Install Training & Contractor Resources

Router, jig, done.

The StrongJamb Armor Plate installs in about twenty minutes once you have done one. If you hang doors for a living, you already have every tool and skill this requires. This page has everything you need to do it right the first time.

The install, start to finish

  1. Remove the existing strike plates. Deadbolt and latch both.
  2. Clamp the jig to the jamb. The 3D-printed router jig sets your depth and position so you are not eyeballing a mortise.
  3. Rout the mortise. One pass, matched to the plate thickness.
  4. Set the plate flush. It should sit level with the jamb face — that is what makes it invisible once painted.
  5. Drive the long screws. Three inches or longer, through the rear holes, into the framing behind the jamb. This is the step that actually does the work — do not skip it and do not substitute short screws.
  6. Reinstall hardware and check the swing. The plate gives you extra adjustment range, so this is your chance to fix a door that never latched cleanly.

Video walkthroughs

Full tutorials are on our YouTube channel. Watch the whole install before your first one.

Tools and parts

For contractors and builders

This is a chargeable upgrade on work you are already doing. You are in the door frame anyway during a hang, a rekey, or a break-in repair. Twenty minutes of labor and a $35 part is an easy line item for a homeowner who has just been burglarized — or one building a house they plan to stay in.

It also solves a problem you already have: jambs that have been hacked up by three generations of hardware. The plate covers and repairs that damage instead of you replacing the frame.

Homeowners — what to ask your contractor

If you are building or remodeling and someone else is doing the work, ask one question:

"Are you reinforcing the jamb, or just the door?"

Most builders are not — not because they cut corners, but because reinforced jambs have never been standard practice. Ask while the frame is open. It costs very little at build time and is significantly more work to retrofit later.

Get listed as an installer

We refer homeowners to installers who know this product. If you install StrongJamb regularly and want to be on that list, call us at 937-902-5927. It is free.

Questions on an install? Call Joe: 937-902-5927. We answer the phone.

Little but mighty!

The Armor Plate is a formidable first line of defense for any ordinary, industry standard jamb!

Using our Original StrongJamb System as a guide, and our combined fifty years of door installation experience, we invented a way to retrofit our original strike plate reinforcement in the original system into this smaller more versatile reinforcement plate. Even after a break in, our Armor Plate fixes and secures the opening.

We have spent our years observing how doors fail, and what we noticed was that they tend to break at the deadbolt and latch on the door jamb/frame. That’s when we began to devise a way to retrofit the strike reinforcement plate in our StrongJamb System into a very similar plate that can be used on it’s own on any door, and can be installed by anyone willing to pick up a drill and a router. That’s how the Armor Plate was born!

Another thing we really wanted to improve was how the The Armor Plate looks. Maybe you've noticed that doors with security measures attached, are Ugly! Not so with the StrongJamb Armor Plate! And, the strength surpasses any attached security devise on the market today.  Patent pending, StrongJamb Armor Plate is a quarter inch steel plate that is machined to accommodate for most 2-1/4 inch  residential security bolts and door handles, making this a versatile, customizable product for all decorative and functional needs. The holes located in the rear of the plate allow for additional 3 inch or longer length screws, which transfers blunt force toward the center of the structural part of the wall, rather than the edge.    A truly integrated security door frame plate, which is quickly mortised into the jamb, becoming the reinforcement that you would expect from a security door.  The process is quick and easy to install with a simple jig and router. Not only does it add a considerable amount of strength to the existing jamb, it also gives you extra adjustment for a smooth locking door, and it can clean up years of scared ugly jambs that have been abused with many sets of hardware and amateur installations.

WATCH US PUT THE ARMOR PLATE TO THE TEST: