How To FIX a broken Door Knob

Broken Door Lock? Just want to change out door hardware? This is an easy fix that any DIY'er can do. The right tools, and the right hardware make it pretty easy.

Of course not all doors are mortised out the same so let me know if you need to a different type of hardware replaced.

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Transcript:

How to Fix a Broken Door Knob

So, this is Dennis with Home Rehab Pros. We have an unfortunate task to take care of today. Someone broke into a house, and you can see I'm going to show you a close-up picture, but you can see the doorknob has been completely twisted off and obliterated. So, this is a good opportunity to show you how to change out a doorknob and a lock set, as well as a deadbolt. Okay, we have a combination again, and they're going to be keyed the same. So, I think if you have to change out a piece of hardware, it's not difficult. You just need the right tools, and I'll show you what those tools are that I'm going to use. Then, you can just get the right equipment and the right tool, and let's just do this.

So, I thought this would be a good opportunity to show you a couple of things I like to use when I'm changing out door knobs and door hardware. At one, I like to use this very narrow, long bit. You can get it, and it fits into your chuck really nicely. It just keeps us positioned nicely to get the screws out where the doorknob is because sometimes those are hard to do, hard to get out, and hard to get in. Also, I'm going to show you how I like to use this quick-release chuck. I'm going to use a regular drill; I'm not going to use an impact drill. Let me show you how this goes together.

This just goes right into the chuck. I've got to open it all the way up, and it slides right in. Then, it tightens right up. In this, this just snaps right in there. There you go, and it's got a nice quick release. So, I really like that. If I had to use more than just this bit, it would be nice to quick release from one bit to the other. But now, let me take this doorknob off, and I'll show you how we do that. I've got my screw gun, and it's on slow speed. There are usually two speeds on these. I just don't want to work fast, and I just want to keep it on a low setting. So, my setting on my numbers here is number one. I don't want to strip anything out. I could go all the way up to 24, which is a complete drill, but I don't want to do that. I just want the clutch to engage if I have a problem with the screw. Right now, I'm just going to take all of this off. This I think I'm going to leave on because this is new. Okay, but it should work.

I'm just going to unscrew this, and we're going to get the damaged ones off of here.

[Music]

The reason why I'm going to change the deadbolt too is so that they're keyed the same. I don't want to have to use two keys for my front door. So, that came off very nicely, and of course, the damaged one came off very nicely. Now, let's take this deadbolt off, same thing.

Okay, very nice. So, that deadbolt came off all pretty good. I already unscrewed the screws up there. It doesn't take long, and it just pops right out, see?

So, let's put that deadbolt on first. Here's my piece of hardware. You'll notice there's a little square right here, almost a rectangle that needs to be at the bottom. Okay, and I could adjust this. It even says "up." Okay, so it tells us. All we have to do is follow directions, and that'll slide right in there. Now, if the door was deeper, if the mortise was deeper and further back into the door, I could expand that strike. But it's not. If this works perfectly, I don't have to make an adjustment on there. How to do that is in the instructions, by the way, that you get in the hardware set.

So now, I'm going to screw this in. This is the new one, and I'm going to use the screws that came with it. I could be doing all this by hand too, by the way. I mean, it really is not that big of a deal. It's nice and slow. Take it easy, don't strip the screw out. You don't want to do that. Now, let's get this bottom one in.

Okay, very good. So, that's all set. Let's talk about the latch for a minute. You can see it's beveled on one side. Please don't install this backward. The bevel has to go to the door frame so that it slides into the strike correctly. And I have seen it installed backward, so please pay attention to that. Of course, this fits nicely into our door. The mortise is perfect for the depth of our latch. If it was deeper, if that mortise was further into the door, we could adjust this so that the mechanism goes deeper in to meet that new or different mortise.

So right now, we're all ready. We can install this, and we can get our hardware on. When I install this, now, this all comes apart, by the way.

Okay, not a worry. Just put it in there. This is... So, I always like to have it so the key, the bottom of the key goes to the bottom of the lock. Some people install them... Well, they can't do the deadbolt, but they do that with the lock set. I'll show you again when I do the lock set. But now here, let me give you a quick look. See that rectangle? This should fit right in there just like that, and we can adjust that. We can put it exactly where we want it.

Okay, so now, see that? That's in our thumbnail piece or our thumb turn piece, and that bar has to go in that hole. So, you just slide it in there, and I like to make it so that when this goes sideways, it's locked. When it's up and down, it's unlocked. So now, all I have to do is put my screws in, and we're going to use the longer screws because they've got a little further to go into the piece of hardware. So, these long screws go for your deadbolt, and it takes just a little bit of time. I try to thumb turn that, and it caught. I'll put the other one in, and I'll try to thumb turn that, and that caught. So now, I can slowly put those screws in, tighten it up. Not too much, just want it snug on the door. Everything is snug, nothing moves, and the lock works just fine.

All right, so that's how you do the deadbolt, and I'm going to check the key here in a minute to make sure that works too. Now, let's do the other piece of hardware, the lockset. It's a little trickier. The screws are shorter, and you've got to find the other end of it where it is. So again, here's... I like the bottom of the lock on the bottom of the set. So, let me give you a closer look there. Let's see again, you've got these squares here, these areas here that this box goes into. So, let's show you how that happens. It just fits right in there, slides right in there, just like that. See how that works?

Okay, so now, let's bring it back over here, and we're going to show you how this side happens. This side has a box, and that has to fit right in there.

Okay, so there goes that. Fit really nice, very quickly. Okay, check it, make sure it works. Now I've got to find those little screw holes, and I got that just a little thumb turn until I get it.

So, now, I'll take this, and this is why I like that skinny little... So just very slowly, very slowly turn that in until I feel it tighten on both sides. Very slowly turn that in, snug it up. Nice, snug it up nice. Very good, and look at that, it works. It works. Let's see if it'll close and latch. It does. The latches let's make sure the deadbolt locks. The deadbolt locks, the lockset locks. Very good.

Okay, so that's really all there is to it. Now I just throw the garbage away and check the keys. Let's make sure the keys work, okay? Okay, so again, I like it so the bottom of the key goes to the bottom of the set, just like that. And sure enough, that works fine. Now, let's check this. That locked it. That unlocked it. So, the keys are working just fine. We were able to test those.

So there you have it. The project is done pretty quickly. It didn't take long. You can do that too, whether you have to change a deadbolt and a lockset or just hardware around your house. Of course, this door was already mortised, you know, everything was already set for that style of hardware, so that wasn't hard. Maybe in an upcoming video, we'll show you how to mortise for that. But you know, you can do that if you need to do it. Just muster up the courage, and let's just do it, okay? Because I know you can. I really appreciate that you took the time to watch this video. If you liked it, please give us that thumbs up, and if you're not subscribed, please do that as well. It helps us so that we can continue to produce educational videos.

So until next time, this is Dennis with Home Rehab Pros, and we'll see you in the next video.