Doors: The “Mystery” Element of Home Construction

Star-Eagle Independent Newspaper  DEC 2009

Doors seem to be one of the “mystery” elements of home construction. Pretty simple when you break them down. You have a door, a frame, and some trim. And the hardware. Not much else. However…

A door that is not installed right is a constant source of frustration. So, either your doors are installed correctly, or they are not.

One of the most common calls I get is to fix a door that is not fitting right. Usually this shows up in a deadbolt or door knob that is not latching properly. The door may have worked fine for years, but now it is not.

The easy fix and dark side temptation is to grind away at the strike plate till the latch does fit. Or to chip out the jamb and raise the plates up a bit. Temporary at best. Let’s take a few more minutes of craftsmanship and fix the cause of the alignment problems.

Stand on the side of the door that you can see the hinges. There is only one side where they are visible. Look at the “reveal” at the top of the door and notice the gap at the top of the door to the bottom of the top door jamb. It should be even and the same distance all across the top. If there is a noticeable angle shape to the reveal, we just found the problem. And if there is, there is also another spot to confirm this. The side reveal.

Not the hinge side, but the strike side reveal, or gap, should be even also. If it is tight at the top and open at the bottom. Same problem, same solution.

Open the door and look at the top hinge that is attached to the jamb. There will be either three or hopefully 4 screws attaching the hinge to the jamb. Remove the two screws most inward on the jamb. If the door was not hung right, these screws will be about an inch long. Replace these with some 2 ½” hardened deck screws and run them in tight. This will suck the hinge tight to the jamb and will pull the jamb over a bit to the wall framing. Look at the reveals again and you should notice that they have become more even. And 90% of the time, your latches will now work again like they were meant to.

This all above assumes that the door was hung plumb and square in the beginning. If your house has shifted, settled, or the door was not fit properly originally, more drastic surgery is required to solve the problems.

For really bad fits, I pull off the interior trim, pull off the exterior trim, and cut loose the door from the shims and fasteners holding it into the opening and start over.

The hinge side needs to be plumb in both directions. It may have to lift a bit off the floor to allow the head jamb to fit correctly. Use a shim under the jamb leg to do this. Get this side right and screw it in. Not nails, screws. Move over to the strike jamb and lift or lower to get the top reveal right and shim. Then, with the door in a closed position, align the jamb for the best fit to the door. Shim and screw it in. Replace the trim.

Your door should now fit right for many more years. Adjust your sweep or threshold to seal up the weather-stripping too.