When planing a door, time of year matters
By Paul Bianchina
Inman News®
If you have some doors around your house that aren't working quite
right, don't despair. There are a number of quick and easy fixes that
will take care of whatever's sticking, squeaking, swinging or otherwise
ailing your doors.
The door binds in the upper corner of the jamb:
This is a common complaint, since the weight of the door wants to pull
it down at an angle from the top corner, opposite the upper hinge.
This causes the door to bind against the jamb in that corner. To fix it,
remove one or two of the screws that hold the hinge to the jamb.
Replace
these screws with new ones that are long enough to reach all the way
through the jamb and into the stud behind the jamb; predrill new pilot
holes through the existing holes in the jamb to make it easier to drive
the screws.
These new, longer screws will pull the jamb back up
against the stud and take the angle out of the door frame, relieving
that pinch point in the corner.
The door binds against other parts of the jamb:
First of all, ask yourself when this started happening. Is it only in
the winter? If so, it's probably due to seasonal swelling, which
happens when the wood absorbs moisture from the air.
Check to see
if the door is being directly exposed to moisture, such as a drip from a
leaky gutter, or perhaps it's constantly shaded by overhanging trees
and rarely dries. If you can identify the cause of the seasonal
moisture, correct it.
Be careful about planing a door during the winter: When it dries out again, it'll be undersized for the opening.
If
the binding isn't seasonal, look for stress cracks in the drywall or
moldings around the door. This can indicate settling issues, which may
be caused by shifts in the home's foundation, or simple drying of the
wood framing, especially in newer homes.
If the settling doesn't
continue and the binding doesn't worsen, you can relieve the bound area
by tapping against the frame with a hammer and a block of wood, or by
removing the door from its hinges and planing it a little. If the
settling is worsening, consult with a contractor or structural
engineer.
Door won't stay latched: If the door won't stay
latched, or if it needs to be pushed hard to get it to latch into the
strike plate, first look at the way the door is fitting in the jamb. If
you see that it appears to be leaning down at the upper corner, try
installing longer screws as described above.
Otherwise, it's a
matter of readjusting the strike plate. Site the latch to see where it's
hitting the strike plate, to try to determine if the plate needs to
move up or down. If necessary, try coating the latch with lipstick or
crayon and then closing the door -- the resulting marks on the strike
plate will help indicate where it's hitting.
If only a small
adjustment is needed, try grinding the opening in the strike plate to
make it larger as needed. Use a small file or a rotary tool with a
metal grinding bit. If a larger adjustment is needed, unscrew and
remove the strike plate, then reposition it on the jamb and reinstall
it. You may need to chisel the jamb slightly to accept the plate in its
new position.
Screws are coming out: If the screws that
hold the hinges are coming out of the jamb, or you've had to reposition
the strike plate and the screws want to go back into the old holes,
you need to create new wood for the screws to grab into. This is easily
done by drilling out the old screw holes to the size of a standard
hardwood dowel, typically 3/8 inch. Apply glue to the dowel, insert it
into the hole, allow it to dry, then cut it off flush with the
surrounding surface. Drill a new pilot hole into the dowel, and
reinsert the screws.
Door swings and won't stay open:
This is caused by a door that's out of plumb in its opening. To correct
it, you need to insert a small amount of shim between the back of the
hinge and the door jamb -- usually the bottom hinge. To do that, loosen
the hinge screws almost all the way, so that you have some play between
the hinge and the jamb.
Insert a piece of wooden shim or other
material, such as small pieces of plastic laminate, behind the hinge,
then retighten the screws. You may need to adjust the amount of shim to
get the door to swing correctly, and you may also need to add a small
amount of shim to the center hinge as well.
The door latch hits the strike plate:
This is caused by a strike cylinder that's worked loose, or by a loose
doorknob. If the strike cylinder that goes into the edge of the door
is held in place with a small rectangular plate and two screws, first
try tightening the screws.
If they'll tighten and hold OK, that
will pull the cylinder back into the door and hold it. If the screws
won't hold, then you'll need to install dowels as described above.
Many
newer doors have strike cylinders that are drive-in, meaning they're
held in place by a friction fit in the hole that's drilled in the edge
of the door, rather than by screws. They're also held by tension on the
doorknob, which is what the strike cylinder is connected to. First,
loosen the screws holding the doorknob, so that you have a little play
in the knob.
Set a block of wood against the strike cylinder, and
tap it with a hammer to drive it back into the door until it's flush
with the door's edge. Finally, securely tighten the doorknob's screws
to hold the knob and cylinder in place.
The door hits the wall:
You need a door stop. There are three types of door stops available,
depending on the situation. The simplest is a solid or flexible stop
with a screw on one end and a rubber cap on the other, which is screwed
into a pilot hole that's drilled into the door or into the baseboard.
Another
style is a hinge stop, which is used when you want to stop the door
before it can open far enough to contact a stop on a wall. To install
this type of stop, remove the top or center hinge pin, slip it through
the hinge stop, then reinstall the pin in the hinge.
The hinge
stop has an adjustable rod that screws in and out to contact the door
at different points, allowing you to stop the door's swing exactly
where you want it.
The third type is called a floor stop. Floor
stops are attached directly to the floor, and are the strongest of all
the stops, making them especially well suited for commercial
applications. On the downside, because they sit directly on the floor,
they can sometimes be in the way.
Floor stops typically have a
long pin that fits into a predrilled hole in the floor for strength,
along with a screw that secures it to the floor.
Remodeling and repair questions? Email Paul at paulbianchina@inman.com. All product reviews are based on the author's actual testing of free review samples provided by the manufacturers.
