DIY door rehanging

[Tin Pot]

My dad would be ashamed of me, were he alive, given I used to hang doors with him for a living but I’ve forgotten the methods and this one has me. Usually it’s just adjustments at the hinge screws shifting a few mil here and there to get it right.

I can’t understand which bit is wrong...is the door itself or the frame warped? Door and frame were fine until I took the door off to re gloss year before last, since then it’s been hanging skew.

Three corners of the door sit flush, one corner is about 10, 15mm out:

Top right

Bottom right

Bottom left

And the humdinger, top left

 

[sight-pin]

When you took it off to paint the door did you lean on a wall a bit skiff a leave there for some time? as that may of warped the door.

 

[MikeG]

Never mind the stop.....photos of the other side of the door and how it relates to the door lining would be much more important. They would show whether the door has twisted.

You have a combination of alternatives, including adjusting the hinges (packing the holes and re-screwing), and adjusting the stops (prise them off, locate the door properly in the opening, then re-fix the stops). It may be that this door never fitted properly.

 

[sight-pin]

While you at it you could run a spirit up each side on the door frame to see they are level and parallel.

 

[ColinJ]

Perhaps your house is on the move! The plaster seems to be cracked in the 'humdinger, top left' photo.

(The house that I am living in is incredibly out of square, with floors that are not level, and walls that are not vertical. That is what comes of building a town on a swamp and not using adequate foundations!)

 

[Globalti]

The door seems to have warped. Are you in the habit of leaving all your doors open? Also, is it painted on all four edges? Unpainted timber will absorb moisture and swell and an unlatched door can slowly warp.

In the days when carpenters knew their stuff you could buy rebate planes, which would deal with this kind of thing but since you say the door used to fit, and if the house isn't subsiding, it can only be the door that has warped.

 

[Tin Pot]

While you at it you could run a spirit up each side on the door frame to see they are level and parallel.

I don’t want to know(!). House is nearly 90yo so it won’t be level in any case.

I used to use my dads rebate plane back in the day.

 

[Profpointy]

There's a lovely story about someone, possibly on here, removing a door to instal a cat flap. All neat it was too. He re-hung the door only to realise the cat flap was perfectly installed at the top of the door

 

[Tin Pot]

So the actual problem at hand is the lock.

An adult can press the door and lock it easily, but kids can’t. If it’s deffo a warped door or frame, the answer is to plane down the bit of the door with the lock on it...or build out the lock hoop that’s on the frame.

 

[Tin Pot]

Never mind the stop.....photos of the other side of the door and how it relates to the door lining would be much more important. They would show whether the door has twisted.

You have a combination of alternatives, including adjusting the hinges (packing the holes and re-screwing), and adjusting the stops (prise them off, locate the door properly in the opening, then re-fix the stops). It may be that this door never fitted properly.

Let me know what you think

As I’m facing it...too left

Bottom left

Bottom right

Top right

 

[MikeG]

That looks like your door has warped.

You can attempt to un-warp it (by warping it twice as far in the other direction), but this is seldom successful. It involves stripping all the paint, dampening the door, packing it up and loading it with big weights, then leaving for some weeks.

Or, you can split the difference with the twist by moving the hinges in a bit at the top, and out a bit at the bottom, taking the door stops off, and re-positioning them tight to the new door location. This is the pragmatic approach

 

[Cuchilo]

As said , just knock the bottom hinge out by about 5mm .