www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi,

I am moving into rental accomodation with some friends and for privacy i want to install some sort of lock in the door.

I need to be able to lock the door when im not in the house, so door needs to be able to be locked from the outside.

As its a rental accomodation i think its wise to minimize the changes i have to make, or if i have to make changes that they are reversable upon leaving. So i dont want to be chizeling bits of the door frame etc...

I just want to know (as we havent decided on which place we are going to rent) would there be any universal way of doing this for pretty much any door/doorframe.

I am going to remove the existing door so i can put it back once i leave the property.

I am going to buy a cheap door and a lock. I have considered 2 options.

Yale type lock...

The problem i have with this is, although i can just drill some holes in the door frame for the latch part, would there be a way of correcting the alignment of the part of the lock on the door to line up with the latch on the door frame, so i wudnt need to chizel the door frame itself?

Mortice dead lock i think its called...

the problem with this being, the existing latch inside the door frame may not accomodate the lock, and the latch i may have to fit may involve chizeling the door frame.

Any ideas are those problems or a totally different way of doing this to fit my requirements would be much welcome!! thanks!

if its basic privicy rather than security

use a hasp and padlock fitted correctly you wont be able to unscrew and you will only have around 5 screw holes to fill
or a normal 3 lever mortice lock as these are normaly fitted to internal doors and wont look odd if left in place

are you in a shared house or are you an individual tennent