When the door becomes a battle
You know the drill. You get home, turn the key, and the bolt won't quite throw. So you lift the handle a bit. Then lift it harder. Then juggle the door in its frame while a neighbour walks past pretending not to notice. It's one of those problems that starts as a minor irritation and quietly becomes a security risk.
Dropped doors are just as common around Southborough. The ground floor uPVC doors in a lot of the semi-detached houses near High Brooms and along the roads off Southborough Common take a battering from years of use, and over time the weight of the door pulls it down in the frame. The locking points miss the keeps by a millimetre or two. That's enough to make the whole system feel like it's failing, even when the mechanism itself is fine.
The good news is that replacing the door is almost never the answer.
What we actually do
We've been repairing multipoint locks across Southborough and the wider TN4 area since 2014, so we've seen pretty much every combination of mechanism brand and failure mode. When we arrive, we'll open the door up, test the gearbox and inspect the keeps and hinges before we recommend anything.
If the gearbox has failed, we'll replace it. We stock mechanisms from GU, Yale, Fuhr, Lockmaster, Maco, Roto, Mila and ERA, which covers the vast majority of uPVC and composite doors fitted in this area. If the door has dropped, we'll adjust the hinges to bring it back into square, then fine-tune the keeps so every locking point engages cleanly. No drama, no unnecessary parts.
Composite doors get the same treatment. They're heavier than uPVC, which means they drop more readily and put more strain on the gearbox over time. The repair process is essentially the same.
Price and timing
We work on a labour rate plus parts plus VAT model, and we'll quote you a figure over the phone before we turn up. Call us on 01892 575491, describe what the door is doing, and we can usually give you a clear price there and then. Parts vary depending on the mechanism brand, but even a full gearbox swap with a door realignment costs a fraction of a replacement door and frame.
For most jobs in Southborough we aim to be with you the same day. We're available around the clock, so if the door won't lock at all and you need it made secure quickly, don't sit on it. A dropped or worn multipoint lock isn't something to leave for the weekend.
What we cover
- Multipoint gearbox replacement
- We realign dropped and twisted doors
- Far cheaper than a new door
- GU, Yale, Fuhr, Maco and more
How a typical job goes
You ring us
Tell us what's happening, what door, what brand of lock if you know. We'll give you our labour rates, estimated parts pricing and VAT on the call.
We turn up
We aim for under 30 minutes inside Southborough where possible. The engineer confirms what's needed and what it'll cost before any work starts.
Job done
Receipted with a breakdown of pricing and parts, and a 12-month guarantee on any parts we supplied and fitted.