How To Repair Sticking Doors

The personality of an old door changes with the seasons. Pulled tight in winter, it'south a stalwart guardian against chills and drafts. But by Baronial, rut has driven wet deep into the grain, and the once-yielding door has become swollen and stuck.

This Old House full general contractor Tom Silva confronts a stubborn summertime door with a jack plane and a little restraint. "You desire to take off the minimum amount of wood necessary because the door is going to shrink once more in the winter," says Tom. "If you remove besides much, it will sit down loose in the opening." Follow along equally Tom fixes a swelled door in his own habitation with just a few simple tools.

Step 1

Close Shave

Photo by Craig Raine

Tom'southward dominion of thumb for keeping a door from sticking in the jamb is that the reveal—the space between the door and jamb—should exist i/eight to 3/16 inch wide, or almost the thickness of a nickel.

Examining one sticky chamber door in his house, Tom spends a petty time getting a sense of its predicament. He opens and closes it to see where it catches, and he eyeballs the reveal. An uneven reveal may mean the hinges are loose or out of alignment. And, in fact, the screws property the top hinge to the jamb have stripped their holes, causing the door to sag. But later fixing them, Tom finds that the door withal sticks. Satisfied that humidity is the culprit, he pulls the hinge pins, lifts the door from the jamb, and gets ready to plane.

Step ii

Check for a Loose Hinge

Photo by Craig Raine

To repair a stripped screw hole under the swivel foliage, Tom plugs the hole and gives the screw something new to bite into. He whittles a ¼-inch-wide, slightly tapered splinter out of a scrap of forest, then squeezes wood glue onto information technology and into the screw hole. He taps in the plug with his hammer, and glue oozes out of the hole. "Yous don't want to have a dry spot," Tom says, as he wipes away the excess, "or you won't get expert adhesion." He snaps the protruding sliver flush with the hinge leaf. With the glue even so wet, he refastens the hardware, cinching the spiral tight.

Step 3

Deepen the Hinge Mortises

Photo past Craig Raine

After repairing the hinge, Tom sees that the door is nevertheless too large to shut smoothly; he has no choice merely to airplane it to fit. To avoid disassembling the doorknob, he'll have the excess off the hinge side.

First he removes the hinges so he can chisel their mortises ⅛ inch deeper—the same amount he will plane from the door's edge. Holding a ¾-inch chisel vertically in the mortise, he hammers a dozen or so parallel ⅛-inch-deep cuts across the width of the mortise and 1 long cut against its within edge. And so he leans his weight on the chisel—bevel side upward—and rocks it gently back and forth, plowing out the fries of wood. He repeats the process on the other mortise.

Step iv

Aeroplane the Door

Photograph past Craig Raine

Tom knows that cutting through the layers of pigment on this one-time door means he'll likely have to acuminate the plane's bract, called an fe, when the chore is done. Luckily the terminate is lead complimentary, then slicing through it will not transport hazardous particles flight. "If it were atomic number 82 paint, I'd beginning want to use a chemical stripper," he says.

Curls of pine tumble to the floor every bit he runs the aeroplane at a slight angle in long, polish strokes along the length of the door. The plane iron leaves the edges precipitous, so Tom rounds them slightly with some sandpaper to help them improve take paint.

Step five

Pigment the Raw Forest

Photo by Craig Raine

Before he goes any further, Tom slides each swivel leaf into its mortise to make sure the metallic is flush with the door'southward edge. Then he pops the hinges back out and reaches for his paintbrush. "Information technology's of import to get the wood primed and painted as soon as possible," Tom says, to slow the pitter-patter of moisture. Otherwise, the door volition swell once again nigh immediately, and "you'll be right back where you started." He brushes on a primer coat, and then a cease glaze, carefully blending the new paint into the old without dripping down the face of the door.

Step vi

Rehang the door

Photograph by Craig Raine

One time the paint has stale, Tom re­attaches the swivel leaves. Then he hoists the door back into its opening, lining upwards the knuckles and dropping in the pins—first height, then bottom. Using the handle of his screwdriver, Tom taps each pin home, so gives the door a test swing. It obligingly snaps shut, and the latch clicks cleanly into its strike plate. When Tom turns the doorknob and gives a gentle tug, it opens without resistance.

Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/doors/21016673/how-to-fix-a-door-that-sticks

Posted by: taylorwilent.blogspot.com

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