Your Snib And The Dog
“Snib” is a more correct term for what is often known as the latch button on a latch lock.
A latch lock is the kind that can slam shut behind you, locking you out. Usually when you’ve decided to nip quickly out onto the doorstep in your dressing gown in order to get the milk delivery.
The snib is the little button that locks the latch bolt in the open position, and sometimes in the closed position as well. There are at least two reasons for checking that the snib isn’t loose.
Firstly if you have a dog (or cat?) that has the habit of jumping up and pawing at the locks, then Fido just might manage to activate a loose snib and lock you out.
This has now happened twice to one of my customers. They didn’t believe me the first time and wouldn’t let me change the lock. Now they are believers.
Secondly, if a snib has become loose and the lock is a “nightlatch” style lock on the “dangerous” side of the door (for a Yale 77, 84, 85, 88 or 89, for example, the “dangerous” side is the left as you look from the inside) then slamming the door could cause the snib to drop and lock you out — if down is the locking direction. (When mounted on the other side of the door a dropping snib is dropping towards the open and safe position.)
