Foundations are important. If they’re not stable, what you build doesn’t have good prospects. But I was in the clear, my shed stands on a big, solid concrete block. It’s not going anywhere.
Or so I thought.
Unfortunately, whoever constructed the foundation didn’t make sure it was level. To compensate for the deviation I had to support the floor joists at one end. Initially I used a pair of triangular wedges which could be pushed together to increase the joist height and determine the height of the support that was needed. I then cut a piece of hardwood and put it in the place of the pair of wedges.
Over the course of a few months I noticed a problem. The locking bolt on the door no longer slid smoothly into place. It took effort to drive it across as it didn’t line up with the receiving hole properly.
An easy option would have been to move the lock, after all, that was clearly the problem. Except that the problem wasn’t actually the problem, it was a symptom of another problem. To solve the perceived problem I need to find the cause, to get to the root of the matter and identify the real problem.
I started look further afield, beyond the lock itself. Were the door hinges sound? They seemed to be. Were the door frames square? Not really… I noticed the floor had developed a definite camber. That wasn’t there before, I was sure of that. With spirit level in hand I continued to work backward until I found the offending part of the structure.
The two wedges under one corner of the shed had not been replaced with a more permanent support. At a cursory glance they appeared fine. However, with the foot traffic they had stated to slip against each other. Imperceptibly the end of the joist began to sink. As the joist moved, the floor moved with it. The walls are constructed on top of the floor so they too moved in the downward direction. Part of the wall also formed the door frame and thus the door followed suit. As the door moved it took the locking mechanism along for the ride, creating my problem.
Once I’d correctly identified the fault it was straight forward to fix; jack up the joist, raising the corner until the floor was level, then replace the pair of wedges with a solid block that would not fail. Job done. There was no need to ‘fix’ the lock.
What I had initially perceived as the problem was nothing of the sort. It was simply the outworking of a different, more fundamental failure. With the floor joist now soundly supported, the lock closed as effortlessly as when it was first fitted.
Too often we’re taught to deal with symptoms.
In pain? Take a couple of paracetamol.
Got rage issues? Go to anger management classes.
Problems at work? Get another job.
But the symptoms are not the problem; they’re the warning light on life’s dashboard showing that something deeper is wrong. They’re telling you that you need to make a change.
Don’t just move your lock – you’ll have to do it again at some point. Get to the bottom of it and make sure your foundations are sound.
