uPVC door not closing/locking

[ARWadsworth]

My front door will not close and lock properly.

When I try to lift the handle to engage the locking mechanism the top bolt shown here in the closed position will not move properly

bolt will not move into the locked position as shown here

if I apply a small upwards force on the bolt when lifting the handle (which is not possible when the door is closed) or use brute force on the door handle.

Any ideas?

I have managed to shut and lock the door shut tonight using force but it will need repairing ASAP.

Adam

[John Weston]

Sound like the door has dropped. Can you adjust the hinges to move it back up a little, using a wedge at the bottom to support the weight, so the bolt isn't catching on the bottom of the lock mortice? Alternatively, how about putting a chamfer on the bottom of the bolt so it will pull the door up when the bolt is pushed into the mortice (or extend the mortace down...)?

A bit if a temporary fix though since it won't be fixing the real problem, which I hope is just a little wear in the hinges or simply that the door has dropped on it's adjusters and can be tweaked back up again.

[ARWadsworth]

100% not a hinge problem.

It is the bolt shown in the photo that is sticking for some reason. Even when the door is open (as shown in the photo) the top bolt will only lock/move if I apply a small amount of upward pressure to it or use a lot of force on the door handle.

The door is probably 20 years old.

Adam

[Tim S]

ARWadsworth coughed up some electrons that declared:

Hi,

I had to tweak our front door a while back - one of the plates on the frame had slipped. Wonder if that has happenened - or the opposite: the bolt has worn, become looser and dropped. Does the plate the bolt engages with have any adjustment?

Cheers

Tim

[Clot]

Has the frame moved?

[ARWadsworth]

I cannot get the handle to lift even when the door is not in the door frame. It has got to be part of the door locking mechanism that has dropped or worn.

Adam