If not, you need to lube the mechanism or replace it. Sometimes there is so much wear internally all the lube in the world won't help, and you need a new one.
If so, look at the door edge on and see if it is warped. Use a yardstick or a long level, or look the the corners to see if they hit the frame first. If it is warped you can plane down the face near the corners so it fits better (assuming a wood door) and you'll have to repaint.
Most likely though, is that the door has sagged a bit and the latch bolt is rubbing against the strike plate. If you eyeball it closely when closing the door, or by examining the wear on the strike plate, you can see if it is out of alignment. Sometimes just tightening the screws on the hinges will be enough to raise the door so the latch and plate aren’t scraping. Or you can chisel out a little bit from behind the upper hinge and put a thin piece of cardboard behind the lower hinge, which will lift the latch bolt and clear the impingement.
@doschicos - Maybe one of those clear carpet protectors people put under their office chairs so they can roll around? It would be clear, easy to wipe off, and a place to step when making a few trips in and out, without needing to remove shoes every time.
Depending on what is behind the hinges, you might be able to remove a couple of screws from the top hinge and drive 3 1/2" or 4" screws into the frame behind the jamb, and pull the frame back into square.
If that doesn’t do it you want to see where your door is hitting the strike plate. Use these to shim it. Might need to try 2 in the lower hinge. Put the door back up and judge from there. Easier then it sounds and many you tube videos on it.
We have super thick solid 10 foot tall double entry doors that were challenging to latch. (Push/pull we learned its idiosyncrasies over the years.) I switched out the traditional deadbolt lock with a smart lock last year. The deadbolt in the new lock was slightly thinner and the door locks/unlocks like a dream … even from my phone. I’d look at the hardware before replacing the doors.
Handyman. If the lockset works when open then handyman
But if you /he can try tightening the screws everywhere first. Sometimes a hinge breaks also so it can be easily replaced. I had to replace my hinges and shim them. Complaining about the door for years. Went to my professional advisor… You tube and made the fix
For years now its perfect. Always thought it was the door swelling in the summer kinda thing.
9 doors to outside at our home, replaced strike plates with larger holes that worked.
One year we hired a handyman door specialist recommended by our builder. He fixed them all. Our front wooden door was very heavy and warped some. He drilled in metal rods horizontally and it works wonderfully.
I replaced the lock (and also the passage door lever) myself, but I knew the issue was where the deadbolt hit the latch plate. Had to get a thick door kit, but it wasn’t hard at all. The smart lock I bought also has a key option so I took it to a locksmith to rekey to the current key that works with all our locks before I installed it. Like @rockymtnhigh2 we have many doors to the outside and I didn’t want some random key in the mix.
If you’re not sure where the problem is, a handyman is your best option.
Btw, I use red or dark lipstick on the door latch (thing that sticks out that latches when you shut it). It will show you if the strike plate is too high, too low, too far inside, too far back.
Is CC extremely slow for anyone else? It takes maybe a minute for me to go from page to page, so I just haven’t been on for the last couple of days.
I would put this under forum issues, but I can’t find it.
@marilyn, I’m on an IPad. I’ve turned it off and on, cleared the web history, and signed off and back into CC. I try it a time or two a day, but it’s been slow since maybe the weekend.
Cable TV originally started as a means to bring over-the-air (OTA) signals from commercial stations into regions that couldn’t get reception. Since these were just the broadcast feed, these carried all the commercials that the OTA signals had.
At some point, cable-only channels were launched, and some of these channels were originally commercial-free since they received fees for being carried on the cable network. There was no way this could last though, the temptation of commercial money was too great, and now most have commercials except for the subscription channels like HBO. And I think cable carriers were banned from replacing or adding their own commercials, as the carriers were forbidden from owning the content providers.
This is no longer true of course, and commercials abound everywhere. There are still rules about the cable systems having to carry local channels and they can’t muck with the feeds.
But I don’t think it was ever true that cable systems carried all programming without commercials, unless there were some that only had cable-only stations and didn’t carry the local stations. The requirement to carry local stations came pretty early in the game though IIRC.