When the door starts fighting you
It usually starts gradually. You lift the handle, it doesn't quite catch, so you lift it again. Or the door drags on the threshold when you pull it shut, and you've started giving it a shoulder to make it latch. Maybe the key turns but you're not fully confident the door is actually locked. It's irritating at first, then it becomes something you just live with, and then one day it stops working altogether.
This is one of the most common calls we get from homeowners across Sunderland, from terraced houses in Southwick and Pennywell through to semis in Ryhope and Silksworth and newer builds out towards Boldon. uPVC and composite doors all rely on a multipoint locking mechanism, and that mechanism has moving parts. They wear out. It's not a sign of a poor door, it's just what happens after years of use.
What we actually do
The fix is nearly always a gearbox replacement, a hinge adjustment, or both. We don't push for a new door when the frame and slab are still solid, because there's no reason to. The gearbox is the heart of the multipoint system, the part that drives the hooks, bolts, and rollers into the keeps when you lift the handle. When it starts to slip or seize, the whole locking sequence breaks down.
We stock gearboxes from GU, Yale, Fuhr, Lockmaster, Maco, Roto, Mila, and ERA, which covers the overwhelming majority of doors we see in the SR postcode area. We'll measure the existing unit, match it, and fit it the same day in most cases. Once the new gearbox is in, we check and adjust the keeps around the frame so every locking point engages properly, not just the bottom one.
If the door has dropped, we sort the hinges at the same time. A door that's out of alignment puts extra strain on a new gearbox straight away, so we don't replace one without correcting the other.
Price and what to expect
Our pricing is labour plus parts plus VAT, and we'll give you a sensible estimate over the phone before we come out. Ring 0191 349 6413, tell us what the door's doing and ideally the brand if you can see it on the mechanism, and we'll talk you through what's likely needed and what it's likely to cost. Gearboxes vary in price depending on the brand and the spec, but the total bill for a standard repair is a small fraction of what a replacement door costs.
We've been doing this in Sunderland since 2014. We work across the city and into the surrounding areas including Washington, Houghton-le-Spring, Seaham, and Chester-le-Street. We're available around the clock, so if the door fails at an awkward time, we can help then too.
Don't put up with a door that's making you work for it. It won't fix itself, and the longer a worn gearbox is left, the more damage it can do to the keeps and frame.
What we cover
- Multipoint gearbox replacement
- Realign a dropped or binding door
- Fraction of the cost of 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 Sunderland 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.