WTF happened to my door frame?

[Christien]

Ok, seems weird to be asking a question about my house on a car-based forum, but PPOT seems to be awesome at this stuff.

A couple days ago, our side door suddenly didn't close properly. Or rather, I should say, it wouldn't lock properly and took a large amount of force to close fully. I looked at it briefly and noticed the deadbolt and striker plate hold weren't lining up properly - the deadbolt itself was low. Strange. Yesterday I went to fix it and had a closer look. I got up on a step ladder and noticed an increasing gap from left to right (hinge side to handle side) between the door and the upper horizontal frame. Then I noticed a huge crack (see pic below) running from the top-left (hinge side) of the door frame to the ceiling. I'm concerned a stud or the door frame inside the wall cracked, which is causing the left side (hinge side) of the door to now hang crooked, thus the deadbolt/handle tongue not lining up properly with the striker plates. This would have happened sometime during the massive storm last week, so possible could have been due to the extreme cold. There's no sign of damage on the outside (brick) nor any signs of an attempted break-in.

I checked the exterior foundation wall outside this room and it looks fine. There's no damage I can see in the basement room below - it's the furnace room and is unfinished, although the exterior wall was drywalled when the house was built (1983-1984) and I haven't pulled that down to see what's behind it. I got up into the attic to have a look and didn't see anything really unusual. The underside of the roof (shingles over plywood) was damp to the touch but not dripping anywhere. It's warmed up to a few degrees above freezing so the snow on the roof is starting to melt.

Any thoughts on this? Is this serious? Do I need to rip out the door frame and drywall? I'd hate to have to do that in the winter, but at the same time if it's unsafe, I need to fix it now.

Thanks!
Chris

Pics:

[competentone]

You have a roof leak.

I'd speculate that some of the structure is very dry (moisture levels in wood drop in the winter) and some has become wet from the leak. Subsequently things are moving around causing the cracks and door misalignment.

What sort of snow load do you have on the roof too?

[kach22i]

Lets start with what we do know.

1. You have movement in your exterior wall.

2. You have a crack

3. Window door wall is out of alignment

4. Wet roof, ceiling and insulation

I'll start with the easy stuff;

Condensation on the underside of the roofing is possible because the moisture in the air reaches "dew point". This moisture is typically carried away by air flow along the surface. This airflow is achieved by openings in the soffit/eave (overhang) and at the top of the roof (ridge vent).

I do not see any insulation baffels. The insulation appears to be blocking the soffit vents. This is bad, the condensation will form, it will freeze and when it warms up the water may drip down from your ceiling or into your walls. The path can be tricky to trace, it's source is not.

I do not know if this is the cause of the structural problem in the door wall, but it could be.

[Christien]

When the snow first hit, it was very dry and light (I know because I shovelled the driveway, twice...). When it first snowed we got a lot - probably 4-6 feet, but since then (last Tues/Wed) a lot of it has blown off. I don't know how much piled up on the roof during/immediately after the storm, when the crack appeared. Today with the increase in temperature it's much heavier, but there's less than a foot there now.

[competentone]

Originally posted by kach22i
Condensation on the underside of the roofing is possible because the moisture in the air reaches "dew point". This moisture is typically carried away by air flow along the surface. This airflow is achieved by openings in the soffit/eave (overhang) and at the top of the roof (ridge vent).

From the pictures, the moisture is not consistent with condensation. That looks like an active leak -- the comment about the snow melting suggests ice damming.

The darkness on some of the wood indicates the leak may have been going on for some time. If the wood has been damaged in the wall from a long-term leak, the extra load from the snow could have caused a sudden "shift" in the structure.

[kach22i]

Originally posted by Christien
When the snow first hit, it was very dry and light (I know because I shovelled the driveway, twice...). When it first snowed we got a lot - probably 4-6 feet, but since then (last Tues/Wed) a lot of it has blown off. I don't know how much piled up on the roof during/immediately after the storm, when the crack appeared. Today with the increase in temperature it's much heavier, but there's less than a foot there now.

Brace and shore the opening, the whole thing may be rotted.

Maybe it's just that one spot, and they framed it wrong, took a while for the stud to crack and fail.

Gotta open it up.

Get those insulation baffle installed, they are code around here.

[kach22i]

Originally posted by competentone
From the pictures, the moisture is not consistent with condensation. That looks like an active leak -- the comment about the snow melting suggests ice damming.

The darkness on some of the wood indicates the leak may have been going on for some time. If the wood has been damaged in the wall from a long-term leak, the extra load from the snow could have caused a sudden "shift" in the structure.

Ice Damming is a condition which may be caused by:

1. Roof Geometry (two planes converging) causing a pile up.

2. Lack of "Ice & Water Sheild" as measured going in two feet from from the inside of the wall out to the edge of roof.

3. Roof leaks in general, poor drip edge, cloggged gutters etc.....

4. Freezing of condesation under the roof.

The darkeness indicated saturation over time - YES. If it's not allowed to dry out (via proper ventilation) this will happen.

[Christien]

By insulation baffles, you mean the vents? Even though the insulation in our attic is covering that area up, I'm sure we don't have those vents. We need to replace the insulation anyway, as we're losing tons of heat/air conditioning through the ceilings in the upstairs room, so it looks like I've got my work cut out for me.

The problem with opening up the wall and the door is the cold weather, which means it has to be done quickly, which then means this is no longer in the realm of DIY, which means $$. Yippee. I can do a lot of this stuff myself, but I'm slow. It's hovering around freezing here, so I'm not going to leave a hole in the wall for weeks on end...

Thanks for the help, you guys - I really appreciate it!

[kach22i]

Originally posted by Christien
By insulation baffles, you mean the vents? Even though the insulation in our attic is covering that area up, I'm sure we don't have those vents.

Look a the the images I posted above, baffles are the corrigated foam which allow air to pass (at roof angle). If the vents are covered, the vents in the overhang, this is very very bad.

Your house is just like you, it's gotta breathe.

[Christien]

Ok, gotcha - thanks.

[notfarnow]

Originally posted by kach22i
Look a the the images I posted above, baffles are the corrigated foam which allow air to pass (at roof angle). If the vents are covered, the vents in the overhang, this is very very bad.

Your house is just like you, it's gotta breathe.

I just did this job in October. The humidity in our attic, especially above the bathroom, was REALLY bad. No airflow, and wet air was condensing on the underside of the roof. Had to rent scaffolding and open up the soffits to put "rafter mates" in. (My attic isn't as accessible as yours seems to be).

By the looks of your picture, you don't have the vents either. Put that on your to-do list.

However, I agree with competentone that it looks like a leak... betcha don't have ice & water shield up the first few feet. That's code in most areas now.

I'm willing to bet that when you open the wall up, you're either going to find water damage or some really oddball framing... like no header over the door with just the door surround tacked to the studs.

[HardDrive]

I'm betting on ice dams. I had to install heating coils on the edge of my roof in Wisonsin to combat this. I had water leaking from inside my window frames as the water came down through the walls.

[competentone]

Originally posted by Christien
The problem with opening up the wall and the door is the cold weather, which means it has to be done quickly, which then means this is no longer in the realm of DIY, which means $$. Yippee. I can do a lot of this stuff myself, but I'm slow. It's hovering around freezing here, so I'm not going to leave a hole in the wall for weeks on end...

Measure the size of the crack and keep an eye on it.

You want to stop water entry, but if the structure has "moved" -- so long as it has reached a point of "equilibrium" and doesn't keep moving -- you probably could just let things stay as they are until you get warmer weather, then open it up yourself.

[notfarnow]

My house is on 3 different foundations from the past 140 years. A couple of them are a bit independant minded, and they shift in the winter & summer, making some doors very stubborn. It makes A LOT of noise... pops and bangs... enough to keep you up at night if it bugs you. For all the racket it makes, I only have a couple small cracks in the drywall, but nothing like what you have in your picture.

My point is, if that crack is from the structure shifting I would have expected it to make A LOT of racket.

Did that crack appear overnight? If it did, I'm willing to bet it's not structural, but has to do with the framing around the door. If the framing around the door has rotted or was poorly made, opening and closing the door could have pulled the doorframe along with some drywall.

[john70t]

Topping the roof leak should be priority number 1.
I was guessing it also could be be caused by bad shingles or gutters full of ice and wicking back upwards(?).

The rafters could also be cross braced across and lengthwise to add strength if necessary, those don't look like they are at all.

If that is an interior load-bearing wall, is it properly supported from underneath? Check downstairs to ensure the entire wall is sitting on a well supported beam...some houses are the result of patchwork engineering.

[Christien]

Ok, lots of good info here. The rain gutters are indeed full of ice. They're still draining as things melt (we can see and hear it in various areas around the house) but I'm sure that's contributing to the water on the underside of the roof. However there's no dripping anywhere in the attic and no evidence of rotting wood (or even long-term water soaking) that I could see anywhere, whether it be the plywood or the roof framing. We bought the house in early 2004 and according to the home inspector (and the previous owner) the roof is not the original from 1983/84 - it was redone something like 8 or 9 years ago (I think he said it was 7 yrs ago when we bought it).

We don't know when the crack appeared. If it made a noise, it was either when we weren't home or we didn't hear it. This isn't generally a really creaky house, so we'd probably notice it if it were audible. You can sort of see from the pic there's some shelving to the left of the door - it's our laundry room that goes out to the side of the house, so we don't spend a lot of time in there, especially up around that top shelf. Even when I first went to check out why the door wasn't closing I didn't notice it (I was only looking at where the deadbolt and striker plate lined up). I only noticed it when I got up on a step stool to check out the top gap.

As far as that wall being well supported, it's sitting on top of the concrete block foundation. The exterior shows no cracks in the foundation, but the inside (furnace room) is drywalled so I can't see it. I haven't gone so far yet as to rip the inside basement drywall down to check the foundation there - should I? That's a major task because there's all sorts of shelving in the furnace room (free-standing, not attached to the wall). I mean, if that's what I need to do of course I'll do it, but I don't want to do all that if it's not really going to tell me anything.

When we moved in the basement was unfinished and we've since finished it, so we've seen a lot of the workmanship in the house up close. Generally speaking, it seems to be what you'd expect - no major weird things or half-assed corners cut. The wall studs are all actually 2" x 4" and supporting walls are made from 2x6's. There were a few cracks in the concrete basement floor, but nothing more than you'd expect in a 20-something year old house.

[kach22i]

Sounds like you know what to do.

I should add a few more things to look for. Laundry room exhaust vents, and toilet room exhaust fans which empty into or very close to the roof overhang or directly into the attic should be re-routed ASAP.

The last thing you want to is pump moisture into semi-sealed cavities (poorly ventilated) like an attic (or basement).

[Christien]

The bathroom exhaust fans (2 in the house) all vent through the attic and up to the roof. The laundry vent is in the side of the house (just to the right of the door with the crack) at about knee height. Is that problematic?

[kach22i]

Originally posted by Christien
vent .....at about knee height.

I can't say for sure, gotta open up that wall and find out what is happening inside. The adjacent location does make you wonder though.

I would of been more concerned if the dryer vent was just under the overhang by inches or if forced to point downward in the overhang and snaking all over the place.

[john70t]

At a house I lived in, I noticed the hardwood floor was starting to get bucket-shaped around one side of a bathroom door frame.
Went into the basement and found that on that side the door frame landed between the floor joists, and was supported only by the plywood!
Complicating that was that the upstairs bathroom drain ran down right next to it, so either small leak or condensation was collecting on the plywood and had softened it up.
The "quick fix" I used was to put a 4x4 block under the plywood with a sissors jack and tightened it up a little every couple of weeks.

Could it be that the soil has settled and that the foundation blocks are caving in at one spot? That thought makes me nervous.
One big cause of that would be bad water drainage on the side of the house, so that hydrostatic pressure wants to come in through the basement walls. Is it nice and dry down there?