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Hanging and Repairing DoorsBy Jim Sulski Summary: Replacing or repairing a door can be easy. Here are a few common problems and their do-it-yourself solutions to fix your broken door. When you consider the workouts that interior doors get each day, it's not hard to realize that they receive a lot of wear and tear.
As a result, doors do occasionally go out of alignment, eerily swinging into a different position or not closing at all. Doors can also break, requiring replacement. Repairing a door is not as hard as the average do-it-yourselfer might think. In fact, with a bit of planning and the right tools, most door problems can be corrected within a few hours. When a door needs repair, it's often because it becomes misaligned, not closing properly or at all. Doors fall out of kilter because a house shifts - as houses tend to do - or because of high humidity. House shifting causes the door to dislocate in the doorframe, or can cause a door to swing open instead of staying in place. Humidity causes the door to expand and warp, again preventing the door from fitting in the door frame. House movement can take place year round. High humidity occurs in the summertime. •If you suspect humidity is the culprit, give the door a chance to dry out before you make any changes. Wait for a cooler, drier weather and see if the door goes back in place. If you suspect that house shifting is the culprit, there are several steps you can take. For example, when you open a door, if it tends to swing instead of staying on place, you can tighten the hinges to keep it steady. A trick of the trade is to remove the hinge pin, lay it on a flat surface, and hit it slightly with a hammer to make it a bit crooked. Then put the pin back in the hinge and it will hold the door in position. If a hinge pin refuses to budge out of hinge, saturate it with a little penetrating oil and try removing it a few minutes later. You can also use a centerpunch or a large nail to try to free the pins. Before removing the pins, prop up the door with wedges or shims and always remove the bottom hinge pin first. •If a door does not fit properly into the frame, there are several adjustments you can make. If there is too much of a gap on the hinge side of the door, mortise the hinges into the frame a bit deeper. That will force the door away from the latch side so that it can close. If the door is too tight on the hinge side, it will bind, again not allowing it to close properly. What you can do there is take out the hinge screws, put a shim behind the screw plate and replace the screws. You can also plane an edge of the door to give it a better fit into the frame The top of a door can obviously be planed without removing the hinges. You'll need to remove the door out of the frame to plane the hinge side and bottom. •If the door fits into frame but the latch won't turn, it may be hitting the strike plate on the door jamb. Move the strike plate to better accommodate the latch. If the latch is hitting the crossbar on the strike plate, you can remove that crossbar with a scroll saw. The latch opening can also be enlarged with a file. DOOR MAINTENANCE To keep a working door functioning properly takes only a few quick steps. For example, occasionally oil the hinges to keep them moving freely. Keep hinge and door hardware screws tight. Also, make sure strike plates remain tight as the screws often loosen when a door gets a lot of use. The bolt can then catch on the loose strike plate and bang it back and forth, damaging the woodwork around it. Any mirrors or decorations hung on a door should be placed centrally so the weight is distributed evenly. Finally, avoid hanging laundry straps or other similar devices across the top of a door as they can press weight down on the door and knock them out of alignment.
© by Jim Sulski. All rights reserved. April 5, 2005. NOTE: This column is distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate, PO Box 366, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022. This column may not be resold, reprinted, resyndicated or redistributed without written permission from the publisher. © 2005 by Ilyce R. Glink. Distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate. |
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