Tamarac was built as a planned community starting in the early 1960s, and for most of its history it was known for its large 55-and-over sections. That history shows up at the front door: a great deal of Tamarac housing was built in a relatively narrow window, which means a lot of homes in this city have hardware of roughly the same age and the same condition.
How Tamarac was built
Tamarac was developed beginning in the early 1960s by a builder working from a master plan rather than by lots sold off piecemeal. Early sections were age-restricted villa and single-family communities. Through the 1970s and 1980s the city expanded west, adding conventional family neighborhoods, and later development filled in toward the western boundary.
Because the city grew in planned phases, whole neighborhoods share a build year. That is useful — if one house on the street has 45-year-old original locks, the odds are good that the neighbors do too.
The 55-plus villa communities
Tamarac older age-restricted sections are largely single-story attached villas and small single-family homes on compact lots, built from the 1960s through the early 1980s. Many have changed hands repeatedly.
Locks you will find: Cylindrical knob or lever locks with a separate deadbolt, mostly Schlage and Kwikset. A large share of these are still the original hardware. After forty-plus years of use, the pin tumblers wear, the springs weaken, and the key starts needing a wiggle to turn. That is the point at which a lock will eventually fail with the door locked.
Villas also frequently have a screened entry enclosure with its own latch, plus a rear slider to a patio. Both are commonly forgotten during a rekey and both are ways into the home.
The 1970s and 1980s single-family neighborhoods
The conventional single-family neighborhoods built through the 1970s and 1980s are standard South Florida suburban construction — concrete block, tile or shingle roof, two-car garage on the later builds.
Locks you will find: Cylindrical lock plus deadbolt was standard by this era. The hardware is now roughly 40 years old. Rekeying is usually enough if the mechanism still operates smoothly. If the deadbolt has play in it when thrown, or the key binds, the lock body is worn and replacement is the better spend.
Garage-to-house doors are worth attention in these homes. That door is often the weakest lock on the property — sometimes just a passage knob with no lock at all — even though an open garage door puts an intruder in front of it in complete privacy.
Newer western Tamarac
Development toward the western edge of the city added newer single-family homes and townhome communities from the 1990s onward, built under updated building codes.
Locks you will find: Modern residential grade hardware with deadbolts standard, and on newer construction, impact-rated entry doors. Impact doors have specific hardware requirements — you cannot simply swap in any deadbolt without regard for the door rating. If your home has impact-rated doors, say so when you call so the right hardware comes on the truck.
What we do in Tamarac
- House rekey — including villa side entries, screen enclosure latches, and garage-to-house doors, not just the front.
- Lock change — when 40-year-old hardware is past servicing.
- Deadbolt installation — and strike plate reinforcement, which matters as much as the bolt.
- Home lockout — non-destructive entry with identification showing the address.
- Sliding and patio door locks — latch replacement and auxiliary blocking bars.
- Mailbox locks — cluster box cylinders, very common in Tamarac condo and villa communities.
Call Broward County Locksmith
Broward County Locksmith serves Tamarac and the surrounding Broward communities. Licensed and insured. Flat-rate pricing quoted before we dispatch.
Call (954) 888-8800.
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