The Dark Art of Door Repair to Fix Sticking and Sagging Doors
It can be bewildering why a door gets stuck and won't open or close, or why a door no longer locks. Or, why a door appears to be sagging. Consider that a door is just an inanimate slab of material, so what changed that it won't allow it to work anymore??
The answer really isn't all that mysterious when you understand that your house isn't stationary, but rather a structure that can and does move in response to the environment it is subjected to. The ground it is built upon moves in response to moisture, erosion, frost and any amount of other natural factors. There's also the pests that can cause damage to a structure, causing it to move. It's almost without exception that a structure will move and the only questions are by how much and how long will it take. The movement of the structure, for whatever reason, is generally the cause of why your doors may not work the way they should. If you have doors that are acting up, it's also likely that you may notice some cracks in your walls, be it hardly noticeable or quite noticeable - they are also signs that your house is moving. The root cause usually isn't a sagging door, but a moving house!
As stated, it's normal that a house will move slightly over the decades and unless the damage is caused by pests, there isn't anything that can be done about that. However, the doors and walls can be repaired and these are some of our most common jobs since every home is going to experience these issues at some point in time. This article is about doors, so let's talk about how this is done.
If your door is sticking and/or won't lock, the issue is likely that the door is no longer square within the jamb. The resolution to this problem might be different for your particular situation, but it's likely that to begin the repair we'll look at the hinges to see if some compensation can be gained by altering them in some way. For example, if the door appears to be ‘drooping’ within the door frame, we might be able to compensate by either moving the bottom hinge outward slightly or by moving the upper hinge inward. Moving a hinge can be done a number of ways: adjustment screws (available on some higher-end hinges), bending (typical for most residential hinges), shimming, etc. Moving the hinge will gain only so much and so it may be required to also shave a portion of the door, be it along the top, bottom, or leading edge. Shaving the door isn't as scary as it sounds because it's often than only a few millimeters needs to be removed to regain that clearance lost in movement of the home. Finally, if the door lock hasn't already re-aligned itself by this time we'll make the remaining necessary adjustments there which will require moving the strike plate up or down so the bolt will correctly insert when locking.
Door Misalignment Along Top
Door Misalignment Along Bottom
We'll talk more about issues caused by the movement of your home in other articles because it's very likely you have experienced those as well. If you need assistance with doors in your home, don't hesitate to reach out to us today!
