These are the questions Staten Island homeowners bring to a walkthrough that the generic guides don't cover. They are grouped by the part of the house, and by the people in it, that the question is really about.
Garage, side and basement doors
Should the door from our garage into the house lock itself every time it shuts?
For most families, yes. That door is the one people treat as an inside door, because the garage feels like part of the house, and it is the one most often found unlocked at night. A smart deadbolt or keypad lock with auto-lock throws the bolt a set time after the door closes — we usually start at around thirty seconds so someone carrying shopping in two trips isn't locked out between them, then adjust it after a week of real use.
Two conditions have to be met first. The door must close and latch fully on its own, because in the model residential code the door between an attached garage and the living space is a fire separation with a self-closing device, and a bolt that fires against a door resting half an inch open will jam or strain the motor. And the lock needs a door-position sensor or a lock that can tell the door is actually shut; better models will refuse to throw the bolt into thin air. We adjust the closer and strike as part of the install so both are true.
If the garage is where the household's cars are charged or where a teenager parks a bike at 11 p.m., we also look at whether the keypad side should face the garage at all. Some families prefer the keypad inside the garage and only a thumb-turn on the kitchen side; others want the keypad hidden and rely on phones. Either works; what matters is that the door can't be left open by accident.
Our basement apartment has its own door down a stairwell — how do we lock it securely without anyone getting trapped?
Start with the exit. The New York City Building Code's egress chapter requires doors that people leave by to be readily openable from the inside without a key or special knowledge or effort, and the exception for dwelling-unit doors allows a deadbolt, night latch or chain only if it opens from the inside without a key or tool. For a basement unit, that door may be the occupant's main way out in a fire. So the inside is always a thumb-turn or lever, never a second keypad, never a key cylinder.
The outside is where the smart part goes. A keypad deadbolt rated for exterior use, with a keyed override as a backup, gives the occupant their own codes and means the owner never has to hand out copies. Stairwell doors get rain, snowmelt and leaves pooling at the threshold, so we favour models whose electronics sit on the inside of the door and whose outside face has a gasket, and we check that water drains away from the threshold rather than toward the lock.
Finally, think about who controls it. If the unit is rented, the tenant should hold the admin role for their own door, and the owner should have whatever key or code the lease provides for, not a live view of every entry. We set that up explicitly so there is no argument later about who can see what.
Our side door's hinges are on the outside — is a smart lock on it worth having?
Only once the hinges are dealt with. Many side and basement doors on the island open outward because the landing inside is too small for the door to swing in, and that puts the hinge pins on the outside. If those pins can be tapped out, the door can be lifted off its frame with the bolt still thrown, and the best lock in the world won't matter.
The fix is cheap and quick: non-removable hinge pins, or security studs on the hinge edge that hold the door in the frame even with the pins removed, plus longer screws through the hinge leaves into the framing. We do this as part of the door work before fitting the lock. We also confirm the strike suits an outward-swinging door, since some smart deadbolts list a different strike or limited support for that arrangement.
Placement matters on these doors too. The keypad shouldn't sit where someone standing on a narrow step has to lean over a drop or around a railing to reach it, so we check the approach before deciding which side of the stile it goes on.
Weather and the waterfront
We raised the house after Sandy and the front door is now at the top of a long stair — does that change which lock we should choose?
It changes several things. The door is now fully exposed: wind-driven rain reaches it from every direction, often with no overhang, and on the East Shore it faces open water. That pushes us toward locks whose outside face is sealed and whose finish is meant for exterior use, and toward placing the keypad where water running down the door won't sit on it. The dormakaba finish guide's three-mile rule is one maker's definition, but it's a useful reminder of how close “waterfront” really is on this island.
It also changes how the door is used. With the main entrance a full storey up, families often start using the ground-level door into the storage area, or the garage, as their everyday way in. Those doors then need locks too, and a ground level designed to flood needs hardware that can be wiped down or replaced without drama. We usually recommend keeping the smart lock upstairs, where the electronics stay dry, and a robust keyed or mechanical keypad lock below.
And it changes deliveries and visitors. A long stair means you don't want to run down to let someone in, so a video doorbell at the top, with remote unlock limited to people you can see, becomes more valuable than it would be on a door at street level.
Our front door faces south with no overhang — does direct sun and rain matter for a keypad?
It matters more than most spec sheets suggest. Published operating ranges are generous — Schlage lists its Encode keypad deadbolts for outside temperatures from about −31°F to 150.8°F — but a dark-finished keypad on a south-facing door in July, or one that sits in a sheet of rain every storm, ages faster than one under a porch roof. Touchscreen keypads can also be harder to read in direct sunlight.
On fully exposed doors we lean toward keypads with physical buttons or good contrast, lighter or weather-rated finishes, and installation that respects the maker's gasket and drain details. Where the storm door allows it, closing the storm door over the lock is the simplest protection of all.
If you already own a lock that is mostly black glass and plan to put it on an exposed door, we will still install it, but we will tell you what to expect and where to watch for water ingress, so a slow failure doesn't become a lockout.
Should a smart lock that faces the water get regular maintenance, and what does that involve?
A little, and it's worth doing. Commercial hotel-lock guidance for salt-mist areas goes as far as wiping salt off the lock weekly with a damp cloth; a homeowner doesn't need to be that strict, but a wipe of the keypad face and the bolt every few weeks during the windy months, and a check that the bolt throws smoothly, catches most problems early.
Twice a year we suggest a slightly fuller check: replace batteries before they reach the low-battery warning rather than after, test the keyed override so the cylinder hasn't seized from never being used, and look at the strike for corrosion or for the door having shifted. A key that has never been turned in three years is often the thing that fails on the one night it's needed.
If you'd rather not think about it, a combined visit for all the doors on the house can be booked at the setup-only rate, and doors that need hardware work are quoted before anything is replaced.
Family, caregivers and everyday codes
What should happen to the codes when a grown child moves out or a relative stops visiting?
Remove them, the same week. Households change: a grown child moves into their own place, a relative who used to stay over stops coming, a former partner still knows the side-door code. A smart lock only stays secure if the code list matches the people who should still be coming in.
Because each person should have their own code, removing one is a few seconds in the app and nobody else is affected. If the household has been sharing a single family code, this is the moment to switch to individual ones and retire the shared code. Phone credentials work the same way: remove the person from the lock's account, not just the code.
Do the keys as well. If the person had a key to the override cylinder, either get it back or rekey the cylinders. We include a written code-and-key list with every installation precisely so that this clean-up is easy years later.
Does everyone in the house need the app, or can some people just use a code?
Only one or two people need the app. Everyone else can live entirely with a keypad code and, if they want one, a key. Most keypad smart locks are designed so the app is for the administrator — adding and removing codes, setting schedules, reading history — and the code is for everybody.
That suits Staten Island households where a grandparent, a younger child or a tenant has no interest in another app. Each of them gets a personal code that works on the doors they use. The administrator handles the rest, ideally with a second admin on another phone so the house is never dependent on one device.
When choosing locks, favour real buttons or large, high-contrast digits with a backlight, and a simple wake-up. We test each person's code at their own door before we leave, with them standing there, so nobody discovers a problem the first night they come home late.
Our teenager keeps leaving the side door unlocked — what can the lock actually do about it?
Quite a lot. Auto-lock will throw the bolt a set time after the door closes, so “forgot to lock it” stops being possible on that door. Many locks can also send a notification when a particular person's code is used, so a parent at work knows when someone got home, without anyone having to text.
Give the teenager their own code rather than sharing the family one. If friends start turning up at odd hours or the code gets passed around, you can change one code without changing everybody's, and the history shows exactly which code opened the door.
Some families also set an evening check in the app: if any door is unlocked at, say, 11 p.m., the phone says so and the door can be locked remotely. That needs the lock to be online, so we confirm the signal at that door during installation.
If an elderly parent lives alone, how do we plan for emergency entry around a smart lock?
Think it through before it's needed. A smart lock can make emergency entry easier — a family member can unlock the door remotely for a neighbour or a responder, or read out a temporary code over the phone — but only if the lock is online, the person with admin access is reachable, and the code works on the door that can actually be reached quickly.
We suggest at least two people with admin access, a spare code kept by a trusted neighbour, and a key that still works in the cylinder. Where a medical alert service is involved, ask the service how they want entry handled; some keep a code or key on file. Avoid chain guards or secondary bolts that can only be released from inside, since they defeat every remote option.
The inside of the door should be as simple as possible for the parent: one motion to open, no key, no code. Rapid exit and easy entry by helpers are the two halves of the same plan.
Two-family houses
In a two-family with one shared side door, should owner and tenant share a code or have separate ones?
Separate ones, always. Many Staten Island two-families have a shared vestibule or side door that leads to each unit's own door. That shared door is the owner's to manage, like a small lobby, but the tenant's code on it should belong to the tenant: personal, permanent, working at all hours, and never changed without notice.
The tenant's own unit door is a different matter. That is their home, and they should control codes for their guests. If you want a key or code for emergencies or agreed access, put it in the lease and keep it sealed or unused day to day. Under New York City's Administrative Code section 26-521, disabling or changing the lock on someone's home without giving them a key is an unlawful eviction once they have occupied it for 30 consecutive days, and the section is written for dwelling units generally, not only apartment buildings — so a code deleted in anger is a legal problem, not a technical one.
A two-family house is a “private dwelling” under the state Multiple Dwelling Law's definitions — the law's multiple-dwelling rules start at three families — so many lock rules written for apartment buildings don't apply in the same way. The lease and the city's eviction protections do the work instead. We set up the locks so the arrangement you agree with your tenant is what the system actually enforces.
Is it fair to keep entry logs on the door my tenant uses?
Be careful with it. A shared door's log tells you every time your tenant came and went, and many locks keep that history by default. For a shared vestibule door in an owner-occupied house, a short log helps if there is ever a question about a stranger getting in, but there is a difference between having a record and reading it every day.
Our recommendation is to keep logging on the shared door to the shortest retention the app allows, turn off per-person arrival notifications for the tenant's code, and tell the tenant plainly in writing what is recorded. On the tenant's own unit door, the owner shouldn't receive logs at all.
The city's Tenant Data Privacy Act is written for multiple dwellings rather than two-family houses, but its principles — collect only what you need, delete it on a schedule, don't use it against the tenant — are a sensible standard for any landlord, and they keep a good tenancy good.
Guests, buying and renovating
Can I put smart locks on bedroom doors if I host short-term guests in my house?
Not key locks that let guests lock their room behind them. The city's Office of Special Enforcement says in its guidance for hosts that internal doors “cannot have key locks that allow guests to leave and lock their room behind them,” because those locks create barriers to escape in an emergency, and that every guest must have free and unobstructed access to every room and exit. Under Local Law 18, adopted January 9, 2022, a host must register with the office, must be present during stays of under 30 days, and may have up to two paying guests at a time.
So a smart lock on the front or side door, with a time-limited code for each registered guest, is fine and useful. Smart locks or keyed locks on internal bedroom doors for guests are not. Privacy latches that open freely from both sides in an emergency are a different product, and you should check the current rules with the Office of Special Enforcement before relying on anything on an interior door.
A smart lock is not a way around the registration law. If the setup you want is renting the whole house without being there, that is a legal question about short-term rentals, not a hardware one, and we won't configure locks for an arrangement the rules don't allow.
We just bought a house on the South Shore — how do we make sure the previous owners can't still open the doors?
Assume every lock is still enrolled to someone else until proven otherwise. Smart locks keep codes, phone credentials and an admin account; garage-door openers keep remotes; and mechanical cylinders open to whatever keys were cut over the years. Start by factory-resetting every smart lock and enrolling it to your own account, which removes old codes and phones in one step.
Then deal with the keys. Rekey or replace every keyed cylinder, including the override on each smart lock, the door from the garage, and any basement or shed door. Reprogram the garage-door opener and any keypad on the garage, and ask whether an alarm company account or a video doorbell is still registered to the seller.
This is one of the jobs we do most often as a single visit: walk every door, reset what can be reset, rekey what can't, and leave you a written list of every lock, every code and who holds it. It is also the right moment to decide whether the house should move to a single keyless system across all its doors.
We're replacing the front door itself — should the new door and the smart lock be chosen together?
Yes, and before the door is ordered. Pre-hung doors come with their bores and backset already cut, and fibreglass and steel doors in particular are hard to re-drill cleanly afterwards. If the door arrives prepared for a lock format the smart lock you want doesn't fit, the choice is a compromise lock or a damaged new door.
Tell your door supplier the lock you plan to use, or ask us to check its door-prep requirements first: thickness, cross-bore and edge-bore sizes, backset, and whether a handleset and deadbolt are drilled at the spacing the lock needs. Sidelights and glass inserts change where a thumb-turn can safely sit, so settle those at the same time.
If a doorbell camera or a powered device is part of the plan, the new frame is also the moment to run a low-voltage cable to it. Once the door is hung and trimmed, we fit the lock and adjust the strike to the new frame.
