Welcome to the Handy Hints & Tips section of Handles4Doors! Here you can learn how to maintain your
door furniture so that it works efficiently for as long as possible, and how to prevent the metal of your
handles from becoming tarnished so it looks good forever.
You can also pick up a few tips on how to deal with sticking doors, and how to treat those frustrating
difficult, sticking hinges.
But let's start off with a few very general tips and tricks to get us warmed up.
If you've made some unsightly dents in the wood of your door or window frame while you've been fitting
your brand new furniture, fear not! Grab a wet cloth and cover the dent with it. Then, get yourself a
warm iron and press it down firmly onto the cloth. The steam from the cloth acting under the heat from the
iron will cause the fibres in the wood to swell, and your dent will quickly disappear. Hurrah!
Brass and copper make great materials for door handles, but with the constant use to which they will be
subjected, they have a tendency to wear. So pick up some brass and copper cleaner and cover the carpet
under the handle in case you spill some. Then, instead of using a standard cloth, try using some wire wool -
the finest, softest wire wool you can get your hands on. You can even use a Brillo pad as long as you use a
light touch.
Nine times out of ten, a squeaky, creaky door has dirty hinges. Clean the hinges, then apply some WD40
or other spray lubricant, with an old towel underneath to protect your carpet. If the spray oil can came
with a thin straw attached, then insert it into the nozzle so the spray is more accurate and concentrated.
Starting at the top of the hinge, spray the oil downwards through the hinge moving the door back and forth
while you do so. Then tighten the screws which fasten the hinge to the door frame. This should cure that
irritating creak.
Most people don't even think about it, but by using similarly styled exterior and interior door handles,
you create a seamless transition as you move into, out of and around your home. This is a great way to show
some consistency in your DIY, and is a subtle way to develop a broader design scheme.
Most locksmiths will devote a large amount of their time learning how to pick a door lock while they're
training for their profession. With this expertise, they can often open doors without keys and without
damaging the lock. Even though locks are generally pretty secure, an affordable door alarm which goes off
when the door is opened is worth serious consideration for the more security conscious of you.
Wooden framed houses have a tendency to move and swell over the years due to the natural contortions of
the wood. Therefore, you might find that deadlocks drift slightly out of alignment after some time, and need
some readjustment. Firstly, re-tighten all the screws in the hinges. This should straighten the door up a
bit, since it might be hanging over and the deadlock might be missing the strikeplate as a result. If
you've retightened the screws and the deadbolt is still not engaging properly, then you need to move the
strike plate to accommodate the new position of the bolt. Rub the end of the bolt with some chalk and
then press the bolt against the strike plate, so the chalk leaves a mark where the contact was made.
Remove the strikeplate and widen the hole underneath with a metal file to encompass the chalk mark. Then
refit the strike plate and ensure everything is working again.