Storeroom function locks are door locks whose outside handle never unlocks, so only a key gets you in, while the inside lever always opens. The call we get most: “I shut the stockroom door and now I cannot get back in.” King Locksmith and Doors Inc. installs and repairs them across the DMV, licensed, insured and bonded for 25 years.
Locksmiths call this the F86 function, the ANSI/BHMA code for a lock whose outside lever stays rigid until a key retracts the latch. The chassis, the lock body, fits the standard 2-1/8 inch hole through the door face, and the key alone drives the retractor, the part that pulls the deadlatch back.
Most take a 6-pin cylinder on a Schlage C keyway, the slot shape your key fits, or a Best A2 7-pin interchangeable core, removed with a control key. Because the inside lever always opens, it clears egress rules, the requirement that nobody is ever trapped, and we fit it same visit in District of Columbia stockrooms.
You never wonder whether someone left the stockroom unlocked, because the outside lever relocks as the door closes. The F86 function has no push button or thumbturn to forget, the weak point of an entrance function lock, which you lock by hand.
Nobody is ever locked in, because the inside lever always opens, so the door passes any egress check. Fit an interchangeable core and a lost key means a new core in minutes, not a new lock. Want that control? We install it.
We install F86 storeroom function locks on the doors owners want closed to everyone but keyholders: the stockroom behind a Maryland shop counter, a school supply closet, a church sound booth, a server room, a mechanical room, and the electrical closet in an apartment building.
It is the wrong pick for a private office where staff lock by hand; that door wants an entrance function lock with a push button. Unsure which function fits? We survey your door free.
Tell us what the door protects and who should hold a key. Our locksmith confirms the right function on a free survey, then installs it the same visit. Call (202) 800-2622.
These 5 storeroom locks ride on every truck we run, because each one takes daily key turns on always-locked doors and stays serviceable for years.
The ND80PD is Schlage's Grade 1 storeroom lever, the highest commercial rating, and we stock its levers and latches, so yours is installed same day.
Sargent's 10G04 carries the storeroom function on a Grade 1 body whose lever and cylinder swap on site, so we service it in place, fast.
The 9K37D takes Best's interchangeable core, the keyed section a control key removes, so a lost key means a new core, not a new lock.
Falcon's T581 delivers Grade 1 storeroom duty at a lower price, so a mechanical room or supply closet gets full commercial strength without flagship cost.
Lockouts top the list: the door shuts behind you and, with the outside lever fixed by design, no key, no way in. Next, the key turns but the door stays shut: a broken tailpiece, the bar carrying the key’s turn inward. Third, a card slips the latch: the deadlatch, the plunger beside the bolt, drops into a misaligned strike, the frame plate.
We check strike alignment first, then cylinder and tailpiece, then retractor: cheapest cause first. Locked out? Our mobile units respond 24/7. Call (240) 345-1455 in Maryland or (202) 800-2622 in Washington DC and NOVA.
A locked-out owner gets in first: we pick or decode the cylinder, then rekey it, so a lost key stops working. A snapped tailpiece is a truck part; we swap it and the key works again. A dropping deadlatch is fixed by resetting the strike, not the lock.
We replace when the chassis is cracked, parts are gone or you upgrade. We match function code, grade, hole spacing and finish so it drops into existing holes, keyed to your master system where the keyway allows. Measure, match, install, test key and free exit; frame fixes by our in-house door expert, same visit. Free estimates.
A stockroom that stays open to everyone is stock walking out the door. Call (202) 800-2622 now or book storeroom lock installation online today.
Storeroom function locks secure stockrooms, closets and server rooms, but every door has its match. Browse our lock type resources below to see each function, its applications and our services.
Straight answers from King Locksmith Technicans to on Storeroom function Lock questions customers ask us most.
(240) 345-1455
No. The inside lever always opens, no key needed. Only the outside stays locked, the F86 rule, so nobody is trapped.
A classroom lock’s key can leave the outside lever unlocked; a storeroom lock never stays unlocked. F84 toggles; F86 never does.
Yes, if the new lock takes your system’s keyway. We rekey the cylinder or fit an interchangeable core, so one key opens every Northern Virginia door.
Yes, if the lock carries a UL fire listing, the tested rating on its label, and the door self-closes and latches. We check the label first.