Residential
Door lock sticking or not latching? We repair it at the door
Knobs, levers and deadbolts that stick, bind or will not latch: we find the worn part and replace it at the door.
Where
South-eastern Pennsylvania
What we cover
Chester County, Delaware County, Montgomery County, Lancaster County and Philadelphia
How we work
We are a mobile locksmith. We come to you.
What this covers
Door lock repair is for the lock hardware on a home door that has stopped working the way it should: a knob or lever that is loose or will not spring back, a latch that sticks or will not catch, or a deadbolt that binds or will not throw all the way. We find the part that has worn or broken and replace it, so the rest of the lock can stay on the door.
How we approach it
We start by working the lock with the door open and then closed. If it runs smoothly open and drags closed, the trouble is where the bolt meets the strike plate, and adjusting the strike is the repair. If it drags either way, the problem is inside the lock, and the worn part is replaced. Either way, every function is tested before we finish.
Where it stops
Repair makes sense when the lock is sound apart from the part that failed. When a lock is worn throughout, badly damaged, or its parts are no longer made, replacing it is the better answer, and we will say so. A door that has sagged or swollen needs fixing before any lock can work properly on it.
What door lock repair covers
Repair a door lock that sticks, binds or will not latch, replace the worn part of a knob, lever or deadbolt.
Worth knowing
A loose knob or lever is worth tightening before it gets worse. As a handle works loose, the parts inside the lock start to move out of line and wear faster, and a handle that spins freely may stop pulling the latch at all. Catching it while it is only loose keeps a small repair small.
Doors move with the seasons. Wood swells in humid weather and shrinks in dry weather, and a deadbolt that was fine in spring can scrape in August. If the trouble comes and goes with the weather, the door is moving, and the fix is most likely at the strike rather than inside the lock.
A few checks at home tell us a lot. Try the lock with the door open, look at the strike plate for scratches that show where the bolt is hitting, and notice whether the problem is with one key or every key. Mention what you saw when you describe the problem, because it narrows down the repair before anyone looks at the door.
Door Lock Repair: questions before you call
What should I tell you if my front deadbolt turns halfway and then jams from the outside?
Tell us whether it jams with one key or every key, whether it does it only with the door closed, and whether the inside thumbturn feels the same. That helps narrow down whether the trouble is in the key cylinder, the bolt, or the door alignment. One useful detail is whether the key stops at the same clock position each time.
What should I have ready before you come for my office lever lock that sometimes will not unlatch?
Have every key for that door in one place, and be ready to say exactly what the handle and lock do when they act up. We may need to compare one key against another and compare the inside handle with the outside one. One concrete thing to check is whether the lever droops below level after you let go.
Does it change the job if my storefront door has a mortise lock instead of a regular deadbolt?
It changes the hardware we are dealing with, because the working parts are built into the door in a different way. Tell us whether the key goes into a cylinder set through the face of the door and whether the handle and lock are part of one tall assembly. A narrow metal edge with a rectangular lock case points to a mortise setup.
My back door only latches when I pull it hard. Is that the lock or the door?
That points more to alignment than to a worn lock part. Tell us whether the latch clicks in when the door is already held firmly shut, and whether you see rubbing where the door meets the frame. A bright scrape mark on the strike plate or along the door edge is a useful clue.
The key turns on my apartment door, but the latch stays put. Is that rekeying or repair?
That is repair, not rekeying, because the key is being accepted but the inside part that should move the latch is not carrying the motion through. Rekeying is about changing which key operates the lock. One plain sign to mention is a lever that feels loose even though the key still rotates.
