I have an external door that I need to add a deadbolt to (for insurance policy compliance). My question is should the new hole go above or below the exiting one? and what would be an acceptable distance between the deadbolt and know. Because the door has an existing hole I need to work with this (life would be so much simpler if it was a new door with no holes drilled)

From what I have read Australian standards suggest handle height should be between 900-1100mm. I have also read that the distance between the deadbolt and knob should be either 5.5" or 6" (hole center to center)

The existing door handle is 1060mm from floor to hole center.

I am thinking to drill the new hole under the existing one, approx 4.5" (hole center to center) this way the bottom knob will be about 900mm from the floor. My only concern is that the door knob and deadbolt maybe too close together? Any thoughts on this? What gaps do people have?

Alternately I could drill a new hold above the existing one, but this is starting to get high.The centre of the hold above would be about 1200mm from the floor.


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