How to Keep Outdoor Locks From Freezing Closed

Winter precipitation has a tendency to wreak havoc on exterior locks. If you live in an area with severe winters, there's a good chance you've had to chip away at frozen locks on your home's exterior doors, garage doors and tool-shed padlocks. While you can't control the weather, you can safeguard your locks from freezing closed. All it takes is a few minutes of work and a few common household tools.

Things You'll Need

• Hammer
• Nails
• Thick, heavy sheets of rubber
• Heavy-duty scissors
• Measuring tape
• Wood putty

Instructions

1. Choose the right kind of rubber material. Thin and flimsy rubber just won't do; go for something that is at least 1/8-inch thick, such as a spare piece of inner tube. If you don't have a few scrap pieces of rubber in your shed or basement, you can pick up a sheet at just about any hardware store.

2. Measure the diameter of each outdoor lock you want to protect. For padlocks, measure the width of the padlock.

3. Cut one square of rubber for each lock. For normal exterior door locks, cut squares with sides that equal the lock diameter plus two inches. For padlocks, cut squares with sides that equal the width of the lock plus four inches.

4. Position a rubber square over each lock. Secure the squares in place by nailing the top two corners into the doors. The goal is to create flaps that can be lifted up when locking or unlocking. The rubber flaps will shield the locks from snow, sleet and freezing rain, ensuring that you'll be able to open them without first having to chip away layers of ice.

5. Use the claw end of a hammer to remove the nails after winter is over. Save the flaps for the following winter. You may want to patch the nail holes using wood putty or patching compound.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have leftover paint matching your doors and exteriors, you can paint each rubber flap to match the surrounding area.