You should first test the door latch to ensure the latch is sticking inside the door and not due to a misaligned strike plate.
Exterior door latch stuck.
When a door latch doesn t click into position it usually means the latch and the strike plate are out of alignment.
How can i unstick the bottom of an exterior door that got stuck due to weather.
On the kwikset locks this looks like two little teeth that the cylinder pushes back.
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.
Tighten the hinge screws and then try adjusting.
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.
Turn the knob to open the door and release the knob slowly.
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.
At least it s not a stuck latch that won t let you open the door.
There s one piece of good news if you have a stuck latch that won t let you shut the door.
There are several different ways a door latch can be stuck.
A handful of things can cause a door latch to get stuck in the open position.
Door lock doesn t latch properly.
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.
You can see where the cylinder entered the dead latch mechanism and pulled the latch back.
Sometimes the lock button being stuck is endemic of the latch bolt freezing so you might not be able to take advantage of spring loaded latch through the gap between the door and the frame.
There can be a door latch stuck open or a door latch stuck closed but the reasons for each can vary quite a bit.
Many of these can be fixed by simply disassembling and reassembling the door knob mechanism.