Front door locks jammed The possible problems and the solutions that we have found to work

In the last 2 days we have assisted 2 customers with what is a common problem where the front door is locked shut and the keys are lost or locked inside the house or the lock simply will not open with the key as it should.

Below is a lock mechanism of a multipoint front door lock commonly called the gearbox.  This is attached to the front strip that you see running up the front edge of your door. In most cases when there is a problem opening the door it will relate to the lock gearbox.

Here are some of the common problems.

 I will cover 4 here.

There are many possible causes of the door jammed locked and I will cover more possible causes and solutions in later blogs.   Contact me if you need to by clicking on www.handlesupplies.ie

Problem 1  Keys left inside the house or keys left on the inside of the cylinder (barrel) lock and the door locked out on closing after you have walked out.

With this problem only the spring latch has engaged in the middle of the frame and is holding the door locked.

          1 The solution to opening this door particularly if is a PVC door is to press you knee against the lower front corner of the door.  The door will flex in, this flex will often pop the door open and you are sorted. This was the solution today.

Problem 2  Door  locked with all the points fully engaged in the frame of a PVC door and the handle will not move the lock mechanism.  Here the square spindle drive may be broken in the lock gearbox.

2 Solution, remove the handles if you can get inside by another door.  Check that the square drive is ok by looking in through it.  If it is broken try and insert a large screw driver to turn the lock open making sure the cylinder is in the open lock position. If the gearbox is badly broken you will have to take further steps.

Problem 3   Same problem as 2 above, with gearbox broken and no easy way to forcing it to turn the lock points to open position in a PVC door.

3 Solution, remove the PVC door panels by pulling out the rubber seal from the front and taking out the panel securing strips from the inside.  The PVC door now becomes very flexible with the centre panel out and the front edge of the door can be pulled out of the locking points of the frame and the door open, the centre panel is then easily fixed back in the door in reverse order.  This was the solution to yesterdays problem.

Problem  4 Same problem as 2 above, with gearbox broken and no easy way to forcing it to turn the locking  points to open position but this time in a wooden door

          4 Solution,  look at the hinges on the timber door. If the pin can be removed then remove the hinge pins and pull the back side of the door open and the front of the door will release.

Please be aware that described here are only real front door problems that we have come across for customers and solved by help over the phone or by making a service call to open the door where customers are near by.  We supply all manner of multipoint locks, handles and lock (barrel) cylinders.  If you have a problem please get in contact and we will supply any lock that is available or a suitable upgrade lock where your lock is obsolete.  We have never failed to supply a fitting lock solution.

email handlesupplies@gmail.com     www.handlesupplies.ie   Tel in Ireland 021 488 3131