Annoying internal door latch failure

[Caecilius]

Last night the door latch on the kitchen door failed: turning the handle wouldn't retract the latch, so I couldn't get in.

Bad news was the keys to the garage where I keep most of my tools were in the kitchen. Luckily I had a few screwdrivers, pliars etc. lying around. Thank goodness for untidyness.

I took the latch plate off, and found that the square section thing that the bar goes through had disintegrated.It looks like it's made from cheap die-cast metal: the sort of thing you'd expect in a cheap toy.

I ended up getting the latch out after about twenty minutes with a hacksaw, pliars and screwdriver. It's damn annoying that these things are made so cheaply, especially when the failure of that part will lock you out of the room.

Anyway, moan over. Off to screwfix to buy another cheap door catch.

[Nightjar]

Buy a ball catch this time, or replace the square rod with key steel.

[Bob Minchin]

It is the female square driven part that has failed.

[Nightjar]

Having had a die-cast bar supplied with one handle set, I misread that. A ball catch then. :-)

[Andrew Gabriel]

Happened to me when I just moved into my first house. Shut the bathroom door when I went for a pee (not sure why, no one else in the house), and then it wouldn't open again. Only tool to hand was a pair of nail clippers. Pulled them apart, and managed to use the bits to unscrew the door handle. The rod was too short, and on shutting the door, it had slid out from the rear of the inside door handle. Managed to use the sharp ends of the nail clippers to grip the remaining fraction of a millimeter of rod and pull it back through, so I could open the door. Probably took 20 mins or so to get out of the room.

[Mike Barnes]

BTDTGTTS.

In my case I managed to find a never-fitted loo roll holder in a drawer, with mounting hardware. I used the edge of a screw-head to remove the inside knob, and jammed my finger into the square hole to turn the latch.

Annoyingly the latches in this house have slightly under-sized square holes, meaning that replacement rods won't go through. So I've "fixed" the short rod problem by partially filling the knobs with hot melt glue.

[The Medway Handyman]

Very common occurrence, I probably do a couple a month.

Yup, that's where they always go!

I quite like it, easy money :-)

I carry a set of plastic shims to open the latch, in the past I've removed the slam strip, but slipping the latch is neater.

Don't go to B&Q. They charge £5:47. Toolsatan are £0:72.

[Caecilius]

Wouldn't work in my case, because I'd upgraded the doors to meet the fire regs when I had the loft conversion done about five years ago. I'd glued and screwed battens to the architrave, so the latch was behind an inch of wood. No chance of a James bond credit card trick.

I was hoist by my own petard, because if I had done a half-assed job of screwing the battens on I would have been able to get them off with my screwdriver. But oh no, I'd glued them and countersunk and filled the screw holes.

Went to Wickes in the end. About 3.50. Too much, but it's only about

100 yards from where I work (near the Tap'n'Tin if you're a Medway man), and I CBA to drive to toolstation.

[Unbeliever]

Stop crowing, that 'trick' will only work if you're standing on the 'right side' of the door. Try bending your 'plastic shims' around the planted door stop on the 'wrong side' - and it's even harder on a rebated frame. I wonder how you would manage if you had to cut through the machined rebate (and find you still can't release the bloody catch) and then rebuild all the cut work 'as good as new'? How are you are at matching and scarfing in bits of wood into frames and doors then?

Yep, having looked at the latched on both companies websites in the last few minutes, that's how gullible customers keep paying for replacing cheap rubbish with cheap rubbish - must be a nice little earner for some??

The B&Q Yale mortise latch will outlast the Tool Station one by many years - and more than pay for its higher cost over that time.

[Chris J Dixon]

Once got caught out by the door on a flat I was living in. It opened outwards and had a rim latch. Locked out, the only equipment I had was in my Honda C50 tool roll. In the end I jammed in a spanner handle to open the gap, and a screwdriver, which happened to have a broken blade, had a sharp enough point to inch the bolt backwards.

Chris

[The Medway Handyman]

No it won't, idiot.

I've done it many times, idiot.

I wonder how you would

Very good indeed, idiot.

The latches are identical, idiot.

[The Medway Handyman]

These are somewhat different to a credit card.

That'll teach you :-)

I know the Tap n Tin. I've picked up number one daughter from there on many occasions.

[Huge]

Not always. The latch on our bedroom door failed with similar symptoms, but the bar had rounded off.

[The Medway Handyman]

Interesting. Never come across that.

[Vir Campestris]

I don't care about the 5 quid, it's the quality. Does anyone sell good ones?

but I think this house has all Suffolk latches, being about

250 years older than the last one...

Andy