Since the return of the good weather we as a business are seeing a increase in faults and failures with Upvc doors especially rear doors and patio / French doors.
The summer sun and rise in temperature can result in doors being left open for long spells to allow cooler air inside the house or while we spend more time outside but this can lead to the door developing faults that can make the door hard to close and lock our even unable to even lock at all. Why? Well the door if it contains a large amount of glass can be quite heavy and with the door not sat in it’s frame all this weight is pulling on the hinges and over time can cause the door to drop, sometimes it’s only a few millimetres but this can be enough that door will not correctly line up when the door is closed which can stop the door locking completely or if extra effort to force the handle is used to make the door lock can result in the locking mechanism failing and will require new parts or a whole locking system depending on the type of mechanism fitted.
So how can you stop a Upvc door from dropping and misaligning?
A simple fix is to measure and cut to size a small block of wood, it needs to be cut to the exact height so it just carry’s the weight and is not lifting the door up so it takes the weight instead of it being fully laden on the hinges. Sorted!
The next fault we see very often is with outward opening Upvc doors where the doors are left open but as we know in the UK a bright sunny day can be interrupted with a downpour, the rain can and will find its way into the locking mechanism and if this repeatedly happens removes the lubricant and rusts internal parts casing the part to break.
Because this is not done on purpose it’s expected this accident can and will happen but if you do a annual Maternance of the door and lubricate the door you should never have a real issue.
So how do you lubricate a multipoint locking system.
The most important part of any multipoint locking system is the gear box located behind the handles so open the door and pull the handle down to retract the latch, a good squirt of a 3 in 1 oil into the latch will lubricate the top and gravity will then do its work pulling it through the whole gearbox a small squirt can also go into any other part of the multipoint like on the top and bottom shoot bolts or hooks – before and oil is used place a small plastic bag or take away container to catch any oil that makes its way through the system at the base of the door strip it can take a while to work its way through so its best on a nice day when you can leave the door open and not leave any messy oil stains on the floor.
If you have noticed any issues with a door becoming hard to close give our team a call we can if the door has dropped realign the the door so it’s working perfectly, we even give the system a good dash oil oil so you don’t have to outperform team is always on had for free advice and quotes call 01158320195