An electric strike is the hardware that releases a door when a reader, keypad or buzzer grants access. If it’s the wrong unit, installed incorrectly or not matched to the door hardware, the access control system won’t work reliably. We install electric strikes in commercial, institutional and multi-unit residential buildings across Ottawa, aligned, correctly specified and connected to the building’s access control system. Same-day emergency repair is available.
Different doors need different electric strikes. An apartment lobby entry needs a different strike than a medication room. A retail service corridor has a different fail mode than a records room. A clinic corridor door that patients use all day is not the same job as a locked server or storage room used by a few staff. Specifying the strike for the actual opening — latch geometry, frame, cycle count, and whether the door is on an egress path — is what keeps the access system reliable. Electric strikes are one part of the broader access control and commercial door repair work we carry out across Ottawa.
An electric strike must be matched to the latch, frame preparation and access-control requirements of the opening. For projects that also involve cylinders, key override or building-wide credential planning, Can-Lock Security’s access control systems work complements the door-side strike installation we handle here.
An electric strike replaces the fixed strike plate in a door frame with an electrically controlled unit whose keeper — the pivoting component that accepts the latch bolt — can be released by an electrical signal. When the access control system receives a valid credential, it sends a signal to the electric strike that releases the keeper, allowing the door to be pushed open even while the latch remains extended. When no valid credential is presented, the keeper is held in the locked position by a spring and, in most commercial applications, by a solenoid that provides additional holding force.
The critical specification variables for an Ottawa electric strike installation are fail-safe versus fail-secure operation, holding force, latch bolt compatibility, door material, and fire door assembly compliance. Getting these wrong produces an installation that either creates a security vulnerability or fails its life-safety function — and in Ottawa’s institutional and commercial building stock, both consequences have real implications. On a fire-rated assembly the strike has to keep its rating, which is why this work overlaps with our fire-rated doors service.
Fail-safe operation means the strike unlocks when power is interrupted, so the door can be opened from the outside during an outage. An electric strike controls entry: people can still leave through the lever, panic bar or exit device on the inside in either mode. On fire-rated doors, the strike normally has to keep the door latched, which is why fail-secure strikes are usually used there. The right configuration depends on the building’s requirements, emergency egress, fire ratings and the specific opening, and should be confirmed against the fire safety plan and the applicable code.
Fail-secure operation means the strike remains locked when power is interrupted. That is often correct for doors that protect high-value assets or secure areas — a pharmacy storage room, a hospital records room, an evidence room — where an unlocked door during a power interruption creates more risk than a locked one. Whichever mode is chosen, the door must still allow free exit from the inside. We confirm the configuration for each opening before hardware is ordered.
Holding force must be matched to the door’s weight and the expected access attempts the installation will face. A light interior corridor door in a medical clinic has different holding force requirements than the main entry of an Ottawa government building where tailgating and forced access are genuine security concerns.
Need an electric strike specified or installed in Ottawa? Call 613-265-3667 for same-day commercial access control service — or request a free quote online.
Electric strikes are common in apartment and condominium entrances, where they can work with intercoms, fob readers and access control systems. Many buildings also have controlled doors at parking entries, stairwells and amenity rooms.
Apartment lobby electric strikes in Ottawa face specific performance demands. They operate in a vestibule environment that experiences Ottawa’s full temperature cycling — cold from the exterior, heated from the interior lobby, and the condensation that those two conditions produce when they meet at the vestibule entry. They get very heavy use in a large building. And they must integrate reliably with the intercom system that allows residents to buzz visitors in remotely.
The most common apartment lobby electric strike failure in Ottawa is mechanical rather than electrical — the keeper wears from constant latch contact on a busy lobby door, and the worn keeper eventually stops retaining the latch cleanly, producing a door that feels loose or that fails to remain latched even when the strike is in its secured position. We install heavy-duty strikes rated for heavy use on apartment lobby doors, with keepers that resist wear.
Healthcare facilities can be the most complex electric strike installations, because they have zones that must fail-safe for life-safety and zones that must fail-secure for controlled substance and patient security, sometimes on adjacent doors within the same corridor.
In a hospital, an emergency department entrance, a medication room and the patient corridor between them can each need a different configuration. The choice depends on the building’s security requirements, emergency egress, fire ratings and the role of each opening in the fire safety plan. These specifications are coordinated with the facility and, where required, confirmed with the local fire authority — we work through this coordination process with Ottawa healthcare facility managers before any installation proceeds.
Ottawa hospitals also have infection control requirements that affect electric strike installation — wiring runs and installation penetrations that could create pathways for air or moisture between zones must be sealed in ways that maintain the barrier function of the wall or floor they penetrate. We install electric strikes in Ottawa healthcare facilities with infection control requirements in mind, sealing penetrations correctly for the zone separation the facility requires.
Ottawa’s shopping centres — Rideau Centre, Place d’Orléans, Bayshore, and the major suburban retail anchors — have electric strike applications on service corridor entries, office access points, and tenant common-area boundaries. These are high-cycle applications in environments where access control hardware must integrate with the mall’s overall security management system.
Retail mall electric strike failures are most visible when they occur during business hours — a service corridor door that is stuck released or stuck locked affects the mall’s operational rhythm and the security management team’s response capability. We respond to Ottawa mall electric strike repair calls with commercial urgency, and we provide the maintenance documentation that mall security management systems require for their access control hardware records. For storefront tenancies themselves, our storefront door repair service covers the entrance hardware.
Ottawa medical and dental clinics often need the same door to stay easy for patients with mobility limitations and controlled enough that treatment and records areas are not open to the public. That is usually a waiting-room or corridor door with an electric strike, and sometimes a low-energy operator on the same leaf.
A strike that releases on a valid credential, paired with a push-button or touchless accessible operator when the door is too heavy to pull, is a common clinic pattern. We install and sequence those systems so the lock drops and the operator starts in the right order — work that overlaps with our automatic door, pedestrian operator, and handicap door opener services. Privacy and records-access rules for each clinic still sit with the practice; we make sure the door hardware side supports the access plan they already have.
Ottawa’s courthouse and government building access control installations have security grade requirements that exceed standard commercial specifications. The security gates and controlled entries in Ottawa’s courthouse complex — including the Elgin Street courthouse and the federal court facilities — must resist determined access attempts at a level that commercial-grade electric strikes aren’t specified to meet.
Security-grade electric strikes for Ottawa courthouse and government building applications use higher holding force specifications, anti-tamper housing construction, and in some installations electromagnetic supplementary locking that provides holding force beyond what the electric strike mechanism alone delivers. The building’s security management system is usually set up to keep an audit trail of access events — who presented credentials, when, at which door, and whether access was granted or denied.
We install security-grade electric strikes in Ottawa’s government and courthouse facilities in coordination with the building’s security management authority, following the access control specifications established by Public Services and Procurement Canada for federally managed facilities and the Ontario Realty Agency for provincially managed ones. For the highest-security entries, our high-security doors service covers the full door-and-hardware package.
Many Ottawa schools use a controlled-access vestibule at the main entrance, with an electric strike on the vestibule door so office staff can release it for visitors while keeping everyone else outside. The strike configuration depends on the school’s requirements, fire egress and the door’s rating; exit from inside stays free through the door’s own hardware.
School electric strike installations in Ottawa also interact with the video intercom systems that allow office staff to see who is requesting entry before releasing the strike — a camera-and-intercom integration that requires the electric strike’s release signal to be correctly timed with the intercom system’s activation.
A correct electric strike installation begins with the door and frame assessment that determines whether the existing hardware is compatible with the electric strike being specified. The latch bolt geometry must match the strike’s keeper dimension. The frame material must accommodate the electric strike body’s mounting requirements. The door’s daily operation — how it closes, how firmly, how consistently the latch contacts the keeper — must be assessed before the strike is installed, because an electric strike installed on a door that doesn’t close cleanly won’t work reliably, however good the strike itself is. That is why a properly adjusted door closer is often part of the same job.
Wiring routing for the electric strike must provide power to the strike body in a way that doesn’t create a security bypass — wiring that is accessible at the door frame face can be cut to release the strike without credentials. We route strike wiring through the door frame structure rather than surface-exposed conduit wherever the installation allows, protecting the power circuit from interference.
Strike alignment is the variable that most affects daily performance. A keeper that is 2mm out of position relative to the latch bolt’s travel produces a door that requires force to open even when the strike is released — the person is pushing the door while the latch is still contacting the partly-released keeper. We set keeper position with the door in its actual operating position, not its nominal installation position, accounting for any sag or frame movement that has changed the door’s closed position from its original specification.
We install and repair electric strikes in commercial, institutional and multi-unit residential buildings across Ottawa, with same-day emergency repair available. We carry common electric strike units and source less common security-grade units to suit the project.
Choosing between fail-secure and fail-safe matters. Fail-secure units stay locked on power loss (typical for suite and after-hours entries that must not free-open). Fail-safe units unlock on power loss, for doors that need to stay openable from the outside during an outage. Choosing wrong creates either a lockout risk or a security gap. On fire-rated corridor and stair doors, the strike and any hold-open must remain compatible with the rated assembly — we will not install a strike that compromises self-closing or latching on a labelled leaf. For rated doors, see fire-rated door servicing; for readers and controllers, see access control repair and installation.
When the leaf is also powered by an operator, strike release must finish before the arm moves. That sequence is planned with automatic door repair or a new operator under automatic door installation when the entrance is being converted.
Property managers and facility teams — get pricing and book a site visit that suits your hours.
Electric strike and access control hardware fitted so controlled Ottawa doors release and re-secure cleanly.
The strike installed and tested so a reader, keypad or buzzer release unlocks the door cleanly.
Reader, controller and electric strike integrated into one working controlled entry.
A low-energy operator paired with an electric strike for accessible, controlled entry.
Fast commercial response with flat-rate quotes — book a site visit that fits your operating hours.
Related Ottawa commercial door work.
Access control door hardware in Ottawa: electric strikes, maglocks, exit devices and automatic operator integration for commercial buildings, clinics and apartments.
Automatic door repair in Ottawa for commercial entrances — operators, sensors, sliding and swing systems.
Commercial door repair in Ottawa, ON — storefronts, fire doors, closers, panic hardware and aluminum frames.
Real door repair projects completed across Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley, showing the type of hands-on work we provide for commercial and residential doors.
Fail-safe or fail-secure, apartment lobby to courthouse — call or send your door details for a fast flat-rate quote and same-day commercial service.
