How does a door stay latched?
We all know that when we turn a door handle and close a door, we’re actually making a little bolt about the size our thumb move into a slightly larger hole that’s been bored out in the door jamb. This bolt is called a latch bolt (fitting, since its job is to latch a door closed and unlatch a door to enable opening it!). The latch bolt slides through a hole in a flat piece of metal called strike plate that is attached to and covering a hole in the door jamb. The idea is that for a door to latch properly, the latch bolt must make its way completely through the strike plate opening and rest snugly in the latch bolt hole. If it only does this just part of the way, your door is susceptible to opening on it’s own, entirely without your consent! Don’t feel bad though…as it turns out, the latch bolt missing its target is actually a common problem that, in most cases, is a simple issue of door misalignment. Makes sense, right? The latch bolt MUST align with the center of the strike plate openin
