Can I Fit An External Handle?

[misterhelpful]

Hi all,

I'm querying something for an elderly neighbour and want to know if what she wants is possible?
Her front door is double glazed, pretty old, and still fully working but the lock is the kind that only has a handle on the inside. Basically she wants a handle on the outside as well as there have been a few occasions when the door has slammed behind her and left her locked out. A few people have looked at it and said that it can be changed but they never get back to her so I told her I would try and find something. Even though I don't know much about this kind of thing, it does look as though it's possible and I hope someone here can tell me what kind of handle I should be looking for and advise me on anything else I need to know about it. I don't want to buy something that won't be suitable and then end up ruining a perfectly serviceable door!

The handle on the inside doesn't look original to me - here are a few pics I took earlier:

Untitled

• misterhelpful
• 16 Mar 2014
• 1

Untitled

• misterhelpful
• 16 Mar 2014
• 1

Untitled

• misterhelpful
• 16 Mar 2014
• 1

Cheers
mrH

 

[crank39]

Looks easy enough.

Looks like you just need a handle for the outside and a spindle. Drill a hole in the door to push the spindle through and fit the outer handle, think they're called oval cylinder handles as opposed euro cylinder

 

[misterhelpful]

Thanks, crank, that's what I thought. However, when I find a handle that looks suitable, the fixing points seem to be different and it makes me wonder whether the lock would be in the way or that the fixings would interfere with it. The handle there now has two single fixings, one top and bottom, but the only handles I can find have four fixings, one on each corner, like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Union-Ambassador-Oval-Plate-Door-Furniture-Anodised-Silver-/321192089838

I've found a used one that looks almost the same on ebay but I'm not sure if the cover plate looks a bit too damaged to go on the outside of the door and whether bolt through fixings would be needed to make it secure?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131142602295?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT