A jammed uPVC door is nearly always the gearbox, and it is a part you replace, not a door you replace. This one was a Winkhaus in a conservatory in Dibden Purlieu. Seized solid. £75 to open it, £185 for the gearbox, four doors adjusted and lubricated for nothing on top, £260 all in. No VAT, no call-out fee, and the price I quoted before I started is the price she paid.
I’m not a surveyor and I’m not a builder. I’m a locksmith with a van and a bench in the back of it. What follows is one locksmith’s honest opinion about one job. Take it as that.
Here’s how it went. The price isn’t the interesting bit. How I got to the price is.
Why she rang me
Ian Parks sent her my way. Ian runs IJ’s Plastering Services, and everyone round here calls him the Master Plasterer, which tells you what people think of his work. We’re both in the Waterside Network, the local business group that meets in Hythe every week. He knew she wanted somebody she could trust in the house, and he put my name forward.
That matters more than any advert I could pay for. A tradesman who’s any good won’t recommend a wrong’un, because his name goes with the recommendation. I don’t take that lightly.
She was a lovely lady, and she made me and my lad a bacon sandwich and a proper cup of tea while we worked, which isn’t something I’ll forget in a hurry.
The door that hadn’t opened in two years
The conservatory had two doors. One at each end, left and right, identical.
The right hand one was the problem. Seized solid, wouldn’t move at all.
The left hand one had been blocked up and unused for the best part of two years. Furniture in front of it. There’s a reason for that and it’s hers, not mine, so I’ll leave it there.
Two doors. Same age, same installer, same weather. Almost certainly the same mechanism sat inside both of them. One I couldn’t open. The other one nobody had touched in two years.
So before I went near the seized one, I opened the one nobody needed opening.
Why open the door nobody needed opening?
Because it told me what was inside the one I couldn’t see into, before I put a price on it.
It took a bit of a struggle, but it came open without any damage. No drilling, nothing broken, nothing that needed paying for afterwards. That’s not forcing it, by the way. It’s taking the weight off the door so the hooks aren’t under load, and working the mechanism until it lets go. Force is what snaps the handle off.
Once it was open I could see the mechanism. Make, pattern, how it was built, how it was fitted. Same install, same age, same everything as the seized one. Not a guarantee, but near enough that I could put a price on it and stand behind it.
That’s the difference between a quote and a guess.
A lot of blokes would go straight at the seized door. Go at it destructively, wreck the cylinder getting in, find out what’s in there afterwards, and only then tell you what it’s going to cost. You’re already committed at that point. Your door’s already open, your cylinder’s already ruined, and the price is whatever he says it is.
I’d rather find out for free before I start.
I’ll be straight about the limits of that, mind. Non-destructive doesn’t mean always. Once a gearbox has properly let go there’s sometimes nothing left inside to work with, and then the cylinder comes out the hard way. That’s the job, not a failure. The difference is I find out which one I’m dealing with before I quote you, not after I’ve opened your door.
What does the gearbox actually do?
It’s the part that turns the lift of the handle into all those hooks and rollers shooting out into the frame.
It sits in the middle of that metal strip down the edge of your door. Lift the handle and the gearbox pushes the hooks and rollers out into the keeps. Turn the key and it locks them there. It’s the part doing the actual work. The cylinder just gives it permission, and the hooks are along for the ride. When the gearbox goes, none of the rest of it matters.
Hers was a Winkhaus. German brand, and they’re a good bit of kit, genuinely. But they’re awkward things to work on. The gearbox sits deep in the strip, the fixings aren’t where you’d expect them, and half the patterns are no longer made, so you’re matching a part rather than ordering one off a shelf. When they go, they go properly.
And this was the worst version of it. Not a door getting a bit stiff, not a handle wanting a shove. Seized solid, key turning on nothing, nobody in or out of that end of the conservatory at all. That’s the hardest category of this job. It’s also the one where the customer can check the least, which is exactly why it attracts the wrong sort of tradesman.
When I got it out and onto the bench in the van you could see it plain. The casing had gone green and corroded and the cam inside had sheared clean off. Nothing anybody could have fixed. That part had done its years and it was finished, so changing one of these was the only honest answer.
I carry the gear to change these on the road. The van’s a workshop, not a car with a toolbox in the boot, so the new unit went together on the bench a few feet from her door rather than being ordered in and left for a fortnight.
It wasn’t two doors. It was four.
Once I was in the house it was clear the conservatory doors weren’t the only ones struggling. Four doors in total wanted attention. Some were dropping, and some of the hinges had stopped adjusting the way they should.
Here’s a thing worth knowing about uPVC hinges. Not all of them adjust the same. Three-way flag hinges will move a door up and down, side to side, and in and out. Plenty of the older ones only ever did side to side and in and out. There’s no height adjustment on them at all, and never was. And on the ones that do adjust for height, if the door’s been sat wrong for years or the frame’s moved around it, you often find that screw seized solid or rounded off. It’ll still go side to side. It won’t go up and down.
Either way you end up working round the hinge instead of with it. If your door’s dropped rather than failed, that’s usually a fix on its own and a lot cheaper than this was.
Doors don’t usually all start dropping at once for no reason. In this case the frames right across the room looked out of true to me, doors and windows both, which normally points at movement in the building rather than anything wrong with the locks. I’m a locksmith, not a surveyor, so that’s an observation and nothing more. If you want that looked at properly it’s a chartered surveyor you want, not me.
That yellow thing at the bottom of the door in the next picture is a Viking Arm. It’s a little lifting jack. You wind it up under the door and it holds it at exactly the height you want, hands free, while you set the hinges. Beats a chisel and a mate’s foot, which is how it used to get done.
We got all four working properly. Adjusted, hinges sorted where they could be, and everything lubricated before we left, because a dry mechanism is a mechanism that’s on its way to becoming another gearbox job.
I’ll be straight with you about one thing though. If a building’s still moving, doors will want looking at again down the line. Anyone who tells you a door adjustment is permanent on a building that’s settling is telling you what you want to hear.
What it cost her
My advertised price for a gearbox starts at £225. She paid £185.
- Opening the jammed and seized door: £75
- uPVC gearbox replacement: £185, knocked down from the advertised £225
- Adjusting all four doors: included
- Lubricating the gearboxes and hinges: included
- Total: £260
No VAT. I’m not VAT registered, so the price you’re told is the price. No call-out fee. No “while I’m here” extras invented on the doorstep.
The prices on my website say “from” for a reason. They’re a starting point, not a fixed rate, because doors aren’t all the same. Gearboxes come in a lot of different patterns. Some are still made and sat on my van. Some are obsolete and have to be tracked down. Some need the door off the hinges before you can get the mechanism out at all. That sort of job costs more than the advertised price, and I tell you that before I start rather than after. That’s what an advertised price is for. It puts you in the right area before you’ve even rung me.
But it moves the other way too, and that’s the bit most places leave out. Hers was a straightforward unit and it was a part I had with me, so I knocked money off. She paid £185 against an advertised £225, and the four doors and the lubricating went on top for nothing.
The adjustments and the lubrication were included because I was already there with the door apart and the tools out. It wasn’t nothing. Four doors on frames that have moved takes a while. But it was time, not parts, and I’d rather spend it than invoice it.
I’d rather charge what the job was actually worth and have her ring me in five years than squeeze the last forty quid out of a woman who took somebody’s recommendation on trust.
You don’t have to take my word for any of that. The reviews are on Google, written by people round here in their own words, and I’ve never told anybody what to put in one.
You can see the prices for everything else on my locksmith prices page. It’s all published. I’ve got nothing to hide behind, and I’ve written up what an emergency call-out actually costs as well, because that’s the one people get stung on most.
What a wrong’un would have said
That conservatory had frames sat well out of true. Not just the doors, the windows too. Four doors that wouldn’t sit right. A building that’s visibly moved.
Nobody said anything of the sort to her, and I want to be clear about that. But I’ve been called out often enough after the fact to know how that conversation tends to run. Warped frames, a building that’s obviously moved, and a line about the whole conservatory being gone and you’re looking at a full replacement.
This is the job that gets people done, and it’s worth understanding why. A seized door is a job you cannot check. You can’t see the mechanism, you can’t test what you’ve been told, and you’re stood on your own doorstep needing it sorted today. Nobody in that position is in a strong spot to argue. It’s the same set-up the call-centre outfits work on, and it’s why door mechanism jobs and lockouts are where the overcharging lands.
It’s persuasive because it looks true. Warped frames and a dead gearbox are two separate jobs, and there’s no reason a customer should be expected to know that. A frame out of true doesn’t help, mind. A door sat wrong grinds the mechanism every time you use it, and that’s part of why this gearbox had a hard life. But you fix that with an adjustment and a new gearbox, not with a skip.
What she needed that morning was one gearbox, four adjustments and a bit of lubricant.
If something like that has already happened to you, or to your mum, or to your nan, don’t sit there feeling daft about it. You’re not silly. If it happened, it happened because the evidence was sat there looking convincing, and anybody would have believed it. Treat everything they say with both eyebrows up, and get a second opinion before you agree to anything with a comma in the price. I’d rather you found out for free over the phone than the hard way once they’re in your hallway.
So here’s what I’d want my own mum to know.
If your uPVC door’s starting to play up, these are the signs, roughly in the order they turn up. There’s a longer version of this in five warning signs your multipoint lock is about to fail, and the faults I see most often round Southampton if you want to know what’s normal and what isn’t.
- The handle needs lifting harder than it used to, and then you’re having to lift or shove the door to get it up at all. That’s the door dropping, and it’s an adjustment job rather than a lock job. There’s more on that one here.
- The key needs jiggling, or turns further than it should before anything happens. Worth saying this one’s often the cylinder rather than the gearbox. Different part, cheaper fix. But the door’s not happy either way.
- The handle goes floppy and lifts with no resistance, or it goes rock solid and won’t lift at all. Both ends of that are your gearbox. The floppy one can occasionally be a snapped spindle or a broken handle spring, which is a five minute job, so it’s worth someone looking before you assume the worst. If it is the gearbox, it isn’t going to get better.
The early ones are cheap to sort. The last one is a gearbox, and it usually happens on a wet Tuesday night when you’re stood outside holding shopping.
If you’re at the stiff-handle stage, ring somebody now while it’s a small job. If your door’s already stuck shut, don’t force it.
Don’t.
A door that’s stuck shut is a nuisance. A door that snaps its handle off while you’re forcing it is a bigger bill.
FAQ
How much does a uPVC gearbox replacement cost?
My advertised price starts at £225. On this job it was £185, because the unit was straightforward and I had the part on the van, so I took money off. Add £75 for opening the seized door first and it came to £260 all in. An awkward door, an obsolete mechanism or a part that has to be ordered in costs more than the advertised price, and I tell you which one you’re looking at before I start. No VAT and no call-out fee either way.
Can a jammed uPVC door be opened without damaging it?
Often, yes. If there’s enough left of the mechanism to work with, the door comes open by taking the weight off it and easing the hooks, with nothing broken and nothing to pay for afterwards. Once a gearbox has completely let go there’s sometimes nothing left inside to manipulate, and then the cylinder has to come out the hard way. I’ll tell you which one you’re looking at before I touch it.
Do I need a new door if the mechanism has failed?
Almost never. The gearbox is a part inside the door and it comes out and goes back in on the same door, same frame, same glass. Anyone quoting you for a new door or a new conservatory off the back of a lock that won’t work is selling you something you don’t need.
How long does it take?
A straightforward gearbox change is usually an hour or two on the doorstep, because the van carries the parts and the bench. This one ran longer because there were four doors to sort, not one.
Do you cover Dibden Purlieu and the rest of the Waterside?
Every day of the week. I’m ten minutes up the road in Hythe, and I cover Dibden Purlieu and the whole Waterside, Holbury, Blackfield, Fawley and across to Southampton.
About the photos
The lad taking the pictures on this job was my son Lewis, who builds and runs this website through his own outfit, Edwards WebWorks. He comes out on jobs with me so what goes on here is what actually happens on the doorstep. Every photo on this page is from that job. The van, the bench, the broken gearbox, all of it. No stock photos of doors nobody’s ever stood in front of.
One last thing.
If your door’s jammed right now, don’t force it. Ring me and I’ll tell you on the phone what it sounds like, for nothing. More often than not I can tell you whether you’re looking at an adjustment or a gearbox before I’ve even got in the van.
I answer my own mobile, 07453 327708, and it’s me or my lad who turns up. Not a call centre and not a stranger.
Even if it’s not me you end up using, ring me anyway and I’ll point you in the right direction. I’d rather you got sorted properly than got done.
Hope the door’s behaving itself.
