Dead/Lock bolt on 3 Lever internal door stuck in locked position with door open!

[CiaranDIY]

Hello,

I have an internal door in a new build with a '3 Lever' mortice lock. I went to lock it today so that I could use exercise resistance bands and felt the door lock not really play ball, so I opened the door to test the lock, lo and behold the deadbolt turned into locked position but then got stuck and won't retract. So now I can't close the door lol. I am equipped with the least convincing key ever but it works on all the other doors.

My knowledge of locks is minimal so would appreciate help! Thanks in advance.

 

[KenGMac]

CiaranDIY, good evening.

Had a look at the digital image posted.

It appears that the face plate of the lock has not been set into the rebate [the face plate of the lock should fit snugly into the rebate on the edge of the door]

What can be seen in the image, the upper part of the lock face plate is not seated correctly into the rebate intended to seat the lock face plate flush with the edge of the door.

The above will twist the face plate to the extent that the locking bolt will move out [so called throw] but because of the small distortion of the lock face plate, the bolt will not retract. The Lock face plate is distorted because of the distortion as above.

Suggest you try to loosen of the two fixing screws on the lock face plate and try the [exceptionally "Non-Secure" key] to see if the loose face plate allows the lock to function.

As for a fix, if the above is correct would be to re-cut the top area of timber above the lock face plate to allow the lock face plate to bed into the edge of the door, a Stanley knife used to score and cut the timber on the edge of the door using the lock top edge as a template works wonders. All that is then needed is the cut timber is removed, this will be a very, very small sliver of timber.

Ken

 

[JohnD]

it looks to me like the door is hollow, and the lock has fallen into a hole rather than a mortice cut into a lock block. The lock may only be staying in position with the help of the latch spindle and the handles on each side.

When you take the lock out, let's have another look into the edge of the door.

If you look at the top of the door, there may be a label or printed mark to show which side the lock block is.

Looking at your lock and key, the word "budget" springs to mind, shortly followed by the word "bin." Sorry.

 

[CiaranDIY]

Appreciate the help guys. I should have said I'd already attempted to remove the face plate before taking the photo which is why it looked like it wasn't snug. I ended up removing the handles and taking out the entire mechanism, taking it apart to discover that one of the 3 tiny sprung metal plates had slipped out so I re-aligned it, tried it a good 20 times to be sure and then fitted it back into the door. It's now locking and unlocking perfectly. I also appreciate it's very much the most pathetic little lock and key going but luckily it serves very little purpose! Again, thanks for the quick and informative responses.

 

[JohnD]

very glad to hear you've fixed it.