How to Fix a Sticking Door Without Replacing It
Why a door starts sticking, and what to actually do about it
A door that swung fine for years and has suddenly started catching is telling you one of two things, and it's worth working out which one before you go near it with a plane, because a door you've sanded is a door you can't unsand. Either the door has dropped a little on its hinges, or the timber has swollen and is now touching the frame where it used to clear it. Those are different problems with different fixes, and the good news is that the cheaper one is also the more common one.
Start with the hinges, because that's often the whole job
Open the door halfway and lift the handle end gently, and if there's any play in it at all, or if you can see the top hinge leaf pulling away from the frame, then the door's sagging rather than swelling and every bit of sanding you do is fixing a symptom. Get a screwdriver on every hinge screw and tighten the lot. If a screw just spins without biting, the hole's worn out, and the answer is a longer screw that reaches past the worn bit into the solid framing behind the jamb, which is a 2 minute fix that people skip because it feels too simple to work.
Find out where it's really rubbing
Run a pencil down the edge of the door, close it as far as it'll go, then open it and look at where the graphite has transferred onto the frame, because the spot you think is catching and the spot that's actually catching are often 200mm apart. The other giveaway is the paint, since wherever the door's been rubbing there'll be a shiny worn patch or a lifted edge, and that mark tells you the truth whatever your eye says.
Our timber moves twice a year, and it's meant to
Through a wet winter a timber door takes up moisture and grows, and through a dry summer it gives that moisture back and shrinks again, so a door that only sticks in the cold months is behaving normally and doesn't need material taken off it. If you plane it to fit in August you'll have a draughty gap around it by January. Wait it out, or ease it back with sandpaper rather than a plane, so you're taking off a whisker instead of a millimetre.
When taking material off is the right call
If the door catches all year, and the hinges are tight, and the rub mark sits in one place, then you can take that spot back. A sanding block and 80 grit will handle a small area, and a bench plane is the tool once you're shaving a long edge, working with the grain and checking the fit after every few passes rather than at the end. Take less than you think you need, because you can always go again and you can never put it back.
Seal whatever you expose, or you'll be doing it again
This is the step that gets skipped, and it's the reason a door planed two winters ago is sticking again. Bare timber drinks moisture straight out of the air, so the edge you've just cut is the thirstiest part of the whole door and it'll swell faster than everything around it. Prime it and paint it, or seal it, before the door goes back on its hinges.
When it isn't the door at all
Sometimes the door's fine and the house has moved, which you can usually pick because the gap around the door is wider at one corner than at the corner diagonally opposite. That's a frame that's out of square, and planing a door to match a frame that's still moving means you'll be planing it again next year, so it's worth having somebody look at the frame before you carve up a perfectly good door.
Shop related products
- Romak butt hinge 70x50x1.6mm. For a hinge that's bent or torn out rather than just loosened.
- Macsim 8-10 x 45mm screws. The longer screw that reaches past a worn hinge hole into solid framing.
- Medium sanding block. Keeps the edge flat while you take the rub mark back.
- Uni-Pro aluminium oxide sandpaper roll, 80 grit. Coarse enough to move timber without tearing it.
- Supercraft 235mm bench plane. The tool once you're shaving a whole edge rather than one spot.
Did you know we also stock silicone spray, WD40, dry graphite lubricant and block planes in the shop. Not all of it is on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf, and if you're not sure which screw will hold in a worn hinge hole, bring the old one in and we'll match it up for you.
The hand tools and hardware collections have the rest of it.
Keep reading
- How to fix squeaky door hinges in under 5 minutes
- The best way to maintain sliding doors and tracks
- Why every home needs a decent set of screwdrivers
Check the cheap thing first, because the plane is the one step you can't take back, and I'd much rather you learned that from a blog post than from a door.
Cheers,
Candeece
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