Getting indoor door latch to catch. Right now it's too far away to make contact archived
Feb 17, 2014 at 7:46am
often it is a matter of moving the part attached to the frame of the door, the strike. You can move this up, down forwards or backwards depending on what is needed to align with the latch. Sometimes this is hard since it messes with the screw holes that are already there, and you may need to fill the old holes in with toothpicks and glue first. You may also need to chisel out some wood in the frame if you move the strike.
Shimming the strike plate is easiest and assuming the house isn't all that far out of line should work. Otherwise you are going to have to shim the hinges as well and it is easy to end up messing up the swing of the door.
One of our doors does need to be raised up a tiny bit. Don't want to have to unscrew the hinges. Just push the bolt up a bit. But have no idea how to go about doing so or if this is even an option. Can you tell I'm not handy?
Smear some lipstick on the latch, this will rub below the strike plate hole and inform you how fAr to lower the strike plate. It is much easier to lower the stike plate than raise the hinges.
You could also shim one, or some of your hinges to bring the door back into alignment.
Just back the screws on one hinge at at time(if more than one hinge is needs adjusting). Put in your shim(small washer, folded up piece of paper). Then tighten the screws back up.
Just back the screws on one hinge at at time(if more than one hinge is needs adjusting). Put in your shim(small washer, folded up piece of paper). Then tighten the screws back up.
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I sprayed WD 40 to see if it was stuck. No luck. I'd rather not have to take the door knob apart, and wonder if doing so would be effective. Seems to me the more likely fix would be taking the door strike out. Putting some shims behind it so that the latch will reach.
Any thoughts?