uPVC Door Specialist

Usually not yet, but it is on its way. That resistance means the hooks are meeting the keeps at an angle instead of sliding in cleanly, so every lock is straining the gearbox. Left alone, the gearbox is what eventually gives out, and at that point it is a part rather than an adjustment. Caught early it is often twenty minutes of hinge work.

The cylinder is turning the cam but the mechanism it drives is not engaging, which usually means the multipoint gearbox has failed. It is the part that sits inside the door edge and drives all the hooks. Describe it precisely when you call, because it is a different price and a different part to a cylinder, and we would rather bring the right one.

Thermal expansion. uPVC grows in heat and a full-height door panel moves enough to bind against the frame. It is normal behaviour rather than a fault, but a door set up tight to begin with will bind badly every July. We adjust to sit in the middle of the seasonal range so it works in both, rather than perfectly on the day of the visit.

In most cases yes, and it is the commonest thing we do on these doors. The hinges adjust vertically, horizontally and for compression, and the keeps in the frame move too. A door that has sagged two or three millimetres can usually be brought back to square. Only where the panel itself has distorted or the frame has failed does replacement come into it.

It is the full-height strip in the door edge carrying hooks, rollers, a latch and a deadbolt, all driven by one gearbox. Individual keeps, rollers and the handle can be replaced on their own. The gearbox itself is not realistically repairable and is changed as a unit, which usually means removing the whole strip.

It matters more than anything else on the door. A cylinder projecting past the handle can be gripped with pliers and snapped in seconds, which is the standard method of forcing uPVC and composite doors. It means the cylinder was sized wrong when it was fitted. Replacing it with a correctly measured anti-snap cylinder is a short, inexpensive job.

Yes, and the hardware is essentially the same. A composite door has a different core and is heavier, which actually makes hinge sag more common rather than less. The multipoint mechanism, the euro cylinder and the adjustment principles are identical, so anything on this page applies to both.

Window locks, espagnolette mechanisms, handles and hinges, yes. Sliding patio doors are their own thing — rollers, tracks and patio lock mechanisms — and bi-folds have shootbolts and track alignment. Tell us which you have when you call so the right parts and the right approach come with the engineer.

It can be either, which is why we test before quoting. A worn handle spring leaves the lever drooping while the mechanism underneath is fine, and a new handle fixes it. A stripped gearbox also produces a handle with no resistance, but usually with a grinding or hollow feel as it moves. Thirty seconds on the door tells us which.

Almost always worth repairing. A door that is twenty years old but structurally sound can be adjusted, refitted with a new mechanism and given a modern anti-snap cylinder for a small fraction of a replacement door, and it will be more secure afterwards than it was when new. We will tell you honestly if the panel or frame has gone past that point.

By what the door actually needs, and quoted before we travel. Alignment and adjustment is the smallest job, a handle or cylinder sits above it, and a full multipoint mechanism is the largest. Describe what the door is doing and whether it behaves differently when open, and you will have a realistic figure before anybody sets off.