UPVC French Doors

UnderPressure

Morning all

We have some UPVC French Patio doors leading from our licing room into the back garden. Last night whilst doing my nightly OCD rounds of the house making sure all doors and windows are locked etc I noticed that the french doors weren't locked this time though the handle was incredibly difficult to move up into the locked position so I could not lock the lock.

After inspecting the frame all seemed OK with that noithing in the way so I tried again this time with a bit of "extra" force, this sometimes happens with this lock in WInter when it is very cold and usually an extra hard yank of the handle pulls the handle into the locked position not this time though, this time the handle just seemed to give way and now the whole handle freely moves all the way around n a circle motion both ways!.

It is a rented property so I suppose I could just pass all this to my landlord however before I do that I always make sure with things that need doing if they are a small relatively cheap job I like to do them myself, just the way I am probably a bit silly to mmost people however our loandlord is a true star in every sense of the word so if I can save him a little time, trouble and money then I like to.

Any ideas appreciated, the windows were fitted roughyl 8 years ago but the 10 year guarantee went boom when the national company that fitted them went bust!!!!!

Thanks in advance

docmatt

The site below has a windows and doors forum which should help you as a lot of posters are fitters/window doctors. try there (in case you don't get anywhere in here)

http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=18&sid=58e29037474467bd3186bbadb65e3fc0

SatanicHare

Sounds like the lock is broken, either phone a d\g repair guy, locksmith or identify the lock and replace it yourself.

martyn05

Chances are the gearbox mechanism has broken. The spindle that connects the handles together goes through a part of the gearbox that often fails, rarely is it the spindle itself that breaks. Have a look down the metal strip on the edge of the door to see if the manufactures name is on it. Be careful buying a new gearbox, you need to make sure you get the exact right one or things won't work correctly. You need to know the backset measurement and key to spindle distance to buy a new one.

My advice is ring your landlord and tell him it has broken and that you can not secure his property.

Being a locksmith myself, I do plenty of these.