Ball Catches and Flush Bolts: What Kind of Hardware Do You Need?

Every door will need some type of hardware attached to it. Much of what you decide will depend upon both the style of the door and where you intend to install it. There are a lot of different types of locking and non-locking mechanisms that can be useful for your door, so look at each one to decide what will work best for the door you intend to place in your home.

Ball catches are excellent if you don’t plan on making the door an entrance or exit to your home. This is because a ball catch or roller catch system isn’t practical for locking. In fact, it is the ideal choice for a door that doesn’t need to latch at all. A quick look at a ball or roller catch reveals the reason why. The simple ball bearing settled into the door piece will push back slightly when the door shuts before coming back out to rest into a small indentation piece. This piece is attached to the door’s frame. A simple push or pull will dislodge the ball and open the door.

Ball and roller catches are typically used on dummy handle sets. These door handles are thusly named because they don’t actually turn. An easy push or pull using the handle will open the door. This type of catch system is excellent when you have doors that don’t need locking, such as small access doors or closets.

A flush bolt is a type of door bolt that is designed to be flush with the edge of the door. These do lock and come in two types – manual and automatic. A manual flush bolt means you will have to actually move the latch in order to lock the door. An automatic flush bolt will close automatically when the door is shut, but will unlatch when the handle is turned to open the door. Instead of the locking mechanism slipping into the side of the doorjamb like a deadbolt, when the latch on a flush bolt is flipped, a rod will slip up or down into the top or bottom of the door frame. Flush bolts are very useful when you have double doors, whether it’s for extra locking power or when you only need one door to be unlocked and the other to remain in place.

Both types may appeal to you in different ways, and once you choose which will work best, it’s simply a matter of choosing which color metal you want.