My door is getting more and more out of square. What do I do?

Submitted by PvtDeth t3_yvj8z7 in DIY

When I moved in here about nine months ago, the door was fine. Over time, it got harder to lock the deadbolt, now it's almost impossible. I have to pull up on the handle with a lot of force to get it to line up. Now it has trouble closing.

I just assumed the hinges were bent, so I bent them back, then eventually replaced them altogether. When that didn't help, I realized that the top is hugely slanted, but the side almost lines up with the door jamb.

This is a 1950s-ish single-wall construction house and the door is on an outside wall. Is the whole house leaning?

Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/9ycPtm2

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adevrye t1_iwemil6 wrote

Drive a 3 or 4" screw in the center hole of the top hinge - through the jamb and into the stud behind it

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69Dankdaddy69 t1_iwenrfj wrote

Looks like the door itself has come loose at the joins. You can replace the door or try to rectify it.

If it were me, id remove the door, tip some wood glue into the gaps that have formed in the joins, and tap it back to square with a rubber mallet.

Depending how much glue you can get in, it might be worth trying to poke some long screws in to mechanically fasten the joins too.

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Spinaccio t1_iwep9iz wrote

Honestly, I would not diy this one. Get a temporary solid core door and find a well-recommended shop to swap them out. That frame and panel door was poorly constructed and needs to be rebuilt by an experienced pro. There’s no good reason for ft to fail like that.

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sdfree0172 t1_iwepaa8 wrote

Inside houses, there’s lower moisture in the winter often which causes wood to contract and higher moisture in the summer causing wood to swell. If it worked 9 months ago at the end of the dry season (from a house perspective), try waiting a few months to see if it improves. If it does, it’s moisture related and that will be important to know. If you fix it now, it may not work when the wood contracts again.

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Blackcap477 t1_iwf42de wrote

Door sure looks like someone has smacked it a bunch times by the top hinge! Here are couple of things to look for that might provide more info on what is going on: 1.) bottom hinge is set deeper into the jamb than top hinge and could be shimmed out to hang the door straighter . (Can’t tell as the side gap isn’t shown in pics that I could see. ) 2.) as mentioned above, top hinge needs to be set deeper into jamb with a longer screw. (Gaps look uniform here so unlikely but worth a look) 3.) Measure corner to corner on each side to see if someone has cut door with a taper to suit a settled home . Measure jamb as well and measure diagonally to see if it is square. It could help explain why the gaps aren’t uniform and show that it’s been a problem for sometime.
4.) check any windows in same wall by measuring corner to corner for squareness and /or difficulty in opening and closing. Any drywall/plaster cracks? Stucco cracking on outside of home or gaps in siding? Cracks in foundation?This would be indicative of a settling home.
5.) Is there a basement or crawlspace? Look for any water intrusion or bugs that could be affecting the structure causing it to deflect in that area. Same goes for the wall framing as it’s an exterior wall.
6.) as mentioned above by someone else, humidity can affect wood with expansion and contraction, but it is mainly uniform and unlikely to affect one area of the door more than another. It could make a tight jamb/poorly hung door snug to open and close in the winter as the jamb contracts.
I hope you find it’s an easy fix as they often are.

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dxrey65 t1_iwf6fws wrote

Check the foundation?

I have a front door like that as well, and I know it's because my foundation on that corner wasn't deep enough or sound enough for the soil type, and is sinking. I braced the framing up a couple of years ago to square it, and it took about a year to go back to the same problem. Which means some excavation and concrete work. Maybe this summer I'll get to it.

From previous experience I expect it to take a few weekends with a shovel, and about $500 in materials, but it should work out fine. It's a fairly common problem in older houses in my area.

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Material_Community18 t1_iwfgu5v wrote

Replying to Blackcap477 (#532,755)

Good advice here. The cracking paint in the upper right jamb/casing tells me the house is moving. For a 1950s house this probably means something changed recently, probably soil moisture related. Check sprinklers, downspouts, slope next to the foundation. Rot? Termites?

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PvtDeth OP t1_iwfkxh1 wrote

Replying to Blackcap477 (#532,755)

Thanks for your suggestions. The house is single-wall construction, so there is no framing, The house is up on posts, so it's easy to inspect underneath and it doesn't look like there are any problems there. The gap on the hinge side looks almost perfectly even from top to bottom while the gap at the top is like an eighth of an inch on the hinge side and over an inch on the other.

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