New door? Don’t be too hasty
A Bradford customer was unable to open her upvc door lock and a (quite well known) upvc door company she had asked for advice told her that she would need a new door, at a cost of £700. She saw we provided a UPVC door repair service so gave us a call.
New door necessary if unable to open upvc lock?
Definitely not, the fault here was the multipoint mechanism (this is the long locking strip in the edge of the upvc door) and in this case the gearbox (the centre case in the middle of the locking strip).
I carry most multi-point gearboxes so it was simply a case of replacing the part in the uPVC door.
Pictured below is an example…
My customer was extremely pleased as this upvc door repair was a fraction of the cost of a new door.
Upvc lock maintenance
There are a few things that can be done to help maintain your upvc lock.
Upvc doors are made up of 2 parts; the outer frame and the inner panel. When the door is installed the inner panel is packed with plastic wedges, this is called toe and heeling, over time and due to changes in temperature the door can drop, making it hard to lock, this puts strain on the mechanism and can result in failure of the locking mechanism.
Simple precautions
On most new upvc doors the hinges are adjustable. If you find your upvc door catching on the frame the hinges need adjusting, failure to do this can result in the mechanism failing. In most cases this can be done with an allen key (pictured) This will improve the performance of your upvc lock.
Another area where you can make adjustments is on the frame side, in a lot of cases the keeps (these are the plates on the frame the hooks of your upvc lock go into) these can be adjusted either with a screw driver or allen key (pictured)
Lubricating your uPVC door mechanism
This is very important because all parts of the mechanism are metal and if lubricant is not present your upvc door lock will wear out quicker than the manufacturers’ 10 year life expectancy.
Pictured below are the lubrication points:
In most cases adjustment to your upvc door can be achieved; but in relation to older upvc doors, toe and heeling may be the only way to adjust the door.
If you do not feel confident adjusting your door contact Andy at Absolute Locks who will be happy to help.
ho
Great service. Arrived when Andy said he would. Opened front door in 5 minutes which was the original reason for call out. Plus changed the back door lock that really needed replacing. All done and dusted at very reasonable charge. So very happy to recommend a good tradesman.