Is sagging inevitable in wooden doors? Our doors (1932) are rhombi. Wouldn’t be that noticeable except somebody shortened a few to allow for carpeting but forgot to account for sag. The bottom of the door is obviously not parallel to the floor and has a sizeable gap at the hinge edge.
Is there any way to build a solid door so it will not sag?
In Chesapeake, Michener wrote about a man teaching himself to build a boat. One of the problems was crosswise support; he couldn’t get the pieces to stay perpendicular to the keel and remain intact. An experienced builder told him to use the “knees” of trees because they had a right-angle joint built in.
You probably can’t buy knees any more, but what about a right-angled piece of metal, hidden inside the door? Janet
Edited 10/6/2009 11:24 am by jyang949
Replies
You probably can't buy knees any more, but what about a right-angled piece of metal, hidden inside the door?
Or a piece of high quality plywood
"The bottom of the door is obviously not parallel to the floor and has a sizeable gap at the hinge edge."
The gap suggests the original builder may have used 4-pound screws to hold a 40 pound door. Or, the jam may have turned to jelly. ;-)
If the original hinges are adequate for the door, you might need to replace the screws with longer ones to hold the door tight to the hinges, and the hinges tight to the frame. Whether there is sufficient material behind the frame for the longer screws is an open question, however.
hello janet,
to pick up on what ralph said, the first place i look when asked to mend a sagging door is to see if the screws are tight in the hinged area. many's the time i have seen that someone assumed a door to be too long and cut it shorter only to have me come along, tighten the hinge screws and be asked if i can repair a now too short door.
eef
A couple of investigative suggestions.
Check the joints where the rails meet the stiles. Are they tight or loose? If tight, then the door is NOT sagging.
Check the hinge jamb for plumb. If it's leaning just a bit into the pull side of the frame, then the carpet guys might have trimmed the door out of square at the bottom to clear the carpet in the OPEN position. That will be different from the CLOSED position. (Another way to look at is--measure the gap underneath the lock stile of the door with it closed, and with it open 90°)
Put a straightedge on the floor and check it out first... you might be surprised....
1932 ?? building shifting ??? anyone plane the tops or sides?
Re: checking the door strike see were it is centered to the latch. Make sure if there are wear marks have they moved? Has some one moved the door striker?
CSI OLD Door
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