Exterior Door Latch Stuck

Tighten the hinge screws and then try adjusting.

Exterior door latch stuck. A handful of things can cause a door latch to get stuck in the open position. Turn the knob to open the door and release the knob slowly. Many of these can be fixed by simply disassembling and reassembling the door knob mechanism. You should first test the door latch to ensure the latch is sticking inside the door and not due to a misaligned strike plate.

With the door latch stuck you want to know how to fix the issue but in order to do that you must find out the reason it is stuck. When a door latch doesn t click into position it usually means the latch and the strike plate are out of alignment. Depending on the material the door is made of metal wood etc a wooden door can be removed and planed in the area that is causing the sticking. There can be a door latch stuck open or a door latch stuck closed but the reasons for each can vary quite a bit.

You can see where the cylinder entered the dead latch mechanism and pulled the latch back. Once you have the door handle off you can now try to open the latch manually with either a large flathead screwdriver or pair of needle nose pliers. How can i unstick the bottom of an exterior door that got stuck due to weather. A sticking door latch might require some lubrication or it might be jamming against the strike plate on the door jamb.

Of course if it s on an exterior door you ll want to do this when the weather is nice and when it s safe to leave the door unlocked. There s one piece of good news if you have a stuck latch that won t let you shut the door. On the kwikset locks this looks like two little teeth that the cylinder pushes back. Door lock doesn t latch properly.

At least it s not a stuck latch that won t let you open the door. Taking the lock of the door is often simpler than it would be to take a deadbolt or exterior door knob lock of the door.