A landlord got in touch about a rental property in Godalming where the uPVC front door had become extremely difficult to lock.
When I arrived, the misalignment was obvious. Even with the multipoint lock lifted as far as it would go, the door was sitting badly enough that it was no surprise the tenant had been struggling.
There was little useful adjustment available from the hinges. If I remember correctly, the bottom hinge was even partly buried into the plasterboard because the door had been installed into a very tight opening.
Because this was a panel door, I used heel-and-toe adjustment to bring the door back into a better position rather than trying to force more movement from hinges that had nowhere sensible left to go.
Around half an hour after I arrived, the door was aligned closely enough for the multipoint lock to operate easily again.
The useful lesson is that a stiff multipoint lock is not always a failed gearbox. If the door itself has dropped or moved out of position, correcting that alignment can restore normal operation without replacing the locking mechanism.
