DraughtBusters

Energy saving advice and help

  • About
    • What people say about us
    • A typical DraughtBust
    • Helping to set up other groups
    • Frequently asked questions
    • A DraughtBusters Talk
  • Draught proofing
    • How to get started
    • A Case Study
    • Why draughts?
    • Windows and doors
      • Front Door
      • Draughty roof windows
      • Trickle Ventilators
      • uPVC door problems
      • UPVC window seals
    • Redundant AirBricks
    • Floors
    • Loft and first floor ceilings
    • Loft Traps
    • Pet Flaps
    • What is going on under your bath?
  • Finding Draughts
    • How to survey a building for draughts
    • Problem encountered during 2021/2022
    • Dry lined homes
    • Modern timber frame
    • Victorian terraced houses
    • Chalet Bungalow
    • Cross walled homes
    • Early cavity wall homes
    • Concrete panel houses
    • Solid stone and cob homes
  • Help Reducing Energy Use
  • Advanced Air Sealing
    • Problems with Drylined Homes
      • Problems with dot and dabbed walls
      • Around openings in walls
      • Draughts in the first floor void
    • Going Further
      • First Floor Void
      • Condensation mini case study
      • Controlling your heating system
      • Heat loss from unused chimneys
      • Types of damp in the home
      • Draughts and condensation
      • In House Winter Cooling Systems
    • More Advanced
      • Upgrading to Underfloor Heating
      • Lead Pumping
      • Why so many flat roofs fail
      • Summer Condensation
  • Contact

uPVC door problems

It is generally possible to adjust both uPVC and aluminium doors and we particularly like this little video which gives a good explanation of how to adjust door latches.  We would like to reiterate how important it is to ensure that the door still locks!  Due to the fact that with uPVC doors the frames are made from plastic cheaper varieties can use screws that fix only into the plastic making adjustment difficult and if overtightening happens then larger screws may be needed, where the screws that hold the keep bar are housed into the plastic frame it is almost impossible to get satisfactory results. In theory it should be possible to get a new keep plate but in practice this is virtually impossible and fitting new lock mechanisms to PVC doors is really a factory operation and needs the frame in the factory too.

In 2019/2020 we encountered a lot of problems with uPVC multi-point locking systems. All of these were sorted by adjusting the latch and shoot/hook bolt keeps, some could be adjusted with a screwdriver, others required an ‘Alan Key’. One actually had its keep plate fitted in the factory in the wrong position (20mm too high) and on re-positioning it the door, a french door set closed perfectly with no draughts.  

Adjusting the hinges is sometimes necessary, see this, another type of hinge here and yet another here

Here is a picture of a very high quality latch plate fitted to a wooden door, the keep is adjustable and the screws that fix the adjustable part of the keep fix into threaded tapings into the metal casting making them reliable and robust.

And this one, a completely missing trickle ventilator:

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