- Service
- Lock & hardware repair
- Typical visit
- Under 2 hours
- Often
- Alignment, not new hardware
- Not offered
- Rekeying and lockouts
Hardware service
Door Lock & Hardware Repair
Deadbolts you have to lift the door to turn, latches that miss the plate, handles that spin, and doors you have quietly stopped locking because it is too much effort.
Symptom index
Find your symptom
Most of these are geometry rather than mechanism. Find your line and you will know whether you need a part at all.
Have to lift the door to lock it
The slab has dropped and the bolt sits below its strike. The lock is almost certainly fine.Hinge and strike
Bolt will not throw fully
It is binding on the edge of the strike plate rather than entering the mortice cleanly.Strike alignment
Latch misses the plate
Same cause, smaller margin. The door has moved a few millimetres.Strike alignment
Key turns hard
Grit in the cylinder, or the bolt is binding and the cylinder is taking the load.Service or alignment
Handle spins freely
The spindle has stripped or the set screw has backed out.Replace or refit
Lever does not spring back
The return spring in the handle set has gone.Replace handle set
Locks easily in spring, not in August
Seasonal timber movement on Kansas clay, taking the bolt out of register.Seasonal adjustment
Multi-point lock will not engage
The keepers along the frame are out of line after the slab moved.Keeper alignment
Patio slider will not lock
The panel has dropped on worn rollers so the latch no longer meets its keeper.Panel height
Strike plate pulling out of the jamb
Short screws into trim rather than framing. A security weakness as much as a fault.Reinforce strike
Door rattles even when locked
The bolt is in, but there is play between the slab and the stop.Strike depth
Storm door latch will not catch
The closer has let the door drop, or the latch and keeper are out of line.Closer and latch
How it works
Two halves that have to meet
Every door lock is a mechanism on the door and a hole in the frame. The tolerance between them is the whole story.
01 / The lock body
Deadbolt, latch set, mortice case or multi-point mechanism. Mechanically simple and rarely the thing that has actually failed.
02 / The strike
The plate and the mortice behind it. Its position relative to the bolt is what decides whether the lock works at all.
03 / The tolerance
A couple of millimetres. That is the entire margin, which is why a slab that dropped slightly puts a perfectly good deadbolt out of action.
04 / The hinges
What holds the slab in position. Screws that have lost their bite in dry jamb timber are the root cause of most lock complaints we attend.
05 / The fixings
Strike plates fastened with short screws reach trim, not framing. That is a security problem as well as a durability one.
06 / What we do not do
We are a repair and alignment service, not a locksmith. Rekeying, key cutting and lockouts are somebody else's trade and we will say so.
Specification
What a lock and hardware call should include
The lock is where the symptom is. The door is usually where the fault is, so both get looked at.
| Item | Status | Why it is on the list |
|---|---|---|
| Slab position and hinge check | Included | Because a dropped slab is the most common cause of a lock that stopped working. |
| Strike register and depth | Included | Whether the bolt enters cleanly and whether it pulls the door tight when it does. |
| Bolt throw tested | Included | Through its full travel, with the door open and closed, to separate binding from mechanism failure. |
| Cylinder and mechanism service | Included | Cleaned and dry-lubricated. Oil holds Kansas dust and makes it worse. |
| Seasonal range allowance | Included | Set so it still works when clay soil and timber move things back the other way. |
| Strike fixings upgraded | Included | Long screws into framing rather than trim, which is cheap and materially improves security. |
| Handle and spindle check | Included | Play, set screws and return springs, since these fail alongside the lock. |
| Closer and hinge adjustment | Included | On storm doors and anything with a self-closing mechanism. |
| Written fixed price | Included | Before anything is touched. |
| Rekeying and lockouts | Not offered | Different trade. We will tell you plainly and point you to a locksmith. |
Kansas conditions
Why door hardware fails in Kansas
The ground moves, the timber moves, and the wind finds whatever is left loose.
01
Clay soil moves the frame
Expansive clay across eastern and south-central Kansas shifts houses seasonally. A strike set perfectly one spring can be out of register by the next, which is why so many Kansas doors lock easily for half the year and stubbornly for the other half.
02
Timber movement on top of that
Humid eastern summers swell slabs and jambs; dry winters shrink them. That movement is independent of the ground movement and adds to it, so a door can be out by several millimetres before anyone notices.
03
Wind exposes loose hardware
A latch that only just engages is fine in still air. In a Kansas wind it rattles all night, and a strike fixed with short screws into trim gradually works itself loose under that load.
04
Dust in cylinders and mechanisms
Dry conditions and field work put fine soil into the air, and it works into keyways and lock bodies. People read a gritty key turn as a worn-out lock when it is usually a cleaning job.
Workmanship
Five ways hardware work gets done badly
Nearly everything on this list is somebody treating the symptom and leaving the cause.
01
Replacing the lock instead of aligning the door
A new deadbolt fitted to a slab that has dropped binds exactly like the old one did, usually within a week. The geometry comes first.
02
Filing the strike plate open
Enlarging the hole until the bolt fits works briefly and permanently weakens the strike, which is the part resisting a forced entry.
03
Short screws in the strike
The screws that come in the box reach jamb trim. Long screws into the framing behind cost nothing extra and make a real difference.
04
Oiling the cylinder
Oil holds dust, and Kansas has dust. A key that was gritty becomes a key that is seized. Dry lubricant only.
05
Setting it for today's position
Adjusted in February on a house that sits on clay, and out of register again by August. Hardware here has to be set for the range, not the moment.
Coverage
Door lock and hardware repair across Kansas
A mobile service covering the whole state, east to west. Pick your town below, or call and we will come to you.
Door Lock & Hardware Repair Across Kansas
Questions
Lock and hardware questions
Q1
I have to lift the door to lock it.
The slab has dropped on its hinges so the bolt sits below the strike. Usually loose hinge screws in dried-out jamb timber, and it is a quick repair.
Q2
Do I need a whole new lock?
Often not. If the mechanism still works, the fix is alignment. We replace hardware only when it is genuinely worn out.
Q3
My locks work in spring but not in late summer.
That is Kansas clay and Kansas humidity moving the door. The strike can be set to work across both rather than just one.
Q4
Can you make my doors more secure?
Yes. Reinforced strike plates, long screws anchored into framing rather than trim, and secondary locks on patio sliders all make a measurable difference.
Q5
Do you rekey locks or do lockouts?
No. We are a repair and alignment service rather than a locksmith, and we will tell you that rather than take the job.
Q6
My patio door will not lock.
Usually the panel has dropped on worn rollers and the latch no longer meets the keeper. Resetting the panel height normally restores the lock with no new hardware.
Related
Other repairs we handle
Windows and doors are the whole business, so whatever has failed, it is on this list.
Next step
Get your doors locking properly
Free estimates across Kansas, and most of these are a single short visit.