Can't get it up - My Door Handle

[TheFew]

Hi,

My front to has been acting up for a while and is progressively worsening. The door is a composite door (not sure how old) which has a 5 point locking latch.

Essentially the door has got to a point where it takes a lot of force in a jerking motion to get the handle to go up far enough to engage the latch to enable the door to be locked.

So clearly the door needs a modicum of adjustment, but it is not clear how to adjust it.

Would the first assumption be that the door has dropped? Or would something else make the handle hard to get up into the locking position?

Thanks

 

[Notch7]

first thing to check -does the handle raise up easily and key locks without force when the door is open.

next to try is to remove the strike plates, upper and lower and see if the door latch and centre deadbolt lock ok, then fit back top, try, then lower and try....

of course you may have a 1 piece strike plate.....

or top and bottom deadbolts.....likely if its 5 point

A bit more info is needed to give more specific advice.

bolts -are they dead bolt, mushrooms, hooks

top and bottom shoot bolts?

 

[foxhole]

Squirt of wd40 seems to ease my multipoint door problems.

 

[TheFew]

first thing to check -does the handle raise up easily and key locks without force when the door is open.

next to try is to remove the strike plates, upper and lower and see if the door latch and centre deadbolt lock ok, then fit back top, try, then lower and try....

of course you may have a 1 piece strike plate.....

or top and bottom deadbolts.....likely if its 5 point

A bit more info is needed to give more specific advice.

bolts -are they dead bolt, mushrooms, hooks

top and bottom shoot bolts?

Thanks for the response!

The handle has no issues at all going up with the door open. It is smooth as a baby's butt!

The door has a latch and a hook in the centre of the door and a hook towards the top and a hook towards the bottom of the door. Either side of the hooks at the top and bottom it has two protruding cylinders that lock into strike plate. Not sure if this would be "dead bolts" or "mushrooms" but they are cylindrical shaped and their outer circumference is free to rotate.

The strike plate has adjustable plates for each of the cylinders and for each of the hooks. These can be adjusted left and right, presumably to pull the door into is seal.

The hinges look rather basic. Not sure if they can be adjusted or not.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gazman16]

Looking at the door from the inside how do the gaps look around the door? Should be a pretty even 4-5mm all the way around.
If not you will know which way it needs adjusting.

As for the adjustments we will need a few pics of the hinges. There are hundreds of different ones and they all work differently.

 

[TheFew]

The gaps around the doors are somewhat uneven.

The gap above the door on the left hand side is 3.5mm, on the right hand side it is 3.4mm.

The gap on the left hand side of the door is 3.8mm at the top and 4.9mm at the bottom.

The gap on the right hand said of the door is 4.4mm at the top and 4.0mm at the bottom.

However the door is surrounded by plastic trim on uneven walls. So it is not totally clear what is going on!

I did however get the Mrs to try the handle whilst I pushed the door upwards and that seemed to make things easier. So I am guessing that the door has dropped?

Looking at the hinges there seems to be no adjustment points when looking at the door, however when you open the door there are two small allen key holes in each hinge (one near the top, one near the bottom). Presumably these allow for door adjustment?

 

[TheFew]

Note, the allen key holes are 2 to 3 mm. So very small!

 

[Notch7]

Are there adjustments on the strike plates?

 

[TheFew]

It also has end caps on all three hinges hidding large allen key holes top and bottom

And adjusting the bottom ones raises the door! Yay! Now how to work out how to get rid of the drafts at the bottom of the door!

 

[Gazman16]

Could still do with some pics. Seriously there are hundreds of hinges and they all adjust differently