing a latch for the knobs

Make sure you follow the directions closely here. At first, I put the latch in upside down, but I quickly realized my mistake! Installing new door knobs

In about 10 minutes, I had my new matte black knobs on, and the garage door was already looking 10x better!

Installing the Keyless Deadbolt

Because the deadbolt is electronic, I was worried that these directions would be way more complicated. Lucky for me, it was super easy to install. I just followed the directions and before I knew, it I had my deadbolt installed and it was time to program the entry code!

Keyless deadbolt

This keyless deadbolt can store up to 19 four-digit user codes. That means you could give out different codes to different people coming and going in your garage. For example, we could make a new code for our contractor and then get rid of that code once his work is done (without having to change our family code!). I wish we had this installed during our renovation (it would have saved me quite a few trips to the house to let workers into the garage for their tools).Our new keyless garage door hardware

The instructions walk you through the process of setting up your individual codes. I love that we can give the code out to family and if anyone needs to stop by, they can get into the garage to drop something off easily. You just enter the 4-digit code and then turn the deadbolt to unlock the door.

It’s all operated by a 9-volt battery and one of my initial questions was…”what happens if the battery dies? How do you open the door?!” Fortunately, Schlage has a solution if that happens. You can use a new 9-volt battery on the outside of the door to jump start the battery. Reading that in the directions gave me lots of peace of mind (but we’ll just plan to change the battery when we change the ones in our smoke detectors, so it’s always fresh!).

New garage door lock

I’m thrilled because I no longer have to bring my keys with me when I’m trying to get into the garage. It’s so liberating to know that I can get in and out without my huge ring of keys.

What’s Next?

Our fall front porch

Now, it’s time to finish up the front door hardware. I ended up going with a smart lock for the front door, so that means I’ll be down another set of keys (hooray for smart technology!). But before I add the new hardware I need to give the door a coat of fresh paint (remember this post, choosing a color?). I’ll be sure to share the reveal of the new look and upgraded hardware in the coming weeks…

Casey

 


The Year of Casey

Hey there!

Iโ€™m Casey Finn, the voice behind The DIY Playbook. I’m a Chicago gal teaching you how to design, DIY, and maintain your home…by yourself! Learn more about me right here.