Where to shop for reliable DIY bits & pieces?

Emily_Joy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80349250#Comment_80349250

I thought I will update my own thread.

A couple of years ago the week after we moved into our current home, my OH went abroad for several months. Naturally, he took keys to all doors with him - the front door, the kitchen door, and the conservatory doors, leaving me with what we thought was identical copies. While he was away, I found that I cannot lock the conservatory - the key I had would not turn the lock. Since every internal door had some issues (one was cracked, two would not close…) I assumed that the lock is broken, so I ordered a cheap fix from Amazon, as I had way too many things to deal with.

A month ago (yep, January 2026) we finally got around to fixing the French conservatory doors properly… Only to find out that they are completely fine - one just needs two keys to lock them, as the left pane and the right pane need different keys, and the reason I was not able to lock them was that the second key was abroad 🤣

Somehow it has never crossed our minds that the left and the right panes of French doors would have different cylinders and would need two different keys!

Bigphil1474

We have 2 pairs of french doors on the back of our house, and the front door is split into 2 half doors, and there is an internal door there as well - we have 7 sets of keys. Fortunately the vendors labelled them all up and we had 4 keys for each. Took us a few days to work it all out. They were also trustworthy, so we didn't feel the need to change all the locks when we moved in 2 years ago.

jonnydeppiwish!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80347813#Comment_80347813

absolutely, especially as it’s relatively easy to get a trade card and take 10% off prices. Makes it cheaper than screwfix etc