Oakland Park is one of Broward older municipalities, sitting just north of Fort Lauderdale. Much of its housing dates to the 1950s and 1960s, with pockets of newer infill and townhome construction added over the last two decades. It is a city of small lots, older homes, and a lot of original door hardware still in service.
The post-war core
Oakland Park central neighborhoods are largely 1950s and 1960s single-story concrete block homes — the classic South Florida ranch on a modest lot, often with a carport rather than a garage and jalousie or single-hung windows in the unrenovated houses.
Locks you will find: Cylindrical knob locks from Schlage and Kwikset were the standard when these homes were built. Deadbolts were not. A large share of Oakland Park homes had a deadbolt added at some point in the decades since, and the quality of those additions ranges from professional to improvised.
The specific thing to look at on a home of this age is the door frame. Sixty years of humidity, termites, and settling takes a toll on wood jambs. A deadbolt anchored into a jamb that has gone soft is providing much less protection than the hardware rating suggests. The fix is usually a reinforced strike plate with long screws reaching the structural framing, which is inexpensive.
Infill, townhomes, and renovation
Oakland Park has seen steady renovation and infill construction, particularly near the downtown corridor. Newer townhomes and rebuilt single-family homes carry current hardware and, on post-2002 construction, impact-rated doors.
Locks you will find: Modern residential locks with deadbolts standard. On renovated older homes, the situation is often mixed — a new front door with new hardware, but the original 1958 lock still on the side entry or the garage-to-house door.
Mixed hardware is worth mentioning because it is easy to overlook. A renovation that upgraded the front door and left the back door untouched has not actually improved the security of the house. The house is only as secure as its weakest opening.
Rental and multi-family
Oakland Park has a meaningful share of duplexes, small multi-family buildings, and rental houses. For an owner, rekeying between tenants is the baseline practice — a lock is only as good as the last time the pins were changed, and there is no way to know how many keys a departing tenant left in circulation.
What we do
- House rekey — every exterior opening, not just the front door.
- Lock change — when hardware is worn, corroded, or damaged.
- Deadbolt installation and strike reinforcement.
- Home lockout — non-destructive entry, identification showing the address required.
- Sliding and patio door locks.
- Mailbox locks — cluster box cylinder replacement.
Call Broward County Locksmith
Broward County Locksmith serves Oakland Park and the surrounding Broward communities. Licensed and insured. Flat-rate pricing quoted before we dispatch.
Call (954) 888-8800.
Recent Comments