My first “lock-in” service call happened when I was still an apprentice. A woman had a double-keyed deadbolt on her apartment door. Apparently the key was misplaced or lost inside the apartment. The woman and her children were trapped inside, a very bad situation to be in. I had to climb through a window and take the lock apart from the inside to get the door open.

Over the years I have had to open doors on homes where the locks were unlocked, but the doorknob would not turn. These jobs are rare, but they still happen without warning. And they can happen with any brand of lock. The cause of the lock malfunction is a dead-latch failure. The dead-latch is used with key operated doorknobs or levers. The dead-latch is designed to prevent a burglar from pushing the latch back with a knife or ice pick, this is often called “jimmying,” the door open.

The dead-latch has a button next to the latch. When the door closes the button stays depressed. This activates a block inside the latch assembly and the latch cannot be pushed in. It will only retract when it is pulled in by the doorknob. If the dead-latch fails, the “block” inside the latch assembly will not allow the knob to pull the latch back. Usually this problem is an inconvenience and everyone has to enter and exit the home through another door. If there is only one entrance this problem could escalate into a crisis.

The only way to get the door open is to remove the lock and dissect the latch into pieces and remove it from the door until the latch retracts. I have seen some jobs where the door is butchered and hacked until the door opens. If the door is wood the repair can be made with wood plugs, but if the door is metal or fiberglass a wrap-a-round plate is used to hide the scars and the holes. The purpose of this Blog is to inform the reader the door does not have to be hacked apart to get it open.

I would advise you to find a professional locksmith to get the door open and replace the lock. The photos in this Blog are to show you how difficult and ugly this job can be. I would also advise you to replace a dead-latch with a spring-latch if you only have one entrance into your apartment or efficiency. You should have a good deadbolt lock on your door for security. The main purpose of the doorknob is to hold the door closed while the door is unlocked.

You can see how difficult this job is even for a seasoned professional in a controlled environment. Do yourself a favor and seek out a good locksmith in your area before you need one. Ask around your neighborhood or the local hardware store. Someone in your area has used a locksmith, maybe more than one. You can learn a lot from the experiences of others. A good place to start looking is www.findalocksmith.com