Using grout on exterior door lock or handle

One of the benefits of living in Seattle is the opportunity to enjoy the rainy winter storms and be happy that it is too warm for snow. Unfortunately, one of my wood exterior doors on an upper deck is very exposed to these storms. I started to repaint it last week and tried to remove the deadbolt and handle units in order to paint behind them. I was unable to remove the deadbolt and was forced to drill out the screws. Inside the deadbolt and handle sets rust had frozen the screws and other parts.

I have purchased replacement units and am ready to reinstall them. Since I will have to replace the door itself in a few years with a sturdier one I want to be able to reuse this new equipment on it. The question I have is whether I should use caulk under the exterior escutheons to keep out water (and rust). None of the instructions I have read on the internet for any of the major suppliers (Schlage, Baldwin,etc.) addresses this issue. Apparently their equipment is not subject to rain and water damage I know you have to be careful with the grout and avoid using too much. But is there something I don't see? Is there a better way of keeping water out of the mechanisms?

Thanks for any suggestions or advice

Grout and caulk are two different materials. Which are you asking about?

FYI - Most garage service doors have the door knobs exposed to the elements and I've never encounter this problem with them before. Mine is going on 13yrs. old and easily removed it last year when I painted the door.

My bad. Just finished repairing shower tile and some grout implanted itself in my brain. Caulk is what I should have written.

Dietcola:

I wouldn't use caulk... you're likely to just make a mess with it. And, it's likely to interfere with the mechanical operation of the lockset. Besides, there's a better solution, which is to focus on the precise area of the problem.

What I would do is look up "Fasteners" or "Nuts and Bolts" in your yellow pages phone directory to find the places that sell stainless steel screws in your area. Buy STAINLESS STEEL screws to replace all the regular steel fasteners that came with your door hardware. In fact, take the new lock down to that place and match up every screw that comes in the box with a stainless steel one.

Since stainless steel won't rust, it won't seize to the ordinary steel hardware, and you should be able to remove it without a problem.

(PS: This is why one should NEVER EVER NEVER use ordinary steel fasteners in a bathroom. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS change whatever they give you to stainless steel or solid brass. Lots of plumbing hardware is ordinary steel coated with a thin brass coating to make it look like brass, and in my humble opinion, that stuff should be taken off the market. I've even seen ordinary steel toilet flange-to-bowl bolts plated with brass to make them look like brass, and I think someone should be fired for doing that. Take a magnet with you to check. Brass is completely non-magnetic. Stainless steel can be magnetic or non-magnetic, but generally stainless steel fasteners have anywhere from no magnetism to a small amount of magnetism to them. The magnetism will always be noticably less than that of ordinary steel.)

You should also be aware of a product called "antiseize compound". Antiseize compound is really nothing more than a paste made by mixing extremely tiny particles of nickel or copper into ordinary grease. These metal particles lodge themselves between the male and female parts of a screw thread preventing the male and female threads from actually touching each other, and filling the space between them with a viscous grease that prevents water from getting into the space between them. I always use antiseize compound on the inside of any white metal faucet knobs to prevent them from sticking on to the end of the brass faucet spindles. If you don't do that, it can be like fighting with a bear to get the white metal faucet knob off after a few years.

In your case, I'd recommend overkill. Use antiseize compound on your stainless steel screw threads to GUARANTEE that you won't have a repeat performance of the episode you had with your previous steel door hardware.

You'll find that antiseize compound comes with either copper or nickel dust in it.





Nickel has a much higher melting point than copper, and so nickel based antiseize compounds are used for higher temperature applications (such as in gas turbines or where a copper antiseize compound is inappropriate for any other reason). In your case, you'd be fine with copper.

Also, there's no rule that says you can't also put antiseize compound on the female threads of your lock hardware with a toothpick.

Thank you KOK328 and Nestor Kelebay for your help.

Thank you KoK328 and Nestor Kelebay for your help.

No Problem

No Problem

Nestor_Kelebay said:

No Problem

No Problem

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I merged the posts.

I merged the posts.