Internal door - jammed shut - handle not operating latch

[paulfoel]

Tried taking door handle off and turning with pliars etc but it just seem to turn enough to open the latch.

What are my options? All I can see at the moment is kick the door in....

[harry]

Prise off the bead on the door frame and cut the tongue of the lock with a hacksaw blade. Or push it back into the door if possible.

[stuart noble]

Credit card or paint scraper?

[Martin Brown]

Or palette knife & push. Garden wire from the opposite side and pull.

If I had to damage anything it would be a 1" strip of the door jam.

Regards, Martin Brown

[Frank Erskine]

If the hinges work loose the door may hang too far into the latch. Try pushing the door toward the hinges and see if it'll open then. IYSWIM.

[The Medway Handyman]

This is a very common problem, I carry 2 of each length & finish of mortice latch in the van. Probably do up to a dozen a year.

I've never managed to get one to retract via the handle aperture.

Prise the door jamb strip off, they are usually nailed on. It's going to do a bit of paint damage.

Then get a pry bar into the gap between door & jamb, force it open as much as possible, which won't be much, then use a hacksaw blade to force the latch back.

[Cash]

1 - If there are no other unmentioned complications and all that's happened is that the latch innards have collapsed: 2 - Take the doorstop off and lever the latch bolt back with a screwdriver or suitable tool. 3 - If that fails. with the doorstop off, use a hacksaw blade and cut through the latch bolt itself between the door and the frame. 4 - If the doorstops are machined into the frame and cannot be removed, then file off the end peening of the hinge pins and knock the pins out with a drift. 5 - Or, you could simply use a sharp wood chisel and a hammer (or mallet for the purists) and cut the stop away from around the latch bolt and cut it off as 3 above.

If there are any other complications then please let is know.

Cash

[The Medway Handyman]

I've only come across one where the doorstop was machined into the frame & the Bosch PMF180 multi tool worked a treat. Very thin kerf, little bit of filler afterwards, job done.

[Frank Erskine]

An angle grinder would be better. More fun, at least...

[John Benn]

Happened to me recently. I have to chisel out the door frame around the latch. Got the door opened, repaired the frame with wood filler and repainted. And a new door latch!

[GMM]

As in taking off the handle and turning the bar? I suspect I would have managed a couple of weeks ago when I went out into the garden and the door slammed behind me, disconnecting the handle from the bar in the sashlock. Only problem was that my tools were inside and I was outside!

Had to climb over the hedge and get teh neighbour to let me through to the front.

It turned out that the bar had cut off short so had had dropped away from one handle and had disappeared into the other, so easy to open from the other side. Decided it was time for a whole new handle.

[Jim K]

when a new bar would have done ;>)

Jim K

[The Medway Handyman]

You didn't have a Swiss Army Knife on you? :-)

No, I meant when the latch is broken. I've often tried taking the handle off, removing the bar, then trying to retract the latch. Hasn't worked.

[junofield123]

One of those cards that sim cards come in???

[Chris J Dixon]

Did you not bother to look at the date?

I reckon that he will have put the boot in by now. ;-)

Chris

[meow2222]

:) A pair of kitchen knives works, to push the tongue back

NT

[Brian Gaff]

Has this person been locked in the room for 18 months? Brian

[armandovalencia084]

The kitchen knives worked, I just opened my jammed ass door with that method. Man I was surprised.

[Graham.]

Has your missus been locked in there for three years?

[memambo.13]

thod. Man I was surprised.