How to Lock a Door Without a Lock

Although your home, visit hotels, or Airbnb should have good door locks to assure you privacy and security, sometimes they fail, or in other cases, you may not trust the lock situation in a hotel or apartment. The best fixes are reinstalling, repairing, and replacing the lock, but for urgent and easy fixes, there are a few DIY lock hacks that ensure your door security without a lock.

One Is to Use a Doorstop

Mostly, we use a doorstop to prevent the door from closing, but when you place it behind a door opening inwards, it can physically prevent the door from being opened when the doorknob is broken or not functional. Note that this strategy is inapplicable to outward-opening doors, and it is not a perfect approach to protecting yourself from intruders; intruders can easily bypass the barricade and enter your house.

Use Your Chair to Lock Your Door

A study chair can be a perfect strategy to have a locked door because you can angle it such that the back chair top wedges at the door position below the handle while the chair bottom firmly plants against the ground. This creates pressure between the door handle and your floor and prevents the door from opening.

You could also use the chair back top to block lever-style door handles from moving downwards; this applies if the door handle moves downwards. If your door handle moves upwards to open the door, tie the level handle with a belt or rope to the chair to keep the lock in a position where it is locked.

Install a Security Bar

Here, you need to fasten heavy-duty brackets to your wall or door frame and then insert a thick metallic or wooden bar into the brackets to block the entire door width. They are effective to use as you just have to lift the security bar up and out to open the door and reinsert it back into the brackets to lock your door. A security bar will help you secure yourself from an intruder attempting to kick down your locked door and access your room.

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Use a Portable Door Lock

Portable door locks are perfect for travelers and renters who keep moving from house to house and do not trust available permanent locks; they can be easily removed anytime you wish. It consists of a claw (a metal piece), which you fit over the existing doorknob latch, and a lock you fit to the claw to keep your door closed.

Apply the Fork Concept

Here, you are required to bend your fork tines with pliers such that the tines fit into the door latch and the rest of the fork rests within the door and doorframe space after closing the door. Next, open the door to remove the fork from the door latch and break its handle halfway.

After that, place the fork head back on the latch, make sure the tines are properly inserted into the latch, and close the door. Now slide the handle piece you broke through the tines to create a horizontal barrier that ensures you have a locked door.

Conclusion

Various DIY solutions can assure you privacy and door security when your lock is non-functional, or you do not trust it. Consider factors such as simplicity, longevity, or security to choose a solution that best suits your needs and preferences. For 100% security, hire qualified technicians or an experienced locksmith company to fix your door security problems.

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