Fixing my front door, how to?

[scottmandue]

Standing inside the house, the upper right hand corner started rubbing.

Checked the hinges and top one the screws into the door jam were loose, tightened them, ta da! Fixed!

Two days later screws were loose and top corner rubbing again.

So I went to the store and bought screws one size larger, decided I would change out all the hinge screws.

Changed out the top screws, rubbing gone, changed middle and bottom screws, rubbing back.

Any ideas on how to fix this? New hinges? Hit the rubbing corner with some sandpaper?

Thanks,

Offending corner:



top and bottom hinge:





Yes we need a new front door, but not in the budget until much later in the year.

[Don Ro]

What I've done in the past is to unscrew one of (or two, if three hinges) hinges and remove material from the door frame - re-install hinges. Or remove hinge(s) and place some paperboard under the hinge(s).
.
Got to do this to my front door, as well.
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Edit: I'll be looking at sanding the tightness off the door as well.

[Rusty Heap]

yup, shim the bottom out, or shave and plane down the top.


Couple of good whacks with the door jamb where it rubs could help too.

In the colder weather, home shift and shrink/expand more.


Nice green paint at one time.........drip drip.

[drcoastline]

It's a trial and error fix. obviously when you tighten the bottom hinge it's pulling the door closer to the jamb. Try a thin piece of cardboard or a business card or two between the hinge and jamb. at the bottom. The cardboard will act as a shim. See if that fixes it. If not try the cardboard between the hinge and jamb at the top. It may take few times to get it right. Also, you could sand as you stated. Just be careful you don't want to take to much off you could mess up your seal.

Good luck with the fix.

[matt711]

Sounds like you may have some issues with the jam itself. If the wood is too soft to hold the screws then you going to continue to have issues. If you can support the door in an open position then try to pack the original screw holes with saw dust and wood glue then reinstall the larger screws.

[Rusty Heap]

[stomachmonkey]

Instead of a larger screw try a longer screw and see if you can get into the framing behind the door jam.

Little bit of elmers on the screw goes a long way, think of it as loctite for wood.

And I'd replace those hinges. They are kind of old and fugly.

[craigster59]

Glue a toothpick or 2 into each hole and reinstall screws and hinges. Old carpenter's trick.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Good rule of thumb, you want a nice even gap around the door. From the pictures it looks like your gap is bigger on the hinge side at the top, hence the door is hitting the jamb at the top when closed. You can use bigger screws and pull the top tighter, or shim out the bottom. If you shim out the bottom too much you might now find that you are hitting along the entire jamb when closed, I would personally try pulling in the top hinge. Several things to try:

Make sure all of your hinge screws are getting a good bite and tight on the top hinge.

Remove the top hinge and make sure that the leaves lay flat when closed. If they are bent you can either replace the hinge or just bang them flat with a hammer.

Remove one of the top hinge screws and run a longer screw into its place on the jamb side. Best to use something long enough to hit the stud and get some penetration, and using a power driver will help you get it pulled in. The middle screw is normally towards the center of the jamb, which will help insure that you hit a stud vs sheetrock. If you do this right you should see the jamb move towards the wall, which will pull the opposite top edge of the door away from the jamb.

[70SATMan]

A lot of great suggestions but, the first thing I'd be doing is checking to see if the jambs are plumb before making any modifications to the door. If the house has shifted and the jambs are no longer plumb, any mods to the door are just band aids.

If the jambs are properly shimmed, I would not expect to be able to pull a jamb in by using a long screw into the stud. Without pictures of the gap at the bottom opening face of the door, one cannot make the call to shim the lower hinge. Might just create a new rub at the bottom edge of the door.

The gap at the top hinge looks pretty big to me... If the jambs are plumb, I'd deepen the jamb, top hinge recess by chiseling out about 1/16 additional material.

[look 171]

That front door is no longer square so its a bit off (shifted at the joint where the rail meets the stiles). Drill a 1/4 hole where the screws go and stick a piece of 1/4 wooden dowel with carpenter glue, let dry for 20 min, and reinstall door, shim (if there are any) if necessary. Hitting the framing is really the key, but the off set hinge screw location may not allow you to tie it to the stud. If it still doesn't fit, you might have to shim out the bottom a little (two business cards) or shave the top of the door. Check the screws that connect the hinge to the door. That seems to be pulling itself apart also from the photo.

[scottmandue]

Thanks everyone,

The new screws seem to be holding, they are a little longer so they may be hitting the framing.

All screws in the door and jamb seem to be tight at this point.

I will try (in this order) removing the top hinge because yes it does look like it has expanded.

Shiming the bottom hinge.

Sanding the upper corner.

And putting some wood glue on the screws.

Yes, everything is out of square but I need to band aid this until we can get a new door.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Instead of a larger screw try a longer screw and see if you can get into the framing behind the door jam.

Bingo!

Then at least you know your starting point for shimming / chiseling once hinge itself is eliminated as an issue.

[hardflex]

if all else fails jack up the house :-)

[john70t]

Any 2x4 stick-built house is prone to settling.

It is easily warped by a heavy roof load(snow), ground settling from when the foundation was built(with yard surface water running into it), or a poorly-designed and unsupported interior structural layout.

A thin box held together by drywall screws.....

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by craigster59

Glue a toothpick or 2 into each hole and reinstall screws and hinges. Old carpenter's trick.

boom! you can glue it up in the screw holes & then shut the door. after the door is shut yu can shim the door up plumb with even reveals (the gaps at the jam) around the entire thing, then grab a chair, a beer, & wait for the elmers to dry....

[johnco]

golf tee works better than toothpicks

[70SATMan]

Been five hours. Shouldn't it be fixed by now???

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by 70SATMan

Been five hours. Shouldn't it be fixed by now???

Pfft... I'm at work not at home... I'm busy specing lighting for the roadrunner exhibit.

The larger screws are the band-aid until the weekend when I can really work on it.

I'm thinking the upper hinge tweaked on me because when I just tightened up the old screws before I added the larger screws the door closed fine... the only reason I went to the larger screws was because the original screws backed out again within 48 hours (then I got the bright idea to change all the screws while I was in there.)

Also, when I changed to the larger screws in the top and middle hinge the door closed OK.

When I added the larger screws to the bottom hinge, that is when things went wonky.

[john70t]

Your door frame is no longer square.
The square door doesn't fit.

Someone used a grinder in the wrong manner, to try to make the thing fit for the time being.
Cobbled.
It was a bad job.
(and yeah, I've been there.)

You need square.
The door frame depends on the integrity of the rest of the house.
Everything else is a temporary fix.

Fix:
Pull the drywall.
Add extra 2x4s next to the door frames, and screw into place.
Add more studs in the center of existing vertical loads.
Screw together. Make as One.

Modern pine is very soft and bends easy.
The length of cuts for these new studs are dependent on the original out-of-square of the structure.

Floors may need to be jacked up, temporarily, to return the square to 'true'.

Add bracing at an angle.

Expect severe drywall cracking.
That is a separate matter to be dealt with later.