A former customer in Staines got in touch because the French doors leading to the garden were blocked shut and could no longer be opened.
I managed to open the doors without damaging the handles or the lock. Once they were open, I could confirm that the central part of the multipoint lock — the gearbox — had failed. One of the spindles had given up, which made the gearbox useless for the existing setup. As I put it at the time, the gearbox had left the chat.
I had a suitable replacement in stock, so I fitted the new gearbox and then spent a good half an hour adjusting both doors. There was hardly an adjustment point that did not need moving slightly before everything lined up and operated as it should. By the end, the customer said the doors were working better than when they were new.
The useful warning from this one is not to keep forcing a multipoint door that is becoming difficult to lock. Whether the door is uPVC, aluminium or timber, a mechanism that needs excessive force is often telling you that something is out of alignment. Sorting that before components break can avoid the more expensive repair — and the possibility of ending up stuck inside or outside.
