Door won't lock from inside!

[whatonearthisthatabout]

Hi
Posting here for traffic as need help
Just got in from work and the door won't lock. Key won't turn fully and I won't sleep without a working lock. What can I do? I've called the whole of the areas 24hours locksmiths and nothing until 09:00 tomorrow!

To clarify it's inside or outside

Will it lock from the outside? If yes, could you go to a hotel?

if not, I totally understand why you wouldn’t want to sleep with it unlocked. Is there any way you could reinforce it from the inside? Do you live alone?

It won't lock from the outside either!
With my dp luckily and our daughter is with my mum thank goodness. Dp has blocked the door and it won't open to be fair but I'm still too worried to sleep

Have you tried lubricant on the lock? Do you have any WD-40 in the house? That can work wonders on locks that won't work.

When my lock was sticking a few weeks ago I put some cooking oil on a bit of kitchen roll then wiped it all over the key. The lock has been fine since. Hope you get sorted, I’d struggle to sleep knowing the door was unlocked too.

Thank you, I'll get dp to try

I had this on a back door. It needed the hinges adjusting. They adjust rather like the hinges on a kitchen cupboard door.

What kind of lock have you got? Mines a upvc door and it needed some tweaks so I’ve had to take all the metal locks out of the door frame as somethings catching so I can’t lift up the handle to engage the lock mechanisms.

so it now locks - but the gubbins aren’t in the door frame.

pictures show the main latch area on the door, with the lock in and ‘out’. And the bit I took of the door frame.

have you a screwdriver etc?

let us know as I’m used to playing with various locks and adjusting doors for friends etc!

Like @TheCatterall said I would suggest the same thing. I have a council property and have had lots of emergency call outs when the door hasn't locked and this is the temp solution they have done until someone can repair properly the next day
The door works perfect without the metal and screws

This is a bad idea.

Basically have a look at an old bottle of cooking oil. Round the top you will see a load of solidified sticky gunk. That is vegetable oil that has oxidised.

The same will happen to the cooking oil you put inside your lock. It will work OK at first, but over time it will solidify and jam up the mechanism.

You should use light oil on locks. That is properly formulated not to turn into sticky gunk over time (it does, but the timescale is much longer compared with something like cooking oil).

The new modern high security locks that have complicated mechanisms normally recommend graphite rather than liquid lubricants - they often say that oil will ruin them. I have locks like this and it is weird how sticking stuff that looks like iron filings/powder into the lock makes it work better. But it does !

Yep, if it's sticking use graphite - don't use oil. A pencil is usually made of graphite.