This blog post has step-by-step instructions for fitting the tubular latch door handle to an internal door. These internal door handles are by far the most popular and common in your local DIY store. They allow the door to be easily held in place when it’s latched.
MATERIALS & TOOLS REQUIRED
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Tools
- Drill
- Wood drill bits (up to 25mm in size)
- Screw bits for the drill/ screwdriver
- Chisel
- Hammer
- Pencil/ pen
- Measuring tape
STEP 1: MEASURE THE HANDLE PLACEMENT
Once you purchased a pair of handles and tubular latch mechanism for your door, you need to measure where on the door it should be fitted. The easiest thing to do is to check one of your other existing internal doors to get a good placement. Run the measuring tape from the bottom of the door to roughly the center of the sticky outy latch. An existing internal door in our house measured at 1m exactly.
STEP 2: MARK THE MEASUREMENT ON THE NEW DOOR
Once you know how high to place the latch, measure the width of the new door. Place a marker on the new door using a pen. The marker will be at the same height off the door bottom as what you measured in step 1 and should be in the centre of the door width-wise (which is why you just measured the width).
STEP 3: DRILL A HOLE FOR THE LATCH
It’s time to drill a fairly long hole where this marker is. The tubular door latch will sit inside this hole, so you need to use a wood drill bit that will create a hole wide enough to fit it. On our door, we used a 25mm bit. You need to drill far enough back to fit the latch in. Do your best to drill the hole straight.
STEP 4: CARVE OUT THE LATCH FACE
The latch must sit flush with the door. This means once you have drilled a hole deep enough, you still need to carve a bit of the door out for the rectangular piece to set flush. Insert the latch into the hole, make sure it’s straight and draw around it.
Use a sharp chisel to first slightly indent the rectangle perimeter. Then, gently chisel out the rectangle. The latch will be about 1-2mm thick; this is all you need to take off the door.
STEP 5: DRILL A HOLE FOR THE SPINDLE
The spindle is the long metal stick that sits inside the little hole in the side of the latch. It’s supposed to go all the way through the door so that the door handles sit on it either side of the door. The problem is that once you’ve inserted the latch, the stick can’t be placed into it. To do this, you need to drill a hole all the way from the front of the door to the back.
The get the mark of where to drill, Take the latch out and put it in the exact position next to the door. Stick a pen or pencil into the little latch hole to mark the door. Then, use a smaller drill bit to make a hole all the way through. The hole has to be wide enough to fit the spindle. We used an 18mm bit. Once drilled, insert the latch into the first hole and the spindle into the second.
STEP 6: ATTACH THE HANDLES
You can now screw the latch into the door. Then, put the handles onto the spindle on either side of the door and screw them on.
STEP 7: MARK THE PLACEMENT OF THE STRIKER PLATE
The striker plate is the small bit of metal attached to the door frame opposite where the latch is on the door. The latch inserts into a small hole in the door frame, and the striker plate covers the area to make it look a bit more presentable and make the latch move smoothly. The tricky part is to make sure that the hole in the door frame is put into the exact place. To do this, cover the door frame opposite the latch with masking tape. Then, use a black marker pen to colour in the latch. Quickly, before it dries, close the door and turn the handle down and back up a few times so that the marker pen off the latch colours the masking tape opposite.
STEP 8: CARVE OUT THE STRIKER PLACE PLACEMENT
The striker plate will need to sit flush with the door frame which means you need to carve the door frame to accommodate it. In addition, you need to carve out a small rectangle in the centre so that the latch can sit inside it comfortably.
Place the plate upside down on the area marked on the door frame. The end of the marker line must sit inside the little rectangle hole in the middle. Trace around it.
Carve out the whole area to 1-2mm (check the thickness of the plate). Then, place the plate on again and mark the small centre rectangle. Carve this out deeper for the latch. Place the striker plate in the correct position and screw it into place.
THE RESULT
The result is a fully working door with a latch handle. After you have confirmed that it’s working as expected, it’s a good idea to remove the mechanism and tidy the area by sanding it down and painting it to match the rest of the door.
