There are cases when your door lock simply refuses to let your key slide in, and these horror scenarios usually happen when you least expect it – when you are in a hurry to reach your office or run an important errand. When disaster strikes, it is best to know exactly how to act and whom to get in touch with so you can quickly resume your chores. Not being able to lock your front door means you are stuck guarding it, waiting for an emergency team or a trustworthy neighbor to reach your location to fix it or keep it safe. This is why it is important to always be prepared for small household disasters –and you can do that knowing exactly how to react, whom to call, or how to fix things by yourself. We are here to make sure your every installation need around the house is well taken care of, hence we encourage you to get in touch with us whenever you are in need of door installation, kitchen, window, bathroom, or furniture repair or assembly services. Below you will find a few useful tips on how to tr to fx your broken or jammed door lock by yourself.
A Good Lock Keeps Out Intruders, Not The Owner This is the premises of any lock around the house, you need a firm lock that can keep burglars outside, but not you, the owner. However, a broken key or gunk can complete jam a lock, making its mechanisms impossible to work smoothly. There are fortunate cases when all you need is a couple of tools and a few minutes to fix a jammed lock situation. You can strat by placing a coat of powdered graphite on the door key or eve spraying the keyhole with it in order to unjam the clogged tumblers. A little jiggling of the key inside the cylinder should do the trick. Key extractors are also a divine acquisition for any handyman’s toolbox around the house, and you can perform a quick locksmith near me search process and go straight to a locksmith shop to make your purchase. When is A Technician Necessary? If you are not willing to soak the door lock in kerosene and leave it like that for 24 hours in case the lock is not actually attached to the door and it has been rusted shut, you can et in touch with an emergency team of local locksmiths.
24/7 Chicago Locksmiths cater to the needs of residents in the Greater Chicago area for example and they can successfully fix your jammed lock, duplicate your keys, fix or replace a broken lock in just a few minutes. They are authorized, bonded and insured and their prices are definitely a powerful argument why you should pick them whenever you are in lock trouble you are overwhelmed by.How to Maintain and Fix Sliding Doors The two types of doors that are easiest to open don’t have hinges at all; instead, they slide on tracks. Sliding-glass doors are a popular feature in rooms with decks or patios because their full-length glass panels open the room visually to the great outdoors while providing easy access to the outside. Interior sliding doors are frequently used for closets and pantries, and sometimes to conceal water heaters and furnaces. You can remove sliding-door panels easily to gain complete access to what’s behind them. Follow simple repairs and maintenance procedures to keep your sliding doors on track.
Patio doors slide horizontally — or at least they’re supposed to. All too often, these big, pesky contraptions stubbornly resist opening, and getting outside becomes about as easy as dragging a refrigerator through a sandbox. The most common cause of a sticking patio door is debris in the lower track. This channel easily becomes clogged with dirt and leaves because people and pets walk over it whenever they go in or out. Each time you vacuum your floors, use a small brush attachment or cordless vacuum to clean the sliding-door tracks. Apply a lubricant to both upper and lower tracks to keep the door hardware clean and operating freely. In addition to cleaning and lubricating sliding-door tracks, you want to lubricate the door lock. The best way to lubricate any lock is to disassemble it and use an aerosol lubricant to flush away grime and coat the moving parts of the lock. Sometimes, patio doors become hard to open even when the track is clean. In these cases, the problem is usually that the rollers at the bottom of the door have started to rub against the track.
The rollers at the top can also wear down, lowering the bottom of the door so that it rubs on the track. Most sliding doors have a mechanism called an adjusting screw located at the bottom of the door ends. Turning this screw raises or lowers the roller. Give the screw a clockwise turn and test to see whether the door slides easier. If the door becomes even harder to open, turn the screw in the opposite direction. After a bit of adjustment, the door should roll easily without rubbing on the bottom track. Sliding closet doors operate on rollers that are positioned in tracks at the top jamb and floor, allowing the doors to bypass each other in the tracks. Because sliding doors don’t fold out the way bifold doors do, they allow access to only half the width of the opening at a time. To clean and lubricate the hardware of a sliding closet door, use a stiff brush, a toothbrush, or a hand vacuum to clean dust from the tracks. Use an aerosol lubricant to lubricate all the door rollers.
If the rollers are damaged, install replacement rollers (available at home centers). If the door doesn’t hang level, leaving an uneven gap between the door and door frame, look for an adjustable mounting screw at the inside top of each door. Use a screwdriver to adjust the mounting screw and even out the door. 471 posts, read 359,105 times 26,534 posts, read 57,221,272 times Originally Posted by chet everett The lockset cost about $150. IMO, that's too much to just throw away if I can repair it easily, but calling a locksmith would be just about as expensive and I'd still have the old lockset. Thus I'm trying to find out whether others have solved the problem successfully. 533 posts, read 983,385 times 8,131 posts, read 10,580,861 times 3,592 posts, read 5,493,566 times If you find that it is sticking and not broken, use ONLY dry graphite to lubricate it. Do not use silicone, WD-40, or any other wet type of lubricant. We have been selling Schlage locks for many years with very few issues.
Here is a link to the current Schlage residential warranty with information on how to make a warranty claim. 14,931 posts, read 22,824,717 times Originally Posted by IggierTheir customer service is second to none. I got all the cores of the locks at my home replaced free of charge. I explained a problem I had with one of my locks, they asked me to tell them the key number (s) for the locks, and they mailed me six cores plus 6 matching keys, with a set of instructions on how to remove the old cores and install the new ones. 4,764 posts, read 7,673,848 times Originally Posted by nybblerI will take it apart again & see whether I can identify the part that sticks. Originally Posted by rrtechno Thanks rrtechno, I looked at the warranty -- it appears I have to send the lockset back to them at my expense for repair or replacement -- but then I don't have a front door handle for however long it takes to get it back to me. If it's something simple, I'd like to just do it myself.