Old house, door strikes frame

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joemama

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Greetings all,

I bought a house recently so I'm now a master carpenter, plumber, painter, etc. In reality I've never done much home repair or remodeling and this issue has me scratching my head.

doorframeissue.jpg


The door which goes with this door frame comes from the left of the picture as it closes. As you can see, the striker plate is nearly flush with the frame. As a result, the latch catches the frame and trim every time the door closes.

I'd like to come up with a solution that doesn't involve changing the door frame. So far my best idea is a custom striker plate that will cover the length of the trim, but I think that will look pretty amateurish.

Any thoughts?
 
Usually this happens from the house settling, put a level all around..

Look for screws in the door frame, if your lucky they used em and you might be able to tighten up all around, otherwise try a sledge hammer to move the frame away from the door a little bit...
 
I must be missing something. What I see in that picture is a huge section of wood busted out that's not would the time to try and fix. It needs replacent.
Lots of times on older house there's so many layers of paint the door rubs, but that one looks like someone kicked in the door when it was locked.
 
Actualy it looks like some one wanted a bigger door so they removed the jam and used the brick molding for the jam. I really liked that it has a 1/4" masonite for sucuraty I guess. But that wasn't the question.
 
There were lots of questionable construction choices in this structure. I think the extended striker plate idea sounds like a good one, thanks.

I was tempted to rip the whole frame out and start with a security door, but this is a house I plan to rent and new security doors/frames just aren't in my budget.

Thanks all
 
My guess is you have never done home repairs before. You have never rented out a house before.
You would loose more then the one door would cost per month in rent if you have someone come look at the place with a busted up door frame like that.
36 in. x 80 in. Steel White Prehung Right-Hand Inswing 6-Lite Craftsman Entry Door with Brickmould-H75747 at The Home Depot

Think about it what would you and your wife think if you saw something all busted up like that.
It would be faster to remove the whole door and replace it with a prehung unit.
 
My guess is you have never done home repairs before. You have never rented out a house before.
You would loose more then the one door would cost per month in rent if you have someone come look at the place with a busted up door frame like that.
36 in. x 80 in. Steel White Prehung Right-Hand Inswing 6-Lite Craftsman Entry Door with Brickmould-H75747 at The Home Depot

Think about it what would you and your wife think if you saw something all busted up like that.
It would be faster to remove the whole door and replace it with a prehung unit.

I'm with you on this one, JoeCaption ---

I've bought and hung doors in two hours before, and I'm NOT some kind of semi-pro carpenter or handyman.

So long as the frame is reasonably square, a new door shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to install, and only costs about $180 for a cheaper steel exterior prehung door and frame.

My bet is you're going to spend way way more time trying to fumble around and fix that problem and make it look secure to a renter.

One thing I know about renting is that the quality of the renter you get is directly proportional to the rent you charge (not perfect, but usually true) -- low quality folks can't afford a high rent, and you won't get people willing to pay a higher rent if you hide a disaster behind some metal trim...
They have enough education/experience/common sense in life to see through things, or they wouldn't have the income they do.
(hedge fund managers and lawyers excepted here)

(side note - NEVER EVER rent to a lawyer... had a friend do that. He got threatened with six lawsuits from his renter in 18 months over crap the neighbors did that the landlord was supposed to have some control over??
Mainly, the lowlife was just hoping for free money settled out of court - no way the cases would have won in court, but it'd still have cost the my landlord friend plenty o $$$ to set foot in the courtroom and the lowlife ambulance chaser knew that, which is why the scum was after free money trying to get settlement out of court...)
 
Would not have cost him anything to go to court.
Just sit there, have the other guy state his case and say nothing in rebutal.
Once the judge heard his case it would be thrown out.
Give in and the other guy wins and will do it again.
 
Would not have cost him anything to go to court.
Just sit there, have the other guy state his case and say nothing in rebutal.
Once the judge heard his case it would be thrown out.
Give in and the other guy wins and will do it again.

While that's true from a legal standpoint, my friend and I both
work for a living (he owns a business, I'm a network engineer)

Neither one of us would be making any money while we sat in court all day waiting on our minor case to be heard, paying the fees to file and answer to the case, etc.
(usually you don't get the other side to pay fees unless they really badly lose, and a dismissal doesn't count - it's more high-dollar cases and Hollywood where the loser pays _everything_ including working money lost by the other side)

Back when I was a "local manager" for a small landlord and also small business IT business owner, I had to deal with a couple of my landlord's tenants for him.

I never lost a court case, but I bet that in the couple of times I've had to deal with them , I spent well over $2400 in billable time I should have been able to be doing billable work for my customers.

The judge never agreed that I should be recompensed for my time spent documenting my side (instead of doing billable work), actually being in court, etc.

He referred to that as "my right as a citizen to defend myself" and more or less implied that I should be glad I had the right, even if it cost me time and money during times I should have been onsite for customers.

My landlord gave me breaks on rent, but said that was part of the deal when we got into that. I moved shortly after _that_ ...

At best, I lost vacation days I could have used for something way more profitable.


So, my philosophy is that I avoid situations that might give someone an ability to sue -- because either way, I lose something no matter what, even if it's just my free time not to be sitting in a courtroom.

Hence, I'd replace the entire door.... instead of taking a chance on a breakin and having the tenant sue me for whatever, because I had a crappy doorframe in there that made it easy for the thief....

But yes-- I do agree with your thought of "not just giving in" = you certainly don't want to just settle and give someone money every time....
 
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I think there are a lot of good points made here. As this is a rental I'm trying to split the difference between making a nice place to live and spending too much time and effort on an income generating property.

With the extended strikeplate and some new trim, the installation will be unorthodox, but functional. I ordered a new deadbolt/handle combination to install at the same time. Once the trim is repaired, this fix should work and cost approx $50 including the upgrade of a deadbolt.

You're absolutely right though, I've never been a landlord before. The advice is much appreciated. I have a few friends who are landlords who have furnished me with generic rental agreements. I also have local legal advice retained just in case.

Thanks all for your thoughts.
 
If you are in one of those locations that need an inspection before renting, you best reconcider. Get your inspection first and see what fails.
 
I'm in South Los Angeles County. I'm not aware of any inspection requirement. I'm not planning on getting Section 8 compliance or anything like that. I'm also planning on installing the strikeplates with 4" screws to make sure I hit the stud behind the frame. I think I can still make this a solid door.
 
A dwelling also may be considered uninhabitable (unlivable) if it substantially lacks any of the following:139

operable dead bolt locks on the main entry doors of rental units, and operable locking or good working order security devices on windows.141

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/catenant.pdf

Evidently this unit was formerly "uninhabitable" despite the fact that it was occupied. The main entry door in question never had a deadbolt installed.
 
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