Alcoi’s old town has had a reputation for damp for a very long time. When the Pont de Sant Jordi opened in 1931, thousands of people left the narrow streets of the historic centre for the new, airier blocks of l’Eixample, and Alcoi’s industrial heritage association still describes the old town they left in terms of damp and darkness.
Many of the houses they left are still there, and so are their wooden street doors.
Why an old door changes with the seasons
Wood takes in moisture from the air and gives it back. In a damp ground floor in winter, a solid door swells, mostly across its width. Alcoi’s winters are cold by Valencian standards, with January nights averaging around 4 °C, and its summers are hot, so the same door can be two different sizes six months apart.
When the door swells, three things happen at once:
- the edge of the door rubs against the frame, so it has to be pushed shut;
- the latch no longer lines up with the hole in the keep, so it does not catch;
- the bolt of the lock presses against the side of its hole in the keep, so the key is hard to turn, or will only turn while you push the door.
The last one is the one that makes people think the lock is broken. Very often it is not.
A simple test before you ring anyone
Open the door and, with it standing open, turn the key all the way and back again.
- If the lock turns easily with the door open, the lock is fine. The problem is the door and the keep no longer lining up.
- If it is stiff even with the door open, the lock itself needs attention: worn levers, a dry mechanism, or a bent key.
Then close the door slowly and watch where it touches. A strip of paper slid round the edge will catch where the door rubs.
Three things to do before you ring
- Tighten the hinge screws. A door that has dropped on loose hinges rubs at the bottom on the lock side.
- Clean the keep. Old paint, grit and dust build up in the hole the bolt goes into.
- Use a dry lubricant in the keyhole, such as graphite powder or a PTFE spray, a little at a time. Heavy oil gathers dust and makes an old lock worse over a winter.
And what not to do: don’t force the key. Old keys are long and soft, and a key that snaps inside a lever lock is a much bigger job than a stiff one.
When it needs a locksmith, and when a carpenter
If the lock turns freely with the door open, moving or reshaping the keep so the bolt and latch catch again usually solves it, and that is locksmith’s work. If the lock is stiff on its own, it needs taking out, cleaning and sometimes new parts. If the door itself drags on the floor or binds along its whole edge, planing it is a carpenter’s job, and it is worth doing in the damp months so it still fits in summer.
If you have just moved into an old house
A sticking door is often the first thing new owners notice. The first-week lock check for a village house goes through every door in an old house, not only the street door. In a block of flats, the door that sticks may be the street door of the building, which belongs to the community: see the guide to street doors that no longer latch.