Hi, I am Bob Schmidt with Home Remodel Workshop. You have that door in your house that seems to be heating up at the top, it is robbing the paint off, does not want to open and close, and may be the latch does not work properly. I will show of the solutions for that. Let’s get to work.
Here we have a door that does not seem to be closing properly. The lead edge of the door hits the side of the jam, it’s rubbing the paint off, it’s beating up the back side of the door. A lot of times when people see this, first thing they want to do is run and get their power saw and start cutting on the door or sanding on the door, that is generally not a good idea. There are usually some simple adjustments that will help take care of this.
Whenever I come across a door like this, usually I have quick little check to assess the problem. If see that the door is hitting at the lead edge at the top, the first thing that I like to do is to push over on the top hinge and if it feels like the door moves and then the door opens and closes easily and the lash lines up, I am pretty sure that my issue is here at this hinge.
When I open up the door and I look at up the top hinge, the first thing I will do is I will lift on the door, and if I see any movement on the hinge at all, I know that I have a screw issue where the screws that come loose. Sometimes it just a matter of taking a screw driver and tightening those down, and that will take care of your problem. Also check the screws on the door to make sure they are secure, sometimes just a little quarter turn make all the difference in the world. If I try to tighten this screws down and after getting the screw all the way in, the screw continues to spin, as if it is not gripping anything, then it is time to add a little bit of wood in that hole to tighten up that screw.
Some people get real picky about what you feel this holes in with to tighten this screws. I am not one of them, I will pretty much take whatever is available. I have this old piece of baseboard that I have saved to make a profile on a job, it is made out of yellow pine. I simply take the baseboard and I hold it on the ground, and take the tip of my hammer and I will break of a few pieces until I see something that I like. You know sometimes I will go ahead and I will take a knife and will wield it down a little bit. They don’t have to be real big, it doesn’t take much to fill in a screw hole.
Before I take any hinges loose, even though this is a three hinge door and it is usually pretty stable when you take the top hinge loose, I still don’t want that extra pressure binding on that second hinge. So before I take the hinge loose, I usually support the lead side of the door with some shins or block of wood, or magazines so that it doesn’t bind that second hinge upon getting the extra weight on it.
In this case, I had two of the screws that were spinning free. So when I want to tighten them down they just continue to spin. So you take the little block of wood, little pieces of wood that you made in order to be cut by any length. And you stick them into the hole, tapping them in until they are pretty snug and go ahead, gently push up and down breaking of usually there is enough left on there for the second one. Tap it in there, why don’t you try rolling down until it looks real nice and tight, break him of and you are ready to put that hinge back on.
Now. Why had not I put that screw back in that was tightened down, that was tight find to begin with. And now I am go ahead and replace this two screws into the new pieces of wood that we installed in the hole. I generally like to have a hand screw driver to this, because if you use a cordless drill or a mechanical drill bit, you can not always feel how much you can torque it down at the end. You want to get it tight, but like any other screw you can over tighten it, you can strip the threads if you start bouncing the screw tip on it. This is generally a safer way to do it.
After you get the hinge screws in, you can feel that this hinge is much tighter than what it is used to be, you can see that the margin across the top of the door and down the left side of the door is correct. And if you open close the door, the latch now operates fine and generally that will take care of you problem.
Common cause of door problems other than just age and sag, is people have the tendency to like to hang things over the top of their doors, shoe racks and mirrors, and things like that. Generally that is not a good idea, it put a lot of extra stress on a door. But other than that usually a simple solution is the best. Don’t be in a big hurry to take a power saw or belt sander, anything to the store you can just complicate your problems.
Other than that, hope you found this tip useful and good luck on you project. We have plenty more videos back at our Home Remodel Workshop channel. And if you like them remember to subscribe, thanks.
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