We hear it at the shop every day: ”The knobs on my door just spin and nothing happens.” “The knob comes off the door when I try to open it.” “The little thing in the side of the door has stopped working so I put some tape on it to keep it from locking me in the room.”

For houses built before WWII, these complaints are common, and expected, maladies. Remember, the door hardware in your house is a functioning mechanism that is often used every day. Even if a doorknob is only used once a week, a door installed in 1925 will have opened and closed more than 4,200 times. If used once a day, that number jumps to almost 30,000! With a little TLC, your historic hardware will be ready to give you many more years of service. Fortunately for old-home dwellers, repairing old door hardware can be cheaper and easier than one would expect.

The first step is to know where to go to get help and replacement parts. Many of the local architectural salvage shops offer a selection of advice, service, and replacement parts. Some hardware stores will also have replacement parts, but they may have limited supplies and selection of specific parts.

Step two is to be familiar with the parts of your door hardware. This is very helpful because the architectural salvage service folks I know are notoriously bad at “hardware charades” and often balk at descriptions such as, “the part where the other part goes in,” and “that thing where the turny part touches the metal.” The picture provided illustrates some of the more common lock parts and their names.

Step three will save you both time and money: Take the proper pieces of your door hardware with you when going in for repairs and replacements. I’ve had customers drive across town three and four times, each time with the one piece of their troubled door hardware that they thought was the problem. Given our busy lives and the price of gas it is worth taking the extra time to remove extra pieces of the hardware so it may all be fixed in one trip.

If your knobs are spinning or falling off, take in the knobs, the spindle, and one of the escutcheons or rosettes. If you are missing a knob, take one of your escutcheons or a rosette and the spindle you will be using (if you have one). The reason for taking the escutcheon or rosette is to ensure, if you need to replace the knob, that the base of the replacement knob will fit the existing ferrule.

The key to happiness? You will almost always end up happier taking more than is needed than if you have to make a return trip or two.

So, why does the knob just spin or fall off? Well, you may have one or several of the following problems: A loose, missing, or stripped set screw; stripped or compromised threads inside the knob; stripped or flattened threads on the spindle; or, if you have a glass knob, the glass may have worked loose from its base.

Why has the plunger in the mortise lock stopped working? There are a few possibilities: Dried paint may have frozen the plunger, a foreign object may be impeding the latch function, or a spring on the interior of the mortise may be broken or missing. When repairing a mortise lock, be sure to take it to the shop with you. There are many different types of mortise lock springs, and your salvage service person will need to see the inside of your lock to make sure you get the proper spring.

Is it worth fixing the old stuff? YES! If your old mortise is beyond repair, you can usually pick up a refurbished replacement for $15 to $35. Replacement spindles tend to run under $5. Replacing an old knob with a good condition old knob will run anywhere from $2 to $50 depending on your house, your taste, and your budget. Setscrews are under a buck. Service charges may range from $5 on up, depending on the work needed.

If you have a suggestion for a topic email me at bret@oldportlandhardware.com and we will try to work it in.

Bret Hodgert is the owner/operator of Old Portland Hardware and Architectural located at 4035 SE Division. He can be reached at 503-234-7380. He has been involved in the old house industry for over 13 years.