Changing HDB BTO room door lock
Finding a problem with your lock, and need our services in changing the HDB BTO room door lock? Or just needing some quick advice for your BTO room door lock maintenance? No worries – you’ve just arrived at the right place!
In this article, we will discuss the most commonly seen issues that require a a BTO room door lock replacement. We will be sharing some useful tips that can go a long way in caring for your new and existing HDB BTO room door locks.
When do I need to change my HDB BTO room door lock?
According to the feedback that we’ve received from our customers, they will usually consider replacing the lock when encountering these issues. Here they are, as described below.
1) Missing lock
In this first case, we were tasked with changing HDB BTO room door lock at Boon Keng. When this unit was returned to the owner, the owner realized that the entire lock was completely missing, for unknown reasons. So we re-installed the full lockset, along with the side latch, as shown above. The last panel shows the completed installation, along with the 3 new keys provided.
2) BTO room door lock is spoilt
In this particular case, the latch of the old HDB BTO room door lock did not retract, when the handle was pressed down. This can be seen in panel 1. We also had a lot of difficulty while removing the lock. Upon investigation, the latch of this lock was found to have rusted badly. What had conspired was that the handles had also corroded, which caused them to become stuck. Luckily, we managed to replace the lock successfully. We advised the customer on how to maintain the lock with WD40. Owing to its anti-rust qualities, WD40 is excellent for lock maintenance.
3) Rusty BTO room door lock
For this BTO room door lock in Punggol, our customer told us that it was becoming increasingly difficult to press down the handles, so they wished to change the lock.
When we removed the BTO lockset, we saw that the insides of the lockset had rusted rapidly. We were quite surprised that the lock had rusted this badly, as there was no high humidity present. We usually see cases like this for toilet door locks, which are subjected to high levels of humidity and moisture that cause the lock to rust.
In turn, this will eventually cause the handle to get stuck, which makes the handles difficult to press down. After we changed the lock, we advised our customers to maintain the lock with WD40. This helps to keep the lock working smoothly and rust-free, if there are no other existing issues.
4) Missing keys
For this BTO room door lock changing in Pasir Ris, the customer had shifted into their new unit. The previous owner did not hand them the keys for this particular room door, so they opted to change the lock.
For this BTO room door lock replacement at Punggol, the customer wanted to replace it as they realised that the keys were lost. This particular lock model has the key part at the top, and the handles located below instead.
In this scenario, our customer realised that the keys for the lock had been misplaced. This was a pressing problem for them. They revealed that they were moving out of the rented room soon, and had to return the keys to the landlord.
During the changing of the HDB BTO room door lock, we discovered that the door was also warped. This made it difficult to close the door. Additionally, we also found small, white sponges placed on the inside of the door frames, which are popular in minimizing the sound of the door closing. If these issues are not rectified, they would result in the newly replaced lock spoiling much faster than usual. This is because of the additional pressure exerted on the latch of the lock by these issues, over time.
While replacing the lock, we also altered the door frame hole to accommodate for the warping, and removed the small sponges to allow the door to close properly.
Tips in caring for your HDB BTO room door lock
1) Don’t place stickers or sponges on the inside of the door frame
We advise our customers not to put stickers or sponges on the inside of the door frame to minimise the noise of the closing door. These doors are already measured beforehand to fit the door frame exactly. Doing so will put unwanted pressure on the latch, and cause the lock to spoil quickly.
2) Use WD-40 for maintaining and cleaning the lock
WD40 can be sprayed into the keyhole, to prevent dust and dirt from accumulating. This is particularly important, since clogged and mouldy keyholes are the #1 culprit in causing broken keys. WD40 can also be sprayed into the side latch area, in order to keep the area lubricated and rust-free. Press down the handle to make the side latch retract first, before spraying WD40 into the latch area. Then press and release the handles repeatedly a few times, to allow the WD40 to work through the lock.
Other examples of commonly used lock types for HDB flats and private housing include the round doorknob, lever handle and cylinder lock. Need someone to change your HDB door lock? Feel free to drop us a quote request or like our Facebook page for news and updates!
This blog post was originally published in November 2018 and has been updated on 17 November 2022 to reflect new information and insights that we have received from our customers.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.