Sort out lock problems immediately – don’t let it get worse

This week I went to a job where a customer called me back, as three locks I had fitted on the same door had all gone wrong. His tenant had also removed one of the locks and it had broken.

When I arrived, I discovered that a weather strip installed by the customer, after the locks had been fitted, was a bit mangled and was stopping the door from closing properly. Once the weather strip was removed, two of the locks reported as not working were absolutely fine. I then inspected the broken lock and found that a spacer had simply fallen out when the tenant had taken the lock apart. This was easily rectified and the door is now safe and secure.

When I explained to the customer about the weather strip, he told me he had noticed it a couple of months previously but not done anything about it. Doors are made to fit snugly into their frames. Any obstruction risks putting unnecessary pressure on the lock bolts while locking/unlocking and while they are in the locked position, which at best, means a call out cost from your local locksmith, or at worst, new locks. I have known the slimmest of insect curtains to be enough to cause major problems.
Also, locks can be complicated. As they have all sorts of levers and springs inside, taking one apart should only be attempted by a professional. Locksmiths know to carefully separate locks and place the parts in a special way so as to ensure we can put them back together properly again. Starting from scratch with no instructions will take us so long, it is cheaper to buy a new lock. Not because we want to, but because there are so many products out there, it is just impossible to know them all inside out, even for those where the basics are the same.

If you have any questions regarding the above topic, please contact me via any of the methods on my contacts page.
Thanks for reading.