Danger - apprentice at work

[Alan J. Wylie]

I found this sliding patio door lock fitted on the house I've just bought.

[Nick Odell]

Brilliant!

If you own a striped jersey and a balaclava and fancy earning a bit of cash with a night-time job, perhaps you could ask the double-glazing company where else they've fitted these patio doors?

Nick

[Alan J. Wylie]

I think it was fitted some time after the original installation. There is a lock built into the handle. The house was previously occupied by an elderly gentlman, and judging by the pile of large print black on yellow bumph sent by the council that was left behind, e.g. on smoke alarms, I am inclined to assume that it was the result of some scheme to provide work experience by fitting locks.

Many years ago, after my mother had her back door kicked in, a young lad was sent around to fit (badly) a couple of bolts.

[Rob Morley]

I wonder if it would otherwise be possible to lift the door out of its track (and off a normally positioned bolt).

[Chris Hogg]

My thought too. Useless as a conventional lock, but it might prevent a burglar levering the sliding door up off its track, a not uncommon method of forced entry with earlier patio doors, I believe. I assume there's a conventional lock as well.

[Jac Brown]

Doesn't work with mine which are from the very early 1970s. The standard lock has a great big 12mm roughly pin that is fixed into the fixed frame which goes into a hole in the moving part of the door and is gripped by the lock when its locked. That stops you lifting the door when its locked.

I assume

[Chris Hogg]

We're not talking about your door, Rod, but about the OP's door. If someone thought it necessary to put such a lock on the OP's door, obviously they thought it could be levered out.

[Jac Brown]

But its likely that the OP's door lock works the same way.

Or they didn't have a clue about how the OP's door lock works.

[Brian Gaff]

Many years ago, we had Cold Shield ally double glazed windows fitted. Most were well made with big rivets holding eye handles on, but the bathroom was what one might call the black pea in the pod. One day I closed it, this was about three months into the use, and as I rotated the handle the whole piece holding it to the window came off and you could see in this case the rivets were nowhere near long enough to give a fixing. Calling the company back they had a look at all the others, which was quite difficult to do with them fitted, but it turned out it was the only one like that. Of course they could not refit the old handle for reasons I never did understand, but when they fitted a new one the style is not quite the same as the others. So, double glazing weirdness is nothing new. This was around the start of the 1970s. I remember it well. The windows are still intact though one has a tiny crack in one corner and its seal has broken. I have had conflicting advice about replacement glass, some say the wider spaced units are made with redesigned clip in outward facing strips, others say its false economy , get new pvc ones due to the blocking of the cold in the frames now used. However I'm not going to rush changing them!

Brian

[Thomas Prufer]

This assumes "thought":-)

(Maybe they just didn't "get it" and muddled through any old way -- happens when there is no time, no interest, no one to ask, ...)

Thomas Prufer

[spuorgelgoog]

"Cold Bridge" might be a better name.

Owain

[Tim Watts]

Do you have a thermal break? A 4mm or so band around the edge of the window - you'll probably be able to feel this as a depression on opening windows.

4mm isn't the best thermal break, but when I did the calcs for mine, it's not that far off modern standards.

[Alan J. Wylie]

I had another look today, in between lifting p*ss soaked carpets and removing huge amounts of television cable.The lock mechanism consists of a substantial horizontal metal protuberance (I can't think of a better word, I'm afraid) extending from the frame, into which a bolt slides upwards to lock the door.

There is no way that the pin in the photo would provide any extra protection against the door being lifted.

[dennis]

It stops it being lifted after they have snapped the euro cylinder. They need a second lock on the bottom too to stop it sliding.

Of course the bottom one will do both jobs.

[Alan J. Wylie]

There is no euro cylinder. There isn't even a key. It can only be opened from the inside.