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enter image description hereLong story short, my door handle fell off today while the door was closed. Luckily I was outside the room. I've attached a photo. Any ideas how to get it open? I've tried the old credit card trick but that's not working for me. Any help would be much appreciated as this is my bathroom door...

Thanks, LockedOut

Lockedout
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    The credit card trick will only work if there's no lip when the door closes. That probably excludes 99.9% of doors. – Tetsujin May 26 '22 at 07:01
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    Don't you have the square shaft that goes through that hole? It's common for the knob to come detached from the shaft, and/or for the whole shaft to come out in your hand when you pull the door. It's less common for the shaft to fall out the other side of the door. Unless you don't know what it is, and push it through. Hoping you didn't do that ... don't you have, outside the photo, a knob and a square shaft? – jay613 May 26 '22 at 11:15
  • Are you on the same side of the door as the hinges? Worst case if nothing else works is you can knock the hinge pins out and take the door off the frame to get in. If the hinges are inside the door, this obviously won't work. – Darrel Hoffman May 26 '22 at 13:14
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    @DarrelHoffman - the phto would appear to show the door closed against the jamb, so it will push away from us, meaning the hinges wre on the other side. – Tetsujin May 26 '22 at 16:44
  • @Tetsujin I couldn't tell if that was the jamb or some paneling on the door itself. The fact that the OP said they tried the credit card trick made me think they were on the hinge side, since you couldn't even try that from the other side because the jamb would be in the way. – Darrel Hoffman May 26 '22 at 18:17
  • @DarrelHoffman - because it's impossible from the hinge side; you hit the flat back of the catch. The curve/slope is guaranteed to be on the far side if the door opens towards you. – Tetsujin May 26 '22 at 18:29
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    @Tetsujin It can be done with some fiddling; you have to go at it from the top or bottom and slip behind the curve/slope, then pull towards you. (Provided it doesn't have one of those secondary security catches, not common on a home bathroom.) Easier with something skinny, like a butter knife or something. A piece of stiff wire bent into a C shape works great. Doing it from the non-hinge side would only be possible if gap between the door and jamb is unusually wide as you couldn't easily slip around the jamb otherwise. (I've only used this knowledge for good, I promise.) – Darrel Hoffman May 26 '22 at 18:39
  • I take it breaking the door down is not an option? – Vikki May 26 '22 at 21:30

6 Answers6

45

Put something in the square hole that catches (need not be a perfectly fitting square, but round won't work) and turn the latch mechanism.

Ecnerwal
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    Been there done that a few times when the door handle and shaft fell onto the floor on the other side. Simply dismantled another door handle (unscrewed the cover) and got the handle and shaft, unscrewed the cover of the closed/un-openable door and used the other handle. – MikeT May 27 '22 at 07:10
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    An appropriately sized pair of scissors that fits on the diagonal is my go to tool when this happens. – Kelly Thomas May 27 '22 at 08:14
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Put a slotted screwdriver into the square hole snugly, corner to corner, and turn either clockwise or counter clockwise.

JACK
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24

Note the OP didn't say the handle is missing, merely detached.

You can open the door with the handle, even without re-attaching it, simply by putting the central spindle back in the square hole. It will work just fine, even though it will be wobbly.

Your only real issue would be from the other side… where you'd be relying on someone else doing that for you.

Tetsujin
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    Good to mention the other side! It's highly debatable which side of the bathroom door is the better one to be stuck at ;-). At least you won't die from dehydration, and you have a WC at had whenever you need one -- those may be the two upsides compared to being stuck on the outside. Long story short, better take the handle with you. (Which you can do because, you know, it's detached -- no thorns without rose.) – Peter - Reinstate Monica May 26 '22 at 10:13
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    Only if the part of the handle with the shaft is on your side of the door. – Ecnerwal May 26 '22 at 12:44
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    @Ecnerwal - which, according to the photograph, it is most likely to be - unless both handles fell off at once [& the room on the far side is in darkness], it couldn't have fallen through the far side. – Tetsujin May 26 '22 at 14:05
  • @Tetsujin: Unless the OP is in the habit of leaving the light on in the bathroom when it's unoccupied, the room on the far side almost certainly _is_ in darkness, so we really can't tell whether the shaft is still in place. – Vikki May 26 '22 at 21:28
  • @Vikki - you're assuming there's no window? I suppose it's a possibility, but that still leaves the OP having to have already lost the handle on the far side, having no window **and** managing to push the spindle through from this side. Too many coincidences. – Tetsujin May 27 '22 at 05:10
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    @Tetsujin Lots of houses have their bathroom at the first floor (or higher, when in an apartment) of the building or a very small window that's just for ventilation, not big enough for the average adult to climb through. – Mast May 27 '22 at 06:23
  • @Mast … and lots of houses have bathrooms with ordinary windows like the rest of the house. You can assume whichever you wish. This does seem a rather pointless thing for everyone to keep insisting on. We already have that unless both handles fell off, the OP has the spindle in their possession. We could just take that as read unless they come back to tell us otherwise. – Tetsujin May 27 '22 at 06:25
  • @Tetsujin: The vast majority of houses have bathrooms with tiny or no windows, for reasons that should be blindingly-obvious. – Vikki May 27 '22 at 22:42
  • @Vikki - I'd like to see some supporting evidence for that assumption. The only people I know with windowless bathrooms tend to be the ones who live in converted flats, that have had a bathroom squeezed in where none belonged before. – Tetsujin May 28 '22 at 06:59
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  • Insert closed scissors, diagonally, inside the hole.

  • Open the scissors as much as possible, to get a perfect fit.

  • Turn.

Eric Duminil
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6

I would be using a flat-blade screwdriver across the diagonal.

Done that often and even with "stiff" locks it works.

Solar Mike
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1

Buy a large plastic pop/softdrink bottle and cut it into a sheet. Pass it down the interior of the door. It is tricky but the sheet is bendy and will push your lock back, once you get the hang of it.

I had to get a locksmith out, who just pulled a 2 litre "coca-cola" bottle, and cut the bottom and cap off so it was a sheet of thin bendy plastic.

Then push the plastic between the frame and door. It is bendy enough to go round and through but strong enough to engage the lock's latch on the sloped edge of plastic, and it just pushes the tongue back.

Criggie
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SueDenim
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    As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community May 27 '22 at 16:29
  • This sounds very similar to the credit-card attack. I'd not thought about using a larger piece of PET plastic for the same. – Criggie May 28 '22 at 23:25
  • Credit cards are a bit too stiff you need a combination of flexible but strong and a pop bottle seems to do just fine – SueDenim May 30 '22 at 17:23