Son locked self in Bedroom. Skeleton key??? archived

unscrew the knob maybe - my son has taken the whole knob off the door

I thought of that, but the lock and lock mechanism is under the doorknob. It looks kind of like a deadbolt. There is a key hole on both sides of the door if this helps anyone.

Is it a doorknob with a tiny little hole in the center of it? If so, you can jimmy it with a small tool - just stick it in and twist and jiggle it - that's how I got mine open which also mysteriously got locked.

a carpenter.

It's the old mortise lock, right? For a locksmith, I've had good luck with the man from Buncher's Hardware in Millburn.

I repaired one of these on my office closet, but not while it was on the door. How on earth did he manage to get it to turn? Impressive!

Given the age of your house you almost certainly have a mortise lock, that is in a pocket cut into the narrow part of the door. The chances of the door locking itself without a key is virtually nil.

The most likely scenario is that the spring in the mortise lock broke, especially if the door knob turns without engaging the latch.

This happened to us in our old house and I had to cut off the latch using a hacksaw blade and eventually a Sawsall. Since this was a closet door I couldn't get to the hinge pins since they were on the inside of the door. Replacement lock sets are available on the internet.

If I was you I would hazard the trip over the roof with a hammer and an old screw driver to use to persuade the remaining pin out of the hinge. This is preferable to cutting into the latch.

Good luck.

ps: The door knob is held in place with a set screw (either a regular screw or an allen screw) in the base of the knob.

Thanks Bob. It looks like the knob and lock are separate units. When I look at the other doors, there is the latch that is turned by the door knob and then there is another rectangle shape under the layers of paint that looks similar to a deadbolt. You think it is actually connected to the door knob?
Oh and the hinge pins are out, I just can't get the bottom hinge to come apart. DS also can't tell me what he was doing to trip the lock. Its all very strange.

Yes, carolanne, that's a mortise lock. Give Buncher's a call and see if the locksmith is in the area. He also does carpentry work, so I'm sure he could help.

No useful suggestions here... I'm just impressed you maintained your logical thinking (with a sick and likely upset kid locked in a room) enough to figure out how to get there via bathroom window/roof!

Last year, my 2 year old son locked himself in the windowless bathroom by activating the deadbolt on the mortise lock. We ended up calling SOFD (non-emergency number) and the forced the door open to get him out. Did a little damage to the and handle, but got my son out. Since then, I've removed the bolts from the mortise locks so it won't happen again.

Carolanne, does it look like this?

Yikes!!!
I have just stuffed to overflowing all the little latch-holes with tissue paper, in the doorways that have doors with locks, in the hopes that none of our locks will end up accidentally functional.

rastro, very similar, but not nearly so fancy. Looking at the door head on, it just looks like an old glass door knob and underneath it a keyhole.

Here are a couple pics to show what it is. The side view of the door is actually of another bedroom door. The original remains locked in place. The metal plate that finishes the outside of the door came off as I was fiddling with it. Sorry for the fuzzy pic of what the intake lock looks like.
Oh and the last is a key that fits the lock (borrowed from a friend) but alas, doesn't open the door. Now I am determined. I really want to figure out how to fix this before dh gets home so he doesn't have to deal with it.

We have doors like that - complete with those neat glass doornobs, just like yours.

You may want to just take the doornob off, and fiddle with the workings yourself. We have a bathroom where a doornob similar to that stopped working, and that's how we solved the problem. Also, you can tighten these things, so that the little bolt (that is, the one that's not the deadbolt, I don't know what the actual term is) doesn't come out again.

Not sure this will help, but here is a really crappy cell phone pic of what the inside looks like. I took it to help me remember how to put it back together. You can see that taking the door knob off isn't going to get you very far. The rod for the door knob goes through that square hole on the top right. If the problem is that the spring snapped, I don't think there is much you can do.

Oops, awfully big. I'm going to resize and try again.

carolanne,

Can you tell whether the deadbolt is engaged, or if its the slip latch that's not working?

If the former, I have a different key than you tried.

If the latter, a credit card, or a jimmy, might resolve the issue.

TomR

Jeez. I'm glad now that not a single one of our 1930s doors will actually LATCH. :shocked: Good luck, Carolanne.

The man at Schneider's hardware in W.O. was very helpful. He sold me two keys that act as master keys for many locks, but warned me that there was a good chance they won't work. He also gave me advice on how to unstick the hinge. The keys didn't work, so I crawled back through the windows and across the roof. Once in the room, I tried to unstick it, but I just couldn't do it. Luckily DH will be home soon and hopefully he can figure it out (although I admit its killing me to have not fixed it before he got home).

Carolanne, a combination of the old paint and the weight of the door is probably causing the problem in getting the door out. When DH gets home one of you can lift the door and the other one can push against the area near the stuck hinge. This should do the trick.

Cammol, looks like the one where I had the spring break. Possibly a locksmith might have a spring that will fit.

Got some lubricating oil? It might be gunked up but you might not have access to where the lube needs to be applied.

Posted By: bobkCammol, looks like the one where I had the spring break. Possibly a locksmith might have a spring that will fit.

Bob, it's actually all fixed now. I took that picture back in 2008. I ended up getting a big box of springs from Home Depot and managed to find one that was a close enough fit. I was quite chuffed that I fixed it by myself. :boogie:

Carolanne, it was a valiant effort. I think not fixing the door pales in comparison to having the presence of mind to climb on the roof to rescue your son!

Thanks for the encouragement cam and thanks everyone for the info and advice.
The door is off! Took DH about 6 strong kicks to get it off. It looks like it was actually just a stuck knob, but I swear looking at it from the inside it looked like the deadbolt was thrown. Anyway, my kids are happily jumping on their beds and wrestling and playing amongst their cherished things, so alls well. Hopefully dh will be able to fix the door and rehang it this weekend.

Oh lordy carolanne. Next time call SOPD or SOFD first to get the kid out, and worry about the lock after. Jeez, it practically gives me an embolism imagining you, and then you and the kid, out on the cold slippery roof! I admire your perseverance and self-sufficiency though.

LOL! Thanks MAB! I grew up on a farm where the emergency services would take 30 minutes to get there and were all volunteer, so I guess just didn't even think. I had no plans for boy to be on the roof. I figured I would get the hinges undone from the inside and then just get the door off. Oh well!!! My son was quite shocked and excited to see me at his window there to save him. That was worth something anyway!

Dude, I've called them on at least 4 different occasions (over the 12 years we've lived here) when I've locked myself out of the house. I'd say having your kid locked in a room with a door you can't open qualifies as somewhat of an emergency. Plus, all these really cute guys show up at your house when you call. And, aside from the thrill us moms get, what kid doesn't get a thrill from seeing a fireman!

I bet you are your kid's hero every day. Even without having to climb out on the roof to rescue him!

This happened to us once. My 6 year old (at the time) nephew locked himself in his room at our house. (Our locks and door knobs look exactly the same BTW, right down to the tons of coats of paint). We had to remove the strip of molding along the doorway and then we were able to open it with some tools by digging into the wood a little bit until we were able to push the lock back. It took about 1 1/2 hrs and I had to rplace and repaint the molding/wood on the door jam.

my 2 year old was locked in his room last night. luckily, it was his bedtime so we didn't have his screaming to add to the already high stress level. we didn't even think about calling emergency services but an emergency locksmith.

it took the locksmith well over an hour to open the door. he literally took the entire knob and plate off the door and somehow got the door to open. apparently, the door wasn't technically locked but was jammed as the door handle from the inside broke so we couldn't turn the doorknob on the outside to open the door.

amazingly, the baby slept through the entire ordeal despite all the loud noises, as you can imagine. he actually cried 10 minutes after the locksmith left. my husband said that was the best $120 ever spent. ouch!

actually, this wasn't the first time this baby locked himself in a room. somehow he managed to lock himself in the living room which has a heavy antique door and an old-fashioned lock that is pretty stiff. i don't know how he could have turned the lock himself unless it was already slightly turned and he just tipped it over. worse, there is no key hole to pick and the door is at least 3 inches thick. he was awake and screaming which added to the stress level.

my husband finally pried open one of the living room windows and let himself in. now, i'm afraid the robbers might be able to do same.

i just went around the house and taped all the locks on all the doors. with 4 young kids, this is bound to happen although my 3 older kids never locked themselves in except this youngest one.

Paola,

I don't know if tape will hold a lock closed, but I used tape to hold in an overflowing amount of tissue stuffed into the holes opposite the locks. It's hideous though.

Turns out it wasn't the lock. I was SURE it was! As Paola described, it as the latch on the door that somehow got jammed. The latch/lock assembly inside the door was broken in several places.