I’ll bet some of you don’t know this… go get a philips-head screwdriver, and go check the screws that hold your front doorknob/ deadbolt in place. Check that rectangular thingie on the edge of the door and its counterpart in the doorjamb.
Even perfectly well-installed screws come loose over time. I can’t say whether it makes it easier for burglars to get in; but I promise you, if they get too loose, you may one day come home and be unable to get your door open.
If you’re like me, you will then proceed to everything that is held together with screws in the house, and maybe the garage, while you have the screwdriver in your hand. Feels good, doesn’t it? Oh my gosh, look at the time! Sorry. Heh, heh.
That happened to me a couple of years ago, in an apartment, and I was trapped! Well, not really trapped, but I didn’t want to take a window screen out and you can’t really use a window as an entrance long-term anyway, so the doorjamb had to be broken to get it open. That sucked, because I spent a LOT of time trying to get out, and I got very sweaty and cursey and stabby-feeling. I could stay in my apartment alone for days on end and be perfectly happy, but make me feel like I’m trapped in there? Panic ensues.
I’m the type, when I’m in a customer’s house, who will notice loose doorknob screws, and debate whether or not saying something would sound ignorant. I go around my place, and tighten all the doorknob screws, if they need it… had to do it at my first apartment in town here, 2 years ago…
As an aside, right now, I’m just started replacing all the interior doors of our house… one down, six to go…
That’s better than the situation at the house I just moved into. Turns out the builders decided to secure the door frame into the jamb with finishing nails through the molding. Nary a screw was used from the frame to the jamb!!
Orly?
The new locks I installed after buying this house have stayed put for ~ 13 years. None of my customers have called about random lock loosening. I sure hope none of those vault doors I serviced during the 80’s are subject to this phenomenon. Having a few tons of steel jump out at ya to say hello can really mess up your day, to say nothing of your undies. :eek:
FYI-unless you’re somebody in the business, your jurisdiction may consider possession of that a criminal act. Around here, it’s called ‘an instrument of crime’. Just saying.
danceswithcats, are you serious? Thirteen years, and NO doorknob-screw has come loose even a few turns?
Well, I had a boyfriend who used to fix my bike. Anything he ever applied torque to, was as if it had been done with pneumatic tools down at the auto repair shop.
In my old house in Chicago, the setscrews for the doorknobs would slowly loosen themselves. I got into the habit of feeling them with my thumbs whenever I went in or out of the house and giving them a little twist if they felt too loose. Every so often I would dig out my small phillips-head and tighten them fully, which only delayed the inevitable.
Depending on your choice of car, your own car key could open every model in the range. My Mum, ex and myself all opened up other peoples’ Honda Civics in supermarket car parks no problem with the key to my own Civic. No fuss, no alarms, door opens and you don’t notice until you wonder where all the new music tapes come from :dubious:
I keep a Phillip’s head in the dish drainer in the kitchen for tightening screws on cabinets and pot lids. Used it to fix the bedroom door recently, too.
Pot lids! The Weird One, you and I may be two of the only people on earth who do this. It just drives me nuts when they’re loose! What I really hate is when the pot handle gets loose, & there is no way to tighten the handle.
A few months ago I was hanging out in New Orleans with a friend. He was staying in a large house with about a dozen artists living in it. One of the girls’ laptop was stolen out of her locked room. I wondered how it was done, so my friend demonstrated how easy it is to jimmy a doorknob lock in about half a second. That’s why he put the hasp and the Master lock on his door.
We were shooting a video later, and one of the girls had locked herself out of her room. She and another girl were trying to jimmy the lock by trying to wedge a utensil in it. I went over to help and they were in the room immediately. That was my first attempt (and my only one). It blew my mind how easy it was.
I tighten them often now; about a year ago a screw fell out when I was washing a pan and slipped down the drain and got wedged in the opening to the garbage disposal. I had to call a repair man and it took him a while to get it fixed. :smack:
Sorry. Heh, heh.
