Interior door problem

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bsmutz

New Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2009
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Hi, all,
I have an interior door issue that I'm seeking help with. I took out an interior door between kitchen and laundry room because the wife wanted a door with windows in it instead of a solid one. The new door is a little heavier than the hollow core door it replaced. Because the old hinge screw holes were getting worn out, I put plywood shims behind the hinge mount locations and am using longer screws.

The problem is that when I open the door to a 90 degree angle from the jamb and sight along the jamb, the gap at the top between door and jamb is greater than the gap at the bottom. When I try to close the door, there is a bigger gap at the top than at the bottom and the top of the door hits the jamb on the latch side. I can lift up on the free edge of the door and shove it towards the hinge jamb, but still can't quite close the door but can take up all of the difference between the door edge and the jamb. I added a third hinge in the middle of the door to help with the extra weight to no avail.

When I use a straight edge/level, the jamb appears level and straight. The door also appears to be level and straight on the face and on the edge (except for about a 1/4" off of level from top to bottom). I can't figure out where this extra gap is coming from. Initially, I thought it was because the door was hitting the door stop in the middle of the jamb, so I moved the top hinge back a little to allow more clearance there. That made the door go past the stop, but the gap is still there as if it were still hitting the stop and pushing the door out at the top. I can't figure out what I'm missing. Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
Welcome BSmutz:
It looks like you have hung an exterior door in an interior jamb which is too light and not anchored well enough to support the new door.
You may want to consider taking the casing off one side of the door and block and anchor the jamb to the stud more securely. Or you may want to get an exterior door frame and mount it.
Glenn
 

Latest posts

Back
Top