Typical project · Quebec and Ontario
Replacing the entry panel and fobs of a rental building that stays occupied
These are typical projects, described from the kind of work we do. They do not describe a named client or a specific building.
The intercom at the front door is failing, nobody knows how many keys are in circulation, and the building is full. This is how such a replacement is planned so that every tenant can get home on every day of the work.
The situation: a full building and a front door nobody controls
The client is the company that owns or manages a rental apartment building. The entry panel at the front door dates from the construction: several buttons no longer ring, the directory shows the names of tenants who left long ago, and the panel depends on telephone lines that cost more each year.
The doors are still opened with metal keys. Keys have been copied, lost or never returned at the end of a lease, and the manager cannot say who is able to enter the building, the garage or the storage rooms. Changing the lock cylinders once more would only postpone the problem.
What the first visit finds
- Wiring from another eraThe cable between the panel and the apartments is old and partly undocumented. Some pairs still work; others were cut during renovations.
- Doors that do not close on their ownThe front door has a worn closer and a strike that sticks in winter. A reader on a door that stays ajar protects nothing.
- More entrances than the manager listedThe garage door, the rear exit, the garbage room and the storage level all lead inside, each with its own key.
- No network in the lobbyThere is no outlet, no cabinet and no connection near the entrance, and the electrical room is at the other end of the basement.
What is designed, and why
Each choice answers something the visit showed. The design is written into the quote, door by door.
- A video entry panel that calls the tenants' phonesVisitors find a name in the directory and the call rings on the tenant's mobile or landline. No handset is needed in the apartments, so nobody has to be home for the installation, and the old apartment wiring is no longer relied on.
- Fobs instead of keys on the common doorsEach tenant receives fobs registered in their name. A lost fob is cancelled from the manager's office, and a departing tenant's access ends with the lease, without a locksmith.
- Door hardware corrected firstThe closer and the strike of the front door are replaced or adjusted, and every door still lets people out in an emergency. The electronics come once the door works as a door.
- One small network cabinet for the buildingA cabinet in the electrical room and a cable to each controlled door serve the panel, the readers and, later, cameras if the owner wants them. It is sized once, so the next system does not call for new cable.
- Management from the office, not from the lobbyNames, fobs and schedules are managed from a computer by the people the owner designates. The building superintendent can add a tenant without waiting for a technician.
How the work is sequenced so that nobody is locked out
The rule of the whole project: at the end of each working day, every tenant can enter with what is already in their pocket.
- Notice to the tenants
The manager receives a notice to post and to send, in English and French: what changes, on which days, and where and when to collect the fobs.
- Cable and cabinet, with the old system still in service
The new cable and the cabinet are installed first. The old panel keeps working and the keys keep opening the doors.
- Fobs handed out before the switch
Fobs are registered and distributed over several days, at hours when tenants are home. The readers work beside the keyed locks, so both open the doors for a while.
- The panel replaced in one visit
The old panel comes off and the new one goes on the same day, with its directory already loaded and tried with a few tenants.
- Keys retired last
Only when the manager confirms that the tenants have their fobs are the locks of the common doors changed, the new keys being kept for the building staff.
What is handed over
- The list of doors, readers and equipment, with the location of each
- The tenant directory and the fob register, in the manager's hands
- Administrator accounts for the people the owner names, and their training
- A short guide for tenants, in English and French
- The test record of each door: entry, exit and release in an emergency
- Drawings of the cable routes and the cabinet
Services involved
Industry
Other typical projects
- Cameras, alarm and a radio link on a construction site
- Low-voltage package of a new mixed-use building
- Wi-Fi and dock cameras in a warehouse that never closes
- A cut fibre backbone repaired and re-certified
- Leak detection with shut-off by riser in a condo building
- An office move on a fixed date: cabling, Wi-Fi, doors and phones
- Mobile coverage for two levels of underground parking
- Analogue cameras replaced by IP cameras across a group of stores
- Access control for an office building with several tenants
- Licence plate recognition at the gate of a logistics yard
- Audio and video for the meeting rooms of an office
- A network put back in order after a security incident
- An old alarm system replaced in a store with offices and a stockroom
A project like this starts with a walk through the building
Tell us how many entrances and apartments the building has and what the current panel does. We look at the doors, the wiring and the rooms, then send a quote that names the equipment and the order of the work. We reply in English or French.