It’s a chafe when a door doesn’t close right. I mean, how hard can it be for a door to shut properly?
Actually, once you start futzing around with a door, you’ll see that there’s really a heck of a lot going on that you never knew was going on. Still, it’s frustrating when you have to wedge it shut or lift it to turn the deadbolt or smash into it carrying groceries.
All that and more are PITA (you can figure out what that means; it’s not bread). The good news is that at least one fix when a door doesn’t close right can be pretty easy. A little know-how and a few screws can gain the day. Want it? See below.
To learn more about installing a new door, watch this video.
By ‘pretty easy’ I also mean ‘pretty easy to easy to screw up’. Little moves make a big difference when working on a door and they can often be made with just a few well-placed screws. I like 3-inch Spax Multi-Material Screws and a drill driver or impact driver for this job.
So let’s unpack this piece by piece and see if easy really is easy. A project like this might take me thirty minutes and cost a few screws I already have. Plan on an hour for you to get your sea legs and to figure out what’s really going on with your door swing.
The typical problem I find when a door doesn’t close correctly—particularly heavier entry doors—is that they’ve ever so slightly sagged. In other words, it’s pulling away from the top hings and crunching the bottom hinge. Chances are if you see where it’s rubbing, the paint will be worn away and will show you that the top edge of the door is hitting the jamb. Sometimes. Not always.
Another problem is that the jamb has bowed somehow over time, so the problem isn’t with the door at all, it’s with the jamb. One way to spot this is to line up the edge of the door with the jamb and run your eye from bottom to top, trying to line them up. Sometimes you can see that the door (which should be straight) and the jamb (which also should be straight) don’t line up.
The third layer—and most commonly for me—is that it’s a little bit of both.
The Fix. The fix is deceptively easy. A well-placed screw in the hinge and/or the jamb can usually bring everything back into alignment. It’s hard to overemphasize that little moves make a big difference when your door doesn’t close as it should. So go slow.
To draw the door up usually requires removing one of the small hinge screws that came with your door and replacing it with a deck-type screw. This longer screw goes right through the door jamb and bites into the framing inside the wall, which is how all doors should be hung. So remove one old screw, steadily drive the longer one in there. As the screw head ‘seats’ it’ll likely start drawing the door up. Test the door. If everything works, you’re a rock star. But you’ll be mad at yourself if you strip the screw because its gobbed with paint that you weren’t careful to pick out of there so your driver tip could bite.
The Jamb Rubs Too. To draw a jamb back into straight, figure out where it’s curved. At the apex of the curve pull back the weather stripping (don’t take it off, just roll it out of the way and hold it there), pre-drill and countersink a pilot hole and snug a screw in there. As with above, it only takes (usually) a turn or two to suck the wood back to straight. And when you release the weather stripping it should cover the screw head. Badda-boom, you’re a hero.
False positives. While a door is ideally hung nice and plumb, what you’re really looking for here is parallel. You’re trying to get the head jamb parallel with the top of the door and/or either side jamb parallel with the door edges. In most cases—plumb, level or not—parallel will make the door work as well as it ever will without starting over.
Enjoy your prowess as the door clicks to a sweet and savory close. It’s one of my favorite things about home improvement. Thanks for reading my trade trick. Now here are some pictures.
