A flat entrance door is opened many times a day, carries the flat's security, and is almost never maintained until something stops working. It is also the door where a failure is most inconvenient, because you are usually on the wrong side of it when it happens.
The lock, which gives warning before it fails
A multipoint or cylinder lock that has started to need the door pulled or lifted to turn is telling you it is out of alignment or worn.
People accommodate that for months by pulling the door a certain way, which is exactly how it eventually fails.
Often it is alignment rather than the lock: the door has dropped slightly and the bolts no longer meet the keeps. Adjusting the hinges or the keeps is a short job. Replacing the lock without correcting the alignment leaves the new one to wear the same way.
Hinges carrying a heavy door
A flat entrance door is usually solid and heavy, and it hangs on hinges that carry that weight through thousands of cycles.
As they wear the door drops, which is what puts the lock out of alignment and makes the door catch on the frame.
So the hinge is frequently the root of a problem that presents at the lock. We check the door's alignment before anything else, because fixing the symptom at the lock end is the commonest way of paying twice for the same fault.
The peephole, the chain and the things nobody checks
A door viewer clouds over years and eventually shows nothing useful, and a door chain or limiter is often fixed into the frame with short screws that will not hold under any real load.
Both are small parts that people assume are working.
So we check them on any entrance door visit and say plainly if the limiter would not hold. It costs very little to put right, and a security fitting that will not do its job is worse than none, because it is relied on.
How the job works
- Tell us about the jobSend a few photos, rough sizes and what you need. Use WhatsApp or the form. For a repair, a short video of the door moving helps a lot.
- We call you back in about 2 minutesWe confirm what you need and a time to visit. Where we can, we give you a rough price on the call.
- We come and measureWe measure the opening and check the walls, floor and ceiling around it. Anything made to size is made to these measurements, so they must be right.
- You get a written priceIt lists each item, with GST as its own line. If anything about the job changes, we tell you before we go ahead.
- We fit itYou approve the price and pay the advance. Our own team fits the work, checks that every door and window opens and closes properly, and clears up. Most jobs are done in 3 to 4 days.
