Door Lock Problem In Cold

[Doug99]

Hi All,
A metal framed glass door has been problematic to lock as the weather gets colder.
Today's first frost is now preventing us from locking the door.
When the door is open, the mechanism will close/lock correctly, but when closed it is jamming on something.
Would it be the door or the frame that needs adjusting?
And what in particular?
Cheers All
Doug

 

[foxhole]

Hi All,
A metal framed glass door has been problematic to lock as the weather gets colder.
Today's first frost is now preventing us from locking the door.
When the door is open, the mechanism will close/lock correctly, but when closed it is jamming on something.
Would it be the door or the frame that needs adjusting?
And what in particular?
Cheers All
Doug

Metal will contract in cold , alignment needs checking.What type of lock?

 

[Doug99]

Its a multi levered locking mechanism as shown in pic.
The weather has warmed up so the lock is now working, but still not a clean movement when closed as it is still catching slightly when the handle is raised to engage the levers.

.

 

[robinbanks]

Quite a few places where paint is missing on the inner corner of the door upright; is the upright hitting the frame? How long has the door been in service, and how well trafficked is it? Does it all need a good go over (a service, essentially?)?

For glazed bifolds the glass forms a structural part of the door and should be property braced on the vertical and horizontal in the bottom corner near the hinge and the top corner opposite the hinge of each door. I found with mine (looks to be the same profile as yours) the window packers that were fitted when it was new collapsed/crushed some and the door dropped making alignment poor

When you close the door does it fit the hole well? Or does some part stick and get pulled in by the lock mech?

Some posts have been removed from this thread but one of them advocated working out what was catching and removing it (ie drill, cut or grind). I'd caution against this, based on the logic that the door used to fit and work, metal is unlikely to have magically grown into a gap and need drilling out to make it work again. More likely that some problem has manifest as a result of poor alignment or wear and adjustment is required to fix, not drilling more material out of the way

 

[opps]

@Doug99 I think you need someone like @crank39 to comment...........

 

[crank39]

Let me have a better look tonight, just finishing up on site, I'll have a look later over a beer

 

[Doug99]

Very cold today and door is very difficult to lock/unlock.
The door itself appears to close easily with no catching corners.
It is only when trying to lift the handle to engage the levers does it get difficult.
Today I have needed to use excessive force to engage/disengage the levers before the lock key will turn.
I am worried that brute force will damage the handle/lever spindle.
There is obviously an expansion/contraction of metalwork somewhere in the door levers/frame arrangement.
What adjustment is available to ensure the levers engage the frame cleanly?

The door is the only access to the back garden so is used regularly.
The Bi-folding doors are never opened fully, just the one which is causing the problem.

Doors were fitted by previous owner about 5yrs ago.

Cheers All
Doug

 

[DiyNutJob]

You need to work out what is causing the increased effort. If it's just the internal mechanism, then you should experience the same problem using the handle while the door is open. Otherwise the problem is to do with one of the door's protrusions not aligning with its corresponding receptacle. In that case, modifying the receptacle is an option.

 

[Doug99]

You need to work out what is causing the increased effort. If it's just the internal mechanism, then you should experience the same problem using the handle while the door is open. Otherwise the problem is to do with one of the door's protrusions not aligning with its corresponding receptacle. In that case, modifying the receptacle is an option.

The handle full movement is ok when the door is open and the levers protrude/retract smoothly from the door frame. I am confident the problem lies in the door levers/wall frame alignment. Hence my query regarding adjustment.
Is there a means of adjusting the wall plate which houses the lever receptacles?

 

[DiyNutJob]

Wait for the lock guy to finish his beer, perhaps he can tell you.

Before you make any adjustments or do anything, you need to find out which bit is blocking/catching. Screws that are in elongated surface holes are places where things can be adjusted.

 

[Doug99]

I didn't have any 'engineers blue' but used next best thing...kiddies play paint!!
Coated the surroundings of the catch plate and with the door flush and closed, moved handle up/down several times.
On checking the door levers, both top and bottom levers have blue on the outer faces.
This suggests the catch plate needs to be shifted outwards ie to the left in the pic.
The adjustment screws appear to have a little room for shifting the plate, but I run out of time as the missus was complaining about the cold.
Hopefully a quick fix this weekend.


Cheers All
Doug