Your privacy can be lost, and your ordinary life becomes overly complicated by a blocked door latch. You need to repair your jammed latching mechanism as soon as possible, but in a manner that provides the problem doesn’t happen again. Whether the latching mechanism is stuck open or closed, you must find a technique to get your door to work effectively. Though your lock provides more security than your latch bolt, a stuck door latch offers no protection. Learn how to fix a sliding door latch stuck in locked position, identify the problem, and solve the most common issues.
Most Common Causes of a Jammed Door Latch
- Broken Internals
- Door Alignment
- Jammed Latch
Because this is a lock issue that you should not overlook, it is critical to go to the source of the problem and find solutions for your stuck sliding door lock. Do not leave your locks in a terrible condition; instead, get your security system up and running.
Why is Your Sliding Door Latch Stuck?
You want to know how to fix a stuck sliding door latch, but first, you need to figure out why it’s stuck in the first place. A sliding door latch can become stuck in several ways. There can be a sliding door lock that is stuck open or closed, but the causes for each can be quite different. The first step is to diagnose the problem and determine the signs of the door lock that is not open in its position.
Fix A Sliding Door Latch stuck in locked position
Try to open the door if it is not open. Make a note of the type of difficulty you’re up against. Consider the following scenario:
- Even when the knob is in a twisted position, the latch will not retract.
- The door latch won’t retract because the knob won’t turn.
- Before twisting the doorknob, you do not have to stretch the door latch.
- Turning the doorknob and unsticking the latch requires more power.
- To unstick the lock, wiggle the handle or knob.
Once the lock is open, use the handle to actuate the sliding door lock. It simulates the lock extending into and retreating from the strike plate.
If the lock would not open, you may need to shim the latch to allow it to retract enough to unlock the door.
When a door latch is stuck closed and cannot be shimmed due to latch guards or frozen components, you must simply remove the lock from the door. At this stage, you’re servicing the lock and may want to hire an experienced residential locksmith in Chicago for help.
Note:
Take note of the resistance’s distinctions and commonalities. Consider the following situation:
- When the door is open, the latch moves smoothly.
- The latching mechanism is still jammed.
- You must have to carry the handle in the same way to push the jammed door latch.
Without moving the door handle, push down on the door latch with your finger. When you properly press the latch, observe how it slides and moves when you release the pressure. Consider the following situation:
- Retracts with a little pressure.
- To detach the lock, you must have to twist it.
- When you apply some pressure, it moves smoothly in and springs up slowly or not at all when you release.
- When you operate the door latch directly, it does not become stuck.
Diagnosing The Sliding Door Latch stuck in locked position
With the knowledge you’ve gained from dealing with the lock becoming stuck or unstuck in various settings, you should be able to figure out what’s wrong with the latch. You can now make an educated guess as to why the door lock is not open based on your experiences. You can find some of the problems below that you might be having, along with various solutions that you can try. These aren’t the only ways a door lock can get caught, but they’re the ones most likely to cause you problems.
Door Alignment
You may have a misaligned strike plate if the door lock sticks when you try to open a closed door, but not when the door is open. The reason for the misalignment of the striking plate could be due to humidity swelling the wood of your door, or it could be due to a problem with your home’s base. In either instance, this type of problem is almost certain to return annually or semi-annually.
You can move the strike plate to better line with the door latch as a temporary repair. Lock repair and replacement in Oak Park can be helpful for this problem. Moreover, you can note the point on the door frame where the latch makes contact by closing the door. You can either expand the hole in both the wood and metal or unscrew the strike and reinstall it in the right location.
You may not be able to just re-screw the strike into the plate if you only shift it up, down, or to the side significantly. Because a tiny fragment of wood between two holes makes the strike plate exceedingly unsafe, gaps that are too close together can weaken the bolt strength.
Jammed Latch
When a door latch becomes stuck owing to a jamming latch, there will be no noticeable difference in how the latch moves when pushed in or when the handle is turned. That’s because the problem isn’t with the door or even the knob’s control over the trapped latch. It has to do with a substance build-up within the parts, allowing the latch to expand and retract due to a lack of spring tension. Because the problem is simply with the lock, there is no need to worry about repairing the doorknob or handle.