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Door Repair Oxford Emergency Door and Frame Repairs
Dropped uPVC door, timber door sticking in the frame or a splintered jamb after a break-in? We adjust, repair and make safe the same day, usually without replacing the door.
Get a door repair price
Tell us what you need and we will call you straight back. Calling is quickest: 07520 644 595. Photos by WhatsApp: 07466 695655
Dropped doors lifted
uPVC and composite hinges reset so the door clears the sill again.
Forced entry make safe
Splintered jambs and keeps secured the same night, £89 to £189.
Sticking timber doors
Swollen or sagging wooden doors eased and rehung in the frame.
Insurer ready invoice
Itemised paperwork for every break-in repair we carry out.
Our door repair service covers homes across Oxford and Oxfordshire, 24 hours a day: we lift dropped uPVC doors, free sticking timber doors and make doors safe after a break-in, usually arriving within 10 to 30 minutes in the city, from £55 for a door that will not close or latch. Most faults are fixed on the first visit without a new door.
The price is agreed on the phone before we set off and covers VAT and labour, with any parts listed separately. A WhatsApp photo of the door edge and hinges lets us quote accurately.
Which Door Faults Can Be Repaired Rather Than Replaced?
Almost every call we take for a faulty front or back door ends in a repair. A door is a heavy panel hanging on three or four hinges, and when those hinges wear, the frame moves or the timber swells, the panel shifts out of line. The lock then has to fight the door, which is why so many repair calls start as “my key is stiff”.
| Symptom | Usual cause | Typical fix | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| uPVC door scrapes the threshold | Hinges worn or door settled on its glazing packers | Lift and realign using the adjustable hinges | £65 to £95 |
| Door swings shut but will not latch | Latch tongue missing the keep | Reposition the keep and adjust the hinges | £55 to £85 |
| Handle has to be forced up to lock | Hooks and rollers out of line with the frame keeps | Door adjustment, then a check of the gearbox | £65 to £95 |
| Jamb split after a kick or a jemmy | Forced entry | Make safe, reinforce the keep area, replace damaged locks | £89 to £189 + materials |
| Handle droops or wobbles | Worn spring cassette or loose fixings | Tighten or fit a new handle set | £35 to £55 |
If the lock itself has failed rather than the door, the job moves over to our no fix no fee lock repair service, which starts at £55.
uPVC Door Repair for Dropped and Misaligned Doors
uPVC and composite doors are the most common repair we see on 1970s to 1990s estates around Kidlington, Botley and Blackbird Leys, and on newer homes at Barton Park. They are heavy, especially with a double glazed panel, and over years the weight pulls the lock side down by a few millimetres. You notice it as a scuff mark on the sill, a draught at the top corner, or a handle that needs a shove before it will lift.
Most of these doors hang on flag or butt hinges with built in adjustment for height, lateral position and compression. We reset all three so the door sits square, then check that every hook, roller and deadbolt on the multipoint locking strip meets its keep cleanly. On doors that have dropped badly we also repack the glass, because a slipped pane is often the real cause of the sag.
Stop lifting the handle harder
If you have to force the handle up to lock the door, stop and get it adjusted. That extra force is what snaps the gearbox inside the door, and a new mechanism costs £85 to £125 plus the part, far more than an adjustment at £65 to £95.
Where the mechanism has already broken, we cover it on our uPVC door lock replacement page, including how we open a door that is stuck locked.
Sticking and Sagging Wooden Doors
Oxford has a lot of timber front doors: Victorian terraces in Jericho and East Oxford, Edwardian houses in Summertown and stone cottages in the surrounding villages. Wooden doors move with the seasons. In a wet winter a panel door can swell and bind on the head of the frame, then shrink again in summer and rattle.
For a sticking wooden door we find exactly where it is binding, tighten or replace loose hinge screws with longer ones that bite into the stud, and ease the edge only where it is genuinely tight. Planing should be the last step, not the first, because a door planed in January can leave a gap in July. We then reset the keep so the nightlatch or mortice deadlock engages without slamming.
Period doors in conservation areas need extra care. We repair the existing door and ironmongery wherever possible rather than suggesting a replacement that might need consent.
Emergency Door Repair After a Break-In
After a forced entry the door is often still on its hinges, but the frame is split around the keep, the lock is damaged and the door will not stay shut. If the intruder may still be inside, call 999 first. Once the police have attended, call us and we will come out the same night, at any hour.
- Secure the opening. We make the door close and lock again, or board it if the damage is too great for a same night repair. Our emergency boarding up service explains what that involves.
- Reinforce the frame. The split section around the keep is glued, screwed and strengthened so it can take a lock again.
- Replace the damaged locks. A snapped euro cylinder is swapped for a TS007 3-star anti-snap cylinder, and a damaged mortice for a BS3621 5-lever deadlock where that suits the door.
- Paperwork. You receive an itemised invoice listing every part and the labour, ready for your insurer.
Break-in repair and make safe costs £89 to £189 plus materials. If the cylinder was snapped, read about anti-snap cylinder upgrades so the same weakness is not left in place.
Door Repair or Replacement: How We Decide
Repair makes sense when
The door slab is sound, the frame is solid apart from local damage, and the problem is alignment, hinges, keeps or the lock. That covers most calls.
Usually a single visit.
Replacement is worth considering when
A uPVC frame is cracked through its corners, a composite skin has delaminated, or a timber door has rot along the bottom rail. No adjustment will hold for long.
We make it secure now and tell you honestly.
We are locksmiths, not door installers, so we do not sell new doors. That means our advice on whether a repair will last is not tied to a sale. If a door really is at the end of its life, we still lock it up properly so you can get quotes in your own time.
Where We Repair Doors Around Oxford
We are based at 169 Woodstock Road in North Oxford, so city jobs in OX1 to OX4 are usually reached in 10 to 30 minutes, and travel is free within 5 miles of central Oxford. Towns such as Abingdon, Witney and Bicester are usually 20 to 45 minutes away, with £10 travel. See the full list of areas we cover for villages further out.
Door repair sits alongside the other home jobs listed on our locksmith services page, so if a repair reveals a worn cylinder or a missing window lock, it can be dealt with on the same visit at the price we agree first. For a wider look at how your doors hold up against a break-in, our home security checklist for Oxford houses walks through each door and window.
Door Repair Prices in Oxford
Prices include VAT and labour, parts are listed separately and the exact figure is agreed before we start.
| Service | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| uPVC door adjustment (dropped or misaligned) | £65 to £95 | Hinge reset for height, side and compression, keeps checked |
| Door will not close or latch | £55 to £85 | Keep and hinge adjustment on uPVC, composite or timber doors |
| Break-in repair or make safe | £89 to £189 + materials | Frame reinforced, door secured, invoice for insurer |
| Loose handle | £35 to £55 | Fixings tightened or cassette sorted |
| Door handle replacement | £55 to £85 + handle £25 to £60 | Matched to your backplate and spindle |
| uPVC multipoint mechanism replacement | £85 to £125 + mechanism £65 to £150 | When the gearbox has failed |
| Lock repair | £55 to £85 | No fix no fee |
Prices include VAT and labour. Parts are listed separately. See the full Oxford locksmith price list.
