House doors will not shut?

Question

I bought our house in month of Jan all the doors in bathrooms and bedrooms shut and locked at this time,but come early spring as the temp warm up the house shifted and theses doors wouldn't shut anymore. sould I paid and have the doors wadged ? and when the weather change again will I have this promblem again?

Answer 1

The gap between the door and the door jamb on the side with the doorknob should be about the thickness of a nickel. If it is less, the normal expansion of the door throughout the year may cause the door to jam or not shut. If it is too wide, the door latch will not engage properly. The gap at the top of the door should be about the same, except that a larger gap should not be a problem.

Unless you're comfortable with adjusting shims to move the door jamb, I suggest you trim the door to fit. You can use a hand plane if it's only a small area that needs to be trimmed. A circular saw might be better if it's the whole length of the door. Use the factory edge of a piece of plywood for a guide when using a circular saw. Whatever way you trim the door, you should have about a 3°-4° bevel on the edge of the door to allow for the diagonal dimension through the core of the door when it swings open.

I would not recommend using a power plane unless you are experienced, as it is too easy for it to remove too much of the door.

Answer 2

Not knowing what kind of door you have, I will give you a couple of different answers. If the doors that are sticking are wooden or hollowcore interior doors, then the solution offered by my carpenter husband is mark on the door where the door is rubbing the door frame. Remove the door from it's hinges by simply popping the pins out. Sanding will help but it will take forever. The best bet if one of the two sides is sticking is to take a hand plane and plane the edges making sure that you allow for a slight bevel at all the edges. Doors that stick on the sides stick due to swelling due to heat or humidity.

If it is the top or the bottom is sticking then your door frame or your house is moving and maybe a circular saw would be a more aggressive tool. Simply remove an eighth of an inch. If you are not hand with tools, don't attempt this.

If the door is fiberglass or steel then it is highly unlikely that there is any swelling problems, your problem is that the house is moving. If your house is moving that much maybe it is time to hire a foundation guy to tell you why things are moving so much.

Answer 3

This could very well be an ongoing seasonal problem. I just sold a 50 yr old house with the same problem from practically the time I bought it.

I kept having to shave and adjust some interior doors twice a year for almost twenty years.

My ultimate solution was to shave the door edges far enough back so that no further amount of shifting would cause the doors to stick. I added some of that bristly weather striping to the top and bottom to prevent light from showing through the closed doors.

Thank goodness it was a problem for only a few doors. My solution worked great. By the way, I did declare the issue to the new owners when I sold the house.

Answer 4

it's humidity most likely. The wooden doors absorb moisture. What you've got to do is take the doors off the hinge and sand them down where they rub the door frame. Don't worry about over sanding that will prevent the doors from sticking again.

Answer 5

This is normal and you don't need to pay someone to fix this for you. When it heats up again, find out where the door is rubbing and hand plane it down. A lot of the time you will need to adjust the handle assembly.

Answer 6

Is this a brand new house? If so, you might have warranty rights and can have the builder fix it for free. An older house should have already had these problems fixed years ago.

Answer 7

get a dehumidifier or plane the doors

Answer 8

are you in a mobile home? e me thanks.