How to open a stuck or jammed door from the outside

What you need

• Small flat and Phillips screwdrivers
• Rigid plastic card (a loyalty card or similar, not a bank card)
• Small hammer and a thick nail or punch to knock out hinge pins
• Rubber block or a folded cloth
• Torch
• Needle-nose pliers
• Silicone spray or fine lubricant (WD-40 Specialist Silicone, 3-in-One)
• Wooden or rubber wedges to hold the door
• Masking tape
• Lithium grease or powdered graphite for the lock
• Replacement handle or mechanism kit (Leroy Merlin, Bricodepot) if it has to be changed

Step by step

1. 1

   Confirm it is your door and that it is an interior door

   This guide applies to internal doors in your own home: bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, storeroom. If the door is the entrance door, an armoured door, a shop door or the door to another property, do not go on. Call a locksmith: they do it without damage and with an invoice.

2. 2

   Rule out that it is locked with a key or a bolt

   Check whether a key has been turned from inside, whether there is a thumb-turn lock (like the one on a bathroom door) or a bolt. A door locked from inside with a thumb-turn has another solution: see how to open a locked interior door with a latch. If nobody is inside and the key is in the lock, go to the next step.

3. 3

   Move the door in three directions

   Turn the handle fully and hold it turned. Push the door towards the frame, pull it towards you and lift the leaf by the handle 2-3 mm. Sometimes a dropped door rests its corner on the frame and frees itself when lifted. Make each movement calmly, with no kicking: a kick breaks the frame and the lock.

4. 4

   Gentle taps next to the latch

   Place the rubber block or a folded cloth against the side of the frame at latch height and give sharp taps with the heel of your hand. The taps shake the strike plate and free a latch that has jammed in it. Three or four taps are enough.

5. 5

   Lubricate the gap

   Apply a few drops of silicone spray into the gap between door and frame, at the height of the latch and the hinges. Wait 2 minutes, turn the handle and push again. Do not use thick oil or standard WD-40 on locks: it attracts dust and ends up seizing the mechanism.

6. 6

   The card trick, only with a spring latch

   On an interior door with no key turned and no bolt, with the latch (the tongue with a sloping face) stuck in the strike plate, slide a rigid card into the gap at latch height, with the sloping face of the latch towards you. Tilt the card towards the latch to push it inwards while you push the door. It does not work if there is a deadbolt, a key turned or a security latch.

7. 7

   If the handle spins freely or is broken, take it off

   Many handles have a rose with a side screw or a tab. With a flat screwdriver, prise up the rose or loosen the screw, remove the handle and you will see the square spindle. Turn the spindle with small pliers or a flat screwdriver, pushing the door at the same time. If the mechanism is broken, it has to be replaced.

8. 8

   Knock out the hinge pins, if they are on your side

   If the door opens towards you and the hinges are visible, hold the door with a wedge, tap the pins out from below with a thick nail and a hammer and remove them one by one, starting with the bottom one. Get help: the leaf can weigh 12-20 kg. Do this only on interior doors in your own home.

9. 9

   Remove the deformed strike plate

   If the latch has jammed in the keep in the frame, you can unscrew the strike plate (the metal plate on the frame) if there is room for the screwdriver. With the plate off, the door comes free. Then adjust or replace the plate.

10. 10

    Fix the cause so it does not happen again

    Once it is open, check for loose hinges, swelling on the bottom and the state of the latch. Lubricate the latch, tighten the screws and, if it rubs, adjust or plane the door. For a door that rubs, see the guide on door rubbing on the floor.

Why a door sticks and how to open it from outside

Almost all stuck doors come down to four causes. The first is swelling from damp: wood or plywood absorbs water and the leaf wedges in the frame; it is typical in bathrooms and in coastal homes after weeks of damp weather. The second is a loose hinge: the door drops a few millimetres and the latch cannot find the keep. The third is a latch seized by dirt or corrosion that will not retract. And the fourth is a broken mechanism: the handle turns but does not move the latch.

It pays to tell them apart before acting. If you feel the latch move when you turn the handle (you hear the click), the mechanism works and the problem is how the leaf is hung. If the handle spins freely or does not spring back, the mechanism is broken. If the door has stuck to the frame because of new paint, it needs freeing with a blade before you go on.

What you should never do

• Kick or shoulder the door. You break the frame, the keep and sometimes the whole door lining, and the repair costs more than a professional opening.
• Force an entrance door or an armoured door. Armoured doors have anti-drill plates and drilling only breaks bits and leaves the lock cylinder blocked. Never drill an armoured door.
• Open a door in a property that is not yours. Not a neighbour's, a tenant's or a shop's. Never force a lock that is not yours: if there is an emergency, call the emergency services or the owner.
• Use a bank card. It snaps and leaves pieces inside. Use a plastic card you do not need.
• Pour thick oil into the lock. With dust it ends up forming a paste and the mechanism jams worse.
• Take hinges off entrance doors. It leaves the home vulnerable and, on a security door, it does not work. This is locksmith's work.

When to call a locksmith or a carpenter

If the stuck door is the entrance door, the door of a communal storeroom, or an armoured door with the key inside the lock, the answer is a locksmith. We open without damage in 20-45 minutes in Valencia, Alicante, Torrevieja and Benidorm. Our rates: opening a door slammed shut €60-90 (8:00-21:00), night or bank holiday opening €90-150, opening an armoured or reinforced door €90-180, changing a lock cylinder €40-60 labour and changing a complete lock €80-150 plus the lock.

If the door is swollen or dropped and the lock works, it is a carpenter's job: adjusting a door €40-70, replacing hinges (3) €50-90. Fixed price before we start, invoice with IVA (VAT) and a 6-month guarantee on labour.

See locksmith in Valencia, Alicante and the Costa Blanca, how much a locksmith costs, locksmith in Valencia, locksmith in Alicante, locksmith in Torrevieja and locksmith in Benidorm. If the problem is the lock cylinder (bombín), see jammed lock: the cylinder will not turn and what to do if the door slams shut.

Stuck doors on the coast and in residents' associations

Salt air and high coastal humidity attack the latches and springs of cheap locks, and interior doors swell more in September and October, when the dry summer ends and the rains arrive. A drop of silicone on the latch every six months and keeping bathrooms and kitchens ventilated prevents most jams.

In a building with a comunidad de vecinos (residents' association), bear in mind that you cannot tamper with doors in common areas (entrance hall, garage, meter room or communal storeroom): whoever must open them is the president, the administrator or a locksmith with authorisation. In a second home, always leave a spare key with someone you trust or arrange key holding.