A sticking uPVC door usually means dropped hinges — not a broken door. Here's how to diagnose and adjust it in twenty minutes.
Open the door and look at the gap between door and frame all the way round. On a well-adjusted door the gap is even (3mm) everywhere. If the gap is bigger at the top than the bottom the hinges have sagged. If it's bigger on the lock side at the top, the door is out of square. Each has a specific adjustment.
Modern uPVC door hinges have three adjustments: vertical (lift/lower the door), horizontal (move the leaf towards or away from the hinge side) and compression (tighten or loosen the leaf against the seal). All three are made with an Allen key — usually 4mm or 5mm. Do vertical first, then horizontal, then compression.
Loosen the compression on all three hinges. Adjust vertical on the bottom hinge to bring the leaf up if it's dropped. Adjust horizontal on all three to bring the lock edge closer to the frame keep. Test the lock — it should engage with light finger pressure. Then re-tighten compression evenly across all three hinges.
If the door swings freely but the multi-point lock won't throw, the keeps in the frame are misaligned. Loosen each keep screw a full turn, close the door, throw the lock — the mechanism drags the keep into the correct position. Re-tighten the keep screws with the lock thrown.
If the frame itself is out of square (measured with a spirit level on all four sides), if a hinge is cracked, or if the door leaf is bowed, no adjustment will fix it. That's a repair job. Any FENSA-registered installer will service and adjust a door for £60–£120 as a call-out.
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