Rebated doors & replacing levers with knobs

[TomH]

Evening all,

Thought I'd share some of my troubles with you. I've built all sorts of stuff in the garage of a weekend, and fixed lots of things around the house, so when my sister wanted me to visit to install new handles on the doors, I thought no problems, that will be easy.... So, after 10 hours of practice I have some questions for you professionals.

The doors in question are rebated double doors. They had levers installed in them which they did not like. They bought lockwood symmetry external privacy sets to replace them and also some deadlocks. The doors are 30 years old and are not very solid.

So, first step was to remove the old lever. This was easy, but left a 130mm long cavity in the door. I made up some blocks of wood to fill the holes and glued them in (not sure if this was necessary). This was rather time consuming, as the existing holes where not machine cut bu chisel cut to varying thicknesses. Next step was to drill the holes and mark out. Not thinking about this, measured from the inside of the rebate rather than outside, so hole in the wrong place. Redrilled hole in correct place and glued the cresent shaped piece back in. It is also important to note that while handles seem to be 54mm diameter, he could only buy a 51mm holesaw which meant plenty of filing...

First handle installed. Go to install the striker plate and discover problem. Due to the rebate, the striker plate is installed in the rebate. Which means that the lockset plate does not line up - there is the gap of the rebate. To get it to line up, I have to make a wooden shim the depth of the rebate and mount it under the lockset plate. Grief.... Also the new striker plate is smaller than the old striker plate so have to make up packing so it looks flush and not a dodgy job. At this stage you are probably thinking that as I have drilled the wrong hole, packed up the other side then this does not matter, but I can assure you it does..

Learn my lesson with this one so shim up the deadlock the same way. Repeat process with second downstairs door. Now, here is where the fun starts. By this time I had also done a few other bits and pieces, and had been there for close to 10 hours. Legs feel a bit stiff. The following day, legs feel a bit sore (this is Sunday). Monday, Tuesday and most of Wednesday am unable to walk downstairs with the pain of sore legs muscles and stumble around, spending most of the day in the office. Full mobility gained on Friday. I spend most of the time crouched down at lock height for the full day, and it must have stressed my leg muscles like no other time (and believe me, I've done some long walks with heavy packs but never felt this sore).

My questions for the professionals are:
- In this situation, would you replace the door rather than packing up the existing holes. My concern is that the locks are now way stronger than the door. I am fairly sure that a large gust of wind would be able to break the doors down. It was also bloody time consuming, and I couldn't imagine a professional spending lots of time packing up doors.
- Alternatively, do they make replacement secure locksets of the same dimensions to the one I took out.
- Halfway through making the shim for the lockset I realised they must have the wrong lock. When I got home I searched the internet and found they make rebate kits for double rebated doors... Looked in Bunnings but could not find them - are they readily available?

The good news is that after one session I have learned loads about fitting locks on someone else's house, so when it comes to my own I should be fine.

Your advice would be appreciated so I can avoid pain next time.

Cheers,

Tom

[seriph1]

Hi Tom

Bloody classic tale of woe there mate! Lock sets are definitely available, but of course, so are replacement knob sets if one wishes to avoid messing with something that isn't broken.

You sure did learn a heap - and your 'injury' reminds me of when I decided to play squash for the first time in years - we played for 2 hours and I could barely walk the next two days .... weird feeling and I in fact thought I had damaged my hips or something .... was just unfit

If a gust of wind could damage these doors, they must be in very poor shape ... new ones would probably pose the same issues with fitting the locks though.....

finally - it has been said "No act of kindness, however small, ever goes unpunished" live the dream dude!