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  • Why is this backdoor not closing properly?

    From Simon Ferrol@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 2 15:44:17 2025
    Hi, these are the pics of the backdoor in my Council estate block:

    https://imgur.com/a/osKjYuq

    The lock has been changed a few months ago because it wouldn't even
    lock. Now the door locks, but only if you manually push the door. Most residents here can't be bothered and I don't like that because drug
    addicts and occasional feral kids enter to smoke some weed.

    I keep on reporting this to the Council. Somebody comes and fixes it and
    it works for a couple of weeks and then it goes back to not locking automatically.

    Is there anything that I or a simple handyman (that we have and pay for)
    can do to fix it forever without calling the Council?

    SF

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to Simon Ferrol on Mon Jun 2 16:48:38 2025
    Simon Ferrol wrote:

    Hi, these are the pics of the backdoor in my Council estate block:

    https://imgur.com/a/osKjYuq

    The lock has been changed a few months ago because it wouldn't even
    lock. Now the door locks, but only if you manually push the door. Most residents here can't be bothered and I don't like that because drug
    addicts and occasional feral kids enter to smoke some weed.

    I keep on reporting this to the Council. Somebody comes and fixes it and
    it works for a couple of weeks and then it goes back to not locking automatically.

    Probably the feral kids tweaking them to ensure future access.

    Is there anything that I or a simple handyman (that we have and pay for)
    can do to fix it forever without calling the Council?
    Automatic door closers usually have at least two adjustments to the
    speed and strength of the mechanism, look for screws/allen key holes on
    the ends ... or better still take more photos and find what make/model
    you're dealing with and look for related instructions

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  • From Fredxx@21:1/5 to Simon Ferrol on Mon Jun 2 23:34:31 2025
    On 02/06/2025 15:44, Simon Ferrol wrote:
    Hi, these are the pics of the backdoor in my Council estate block:

    https://imgur.com/a/osKjYuq

    The lock has been changed a few months ago because it wouldn't even
    lock. Now the door locks, but only if you manually push the door. Most residents here can't be bothered and I don't like that because drug
    addicts and occasional feral kids enter to smoke some weed.

    I keep on reporting this to the Council. Somebody comes and fixes it and
    it works for a couple of weeks and then it goes back to not locking automatically.

    Is there anything that I or a simple handyman (that we have and pay for)
    can do to fix it forever without calling the Council?

    I presume that is a fire-door and as such it should close and latch closed?

    There could be many reasons for the failure to close. One is the closer,
    but it could also be a clearance issue on the bottom or the sides?

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  • From Thomas Prufer@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Tue Jun 3 07:57:20 2025
    On Mon, 2 Jun 2025 16:48:38 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

    Automatic door closers usually have at least two adjustments to the
    speed and strength of the mechanism, look for screws/allen key holes on
    the ends ... or better still take more photos and find what make/model
    you're dealing with and look for related instructions

    This last!

    The adjustments you might have are: where the closer sits on the door, in the distance its mounted from the hinges. The angle of the arm on the closer. Screws
    to adjust overall strength, then opening damping, closing damping, and the last bit of "slap" that lets to door close harder and faster to ensure that the lock engages. These are interrelated, and easy to get right if you have the instructions, or at least an idea of which adjustments this closer has.

    Going by the number of screw holes I have seen around newly mounted door closers, tradesmen seem to ignore the instructions, mount the thing and then re-mount it until it sort-of works. These things include a mounting template for a reason...

    Thomas Prufer

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  • From Peter Johnson@21:1/5 to prufer.public@mnet-online.de.invali on Tue Jun 3 14:23:35 2025
    On Tue, 03 Jun 2025 07:57:20 +0200, Thomas Prufer <prufer.public@mnet-online.de.invalid> wrote:

    On Mon, 2 Jun 2025 16:48:38 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

    Automatic door closers usually have at least two adjustments to the
    speed and strength of the mechanism, look for screws/allen key holes on
    the ends ... or better still take more photos and find what make/model >>you're dealing with and look for related instructions

    This last!

    The adjustments you might have are: where the closer sits on the door, in the >distance its mounted from the hinges. The angle of the arm on the closer. Screws
    to adjust overall strength, then opening damping, closing damping, and the last
    bit of "slap" that lets to door close harder and faster to ensure that the lock
    engages. These are interrelated, and easy to get right if you have the >instructions, or at least an idea of which adjustments this closer has.


    The fire door to my integral garage has a closer that when I bought
    the house hearly 30 years ago slammed the door closed.
    Tolerating it for a few years, following a comment on here about
    closers, I decided to investiage the settings. Couldn't find anything
    online so it was down to trial and error, but it only took a few
    minutes to get it to close in a controlled manner.

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  • From Chris J Dixon@21:1/5 to Peter Johnson on Tue Jun 3 15:46:28 2025
    Peter Johnson wrote:

    The fire door to my integral garage has a closer that when I bought
    the house hearly 30 years ago slammed the door closed.
    Tolerating it for a few years, following a comment on here about
    closers, I decided to investiage the settings. Couldn't find anything
    online so it was down to trial and error, but it only took a few
    minutes to get it to close in a controlled manner.

    Quite a few years ago, staying in a hostel in Prague, our room
    was next to a heavy internal door, which slammed through the
    night. A quick tweak to the two adjusters, with my Swiss Army
    screwdriver, soon achieved silent but secure closure.

    Simples :-)

    Chris
    --
    Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
    chris@cdixon.me.uk @ChrisJDixon1

    Plant amazing Acers.

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