A returning customer in Carshalton got in touch because the lock on the uPVC garden door had finally failed.
I had been to the property previously to replace some handles and had noticed even then that the multipoint mechanism was nearing the end of its life. At that stage it was still working, so rather than replace it prematurely I lubricated the system and advised the customer to call me when it eventually gave up.
That simple bit of maintenance bought roughly another year of use.
When the mechanism finally failed, I returned and replaced the worn part with the correct genuine component from van stock.
I then made the necessary adjustments to the door so the new mechanism was not fighting against poor alignment.
Once everything was tested, the garden door was shutting and locking properly again. In this case, waiting had made sense: the customer got another year from the original mechanism before replacement genuinely became necessary.
