What can be done if the interior door is slammed shut and it is not possible to open it by the handle

At first glance, a comical situation - it clicks into place and the lock inside the apartment does not open - it can be a serious problem if a small child remains in the room or access to the bathroom is blocked. There are several ways to open the interior door if it is slammed shut.

Doors are not subject to such strict requirements as entrance doors. However, they are also provided with locks and latches. First of all, this is the door to the toilet and bathroom. Often constipation is installed at the entrance to the bedroom, study, kitchen and balcony, especially if the house has small children or animals. And although such locks are not as complicated as at the entrance to the apartment, opening them without a key can be difficult. But before knocking the door, it is worth trying to unlock the lock.

Snap lock

Recently, door locks have become very popular for use inside an apartment, in which, on the one hand, a turn-key locking mechanism is mounted in the handle, and on the other, a latch that also locks the lock. Such handles have an attractive appearance, and there is no need to additionally install a lock. But they have one drawback. If you accidentally turn a latch on an open door and then slam it, it will be locked. This can happen in any home, especially where there are small children. To cope with such a problem is quite possible.

• Usually, the interior door is installed so that it opens into the corridor. In this case, the problem can be dealt with using a thin flat object - a ruler, a knife blade, a flat screwdriver or a plastic card. An impromptu “key” must be inserted into the gap between the door leaf and the frame, at an angle, as if hooking the tongue from the inside, since its inclined side is on the side of the room. Passing this object along the slit, while at the same time staggering the door leaf, we try to hook and squeeze the lock tongue.
• If the door opens into the room or if it is not possible to push the tab, you should check whether there is access to the bolts securing the handle to the canvas (often there are fastenings only on one side). Having turned away the screws, you should remove the handle together with the locking mechanism, and then, having inserted a regular square or a flat screwdriver into the lock, open it.
• In the case when the first two methods were unsuccessful, you can drill the lock cylinder with a sufficiently thick drill, then open the entrance by turning the handle.
• You can try to remember where the invisible mounting bolts are located (usually on the sides of the handle), drill them, remove the handle and open the lock with a flat screwdriver.
• Turn the external handle with an adjustable wrench, remove the debris and unlock the lock as in the previous case.

How to open a door with other types of locks

Handles with automatic latches in the form of a key are installed on the door to the toilet or on the balcony. They can work if the door is slammed shut (for example, by a draft). To unlock such constipation, the designers provided a small hole below the handle. If you insert a knitting needle, nail or awl into it and press, the latch will open.

In old houses, castles with a lever mechanism have been preserved. If for some reason the door turned out to be closed, and the key is inserted into the well on the other hand, then it can be obtained by the method described in old detectives. Under the door, slip a sheet of paper, carefully push out the key and remove it by pulling the paper out.

If a modern plastic door to the balcony slams and does not open with a handle, then you need to turn the decorative strip 90 °, unscrew the fixing bolts and remove the handle. Then open the constipation, acting directly on the locking mechanism.

Cardinal measures for unlocking interior doors

If the wooden door to the toilet, bathroom or balcony cannot be opened, then you will have to resort to more serious methods, and try to damage the door leaf as little as possible.

• Inspect the hinges. If possible, carefully remove or knock out the inner shaft. Then the door can be opened "in the opposite direction", that is, from the side of the canopies.
• Remove the platband and cut down a small part of the box where the metal plate for the lock bolt (tongue) is located.
• After inserting an ax or a nail clipper into the gap between the box and the blade, press the door so that the lock disengages from the box.

It is clear that after using such methods, the door will most likely have to be repaired.

Preventive measures

Care must be taken in advance so as not to be in a similar situation. For this:

• Provide spare keys for all doors with tags indicating which door they open, put them in a box or bag and put them in some secluded place that cannot be locked with a key (mezzanines in the hallway, upper shelf in the pantry, cabinet in the hallway).
• Install locks in the apartment, in which the possibility of emergency opening from the outside is provided (usually with a pin or plate).
• If the constipation on the doors is needed only from pets or against drafts, then it is advisable to limit yourself to installing ordinary latch handles. On mounted handles-locks, the rotary latch can be turned off. To do this, unscrew the handle with the lock and shorten or remove the plate connecting the lock to the latch.