A former customer got in touch about a bathroom door at a tenanted property in Chiswick. The door had become blocked shut and they wanted me to find out what had failed and get it open again.
By the time I arrived, the tenant had already removed the handles in an attempt to work out what was happening, but had not managed to get any further. The spindle section inside the latch had broken into pieces, leaving the latch fully engaged with no working handle connection to retract it.
Putting the handle back on did not magically solve it, unfortunately. I used a couple of tools to release the failed latch and open the door without turning it into a bigger repair.
I had a suitable fire-rated latch in stock, so the broken unit was removed and replaced immediately. The handles went back on, the latch was tested and the bathroom door was working normally again. From the original call to a functioning door, the whole job was completed within roughly 30 minutes — useful timing given the rather sensitive nature of a bathroom door that cannot be opened.
