A customer in Walton-on-Thames got in touch because the mechanism on the front door was becoming harder and harder to operate. From the description, I suspected the gearbox was close to the end of its life and quoted for a replacement. The customer agreed and I arranged the repair for that afternoon.
Once on site, I removed the door mechanism and the damage was clearly visible, so I could show the customer what had happened before going ahead with the repair. It is always useful when a fault can actually be seen. Some gearboxes fail internally, while others suffer gradual wear, and those faults can be much harder to explain until the mechanism is stripped down.
A common cause behind this type of failure is the door gradually dropping and the locking points becoming misaligned. From the jobs I see, I would estimate that misalignment is involved in around 60–70% of these failures. Because it happens slowly, people often get used to the extra resistance and think, “it has always been like that”, right up until something inside the mechanism finally breaks.
Lubrication and correct operation help, but alignment matters just as much. If you regularly need both hands to force the handle and key at the same time, that is a warning sign rather than normal operation. Getting the door realigned before components start breaking can turn a much bigger repair into a straightforward adjustment. Lots of percentages in this one, but the point is simple: if the lock is getting harder to use, do not wait for it to fail.
