Really loud door latch at work

September 26, 2017 8:46 PM

My door latch is really loud. It closes on a hollow metal frame. The door itself is not loud per se, and is hung properly. It's the doorknob mechanism. If I don't lock my door it's relatively quiet, but I would rather not leave my door unlocked all day. How can I make this quieter? Two second video with audio

A colleague has complained about me "slamming" the door. If I slooowly close the door and baby the handle, it's quieter, but I'd much rather soundproof it somehow because I know I'll forget and shut it quickly and loudly when I'm in a hurry.

posted by craniac to Grab Bag (15 answers total)

Response by poster: I've thought about injecting foam insulation into the door frame, and putting some foam behind the receiver plate.
posted by craniac at 8:47 PM on September 26, 2017

This is not necessarily your problem to solve... Who is in charge of facilities at your office? Have you asked them for help? Have you had a conversation with the coworker where you explained that you're not slamming, your door is just weirdly loud and you're trying to get facilities to fix it?
posted by brainmouse at 8:49 PM on September 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

There are a few things going on here.

First, the latch bolt (the part that protrudes out of the door and keeps it closed) is slamming into the strike plate. If you turn the handle in advance as you close the door, the latch bolt will be inside the door, and you'll avoid that noisy impact of the latch slamming against the plate. That will take care of the first noise in your "bang-bang!" sound clip.

Second, the door itself is hitting the frame. There's a rubber bumper visible in your video. You could replace that with some rubber door seals around the entire frame. This could reduce the second "bang!" to more of a "thud..."

And third, in my observation... you're kind of slamming the door. Could you close it with a little less force and still have the door latch? Could you slow the speed of the door right before it hits the frame, just like you might slow down your car before you drive over a speed bump? Unless you have a defectively stiff latch, it looks like you're closing the door with a lot more force than would be required to latch a typical office door.
posted by reeddavid at 10:00 PM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

A colleague has complained about me "slamming" the door.

Based on that video, your colleague is entirely the problem. That is an extremely banal and unremarkable door shutting noise. Unless it is a LOT louder than that, the problem is absolutely not with you. I think the most you need to do is cheerfully say "Sorry, my door is loud!" if they complain.

If you want to be super quiet, there are two things - cushioning between the door and the frame (so the flat bit the door lands against) which is easily done with extra weather stripping) and if you pull the handle as you close it, then that will help, not HONESTLY that is not a loud door closing unless you work in a library.

Also: If I don't lock my door it's relatively quiet, but I would rather not leave my door unlocked all day.
I don't understand this. By 'locked' do you mean 'closed'? Because you didn't show a video of the door being locked. Just closed.
posted by Brockles at 11:12 PM on September 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I would try lubricating the strike plate by rubbing some candle wax on it to deal with the noise problem there which reeddavid pointed out, and I would put self adhesive felt strips at the top and bottom of the frame where the door hits it to keep the door from rebounding and rattling around the way it does now when you close it.
posted by jamjam at 12:15 AM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Turn the handle before closing the door so the latch doesn't strike the frame.
posted by Nelson at 1:42 AM on September 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

You mention wanting the door locked; ff the door knob is locked while you're trying to close the door, one can't turn the knob to avoid having the latch hit the strike plate.

Instead, if you close the door while it's unlocked, you can have the handle turned to avoid the latch hitting the strike plate. Then slowly release the handle, and then lock the door with your key (I.E. pretend it's locked like a dead bolt, instead of being able to be blocked from the inside while the door is open). Yes, it takes longer to do it this way, but it's definitely quieter. When my wife is sleeping I close and re-lock the door this way.
posted by nobeagle at 6:38 AM on September 27, 2017

Response by poster: I realize that the problem is 80 percent behavioral on my part, ten percent the door itself and ten percent my neighbor. I talked to the other neighboring office and they hadn't noticed anything. I will have a conversation with the neighbor, but given the manner of their original complaint, I'm not looking forward to it.

Note: it is a new building, and every door is equally loud. I checked a few to confirm this.

As far as it not being my job to fix this problem, going to facilities will not help. If I even got permission (unlikely), I doubt they would spend the time to properly fix this problem. Trust me on this. Also, there is a political cost to asking for this sort of special favor and I'd rather burn that capital on something else.

There's a good chance I'll be in this job until I retire in fifteen+ years. I guess I'm trying to come up with an engineering solution that won't require me to think about my neighbor every time I leave my office for the next fifteen years. Maybe that's not emotionally healthy.

I just moved to this office. I will have a conversation about the door.

Door locked: There is a button on the door knob. When it is depressed, the door remains locked when it is shut. Something about that depressed button makes the door louder when it is closed. When the button is not depressed, the door shuts way more quietly.

As I write this out, it occurs to me that I don't really have a noisy door problem. I have an anxiety problem, and that may be connected to the thought of spending fifteen more years in one place.

I brought in some foam weather stripping, and I'll start there. Once I've done everything mechanically possible I'll chat with the neighbor. I might inject insulating foam just for the fun of it, and because I'm curious.

Thanks for helping me clarify the problem.
posted by craniac at 7:19 AM on September 27, 2017

This doesn’t help with the anxiety part of the problem, but I would tell your neighbor the steps that you have taken for mitigation with the weatherstripping and let them know that if they are still bothered by the noise, they can file a report and pursue it with facilities.
posted by topophilia at 7:25 AM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I just heard someone down the hallway shut their door. They are loud. I usually don't hear it because my door is shut and I just bought some noise-cancelling headphones, ironically the day before I heard this complaint.
posted by craniac at 7:32 AM on September 27, 2017

I realize that the problem is 80 percent behavioral on my part, ten percent the door itself and ten percent my neighbor. I talked to the other neighboring office and they hadn't noticed anything.

Read that again. Especially the last bit. If no-one else notices this, then this really is an over-sensitive thing on your neighbours part. Make reasonable steps but then you need to drop it into a box that says THEIR PROBLEM on it. The anxiety thing is pretty accurate. This is no way as big a problem as you are assuming it is and, crucially, not as big a problem FOR YOU as you're taking on.
posted by Brockles at 7:53 AM on September 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Additional note: the application of foam weather strips creates enough resistance that it forces me to close the door more slowly and intentionally, thus reducing the latch sound. This is great, because now I don't have to think about any of the underlying issues until my ulcer returns.
posted by craniac at 7:55 AM on September 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yeah this is like 10% on you, 30% on them, and 60% on cheap institutional construction, designed by people who either didn't care about noise or couldn't afford to.

Sorry.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:38 AM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

You could also install a gentle door closer. That with a rubber gasket should make it very quiet.
posted by SLC Mom at 6:28 PM on September 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: update: I wrote my coworker a note, explaining how I was remedying the situation.

My coworker saw me in the hallway, we talked about the cheap construction, and how the previous tenant of my office was never at work, and he apologized if he was perhaps too abrasive.


I ended up putting foam window insulation strips on the door jamb, but also in the space by the hinges, which greatly slows the door closing.

So a little grown-up politeness and $5.00 of foam appear to have done the trick.
posted by craniac at 10:42 AM on September 29, 2017