How to Fix a Door That Won't Close Properly (Door Rubs at the Top) Fast and Easy DIY Fix

okay so i have a door that's become more and more  difficult to close it started with the door just   rubbing a little against the door jamb to now  not closing unless i put a lot of pressure on it   do you have a door like this and are looking  for an easy solution on how to fix a door   that won't close or rubs well before you go  overboard by cutting or sanding down the door   i'm going to show you three things to look  for and the quick and easy solutions on how   to fix each of the three problems that could  cause your door to rub or not close at all   if you're looking for a video that shows you how  to adjust the door that rubs or doesn't close   you've come to the right place but first  real quick i want to welcome you to how to   with kevin where of course i'm kevin i made this  channel to share things that i've learned over the   years that hopefully will help you do them as  well and maybe even save you a little time and   money we cover a lot of different things here  home improvement projects tech stuff self-care   really anything so i hope you consider subscribing  so you can help me build this channel to where we   can do even more here all right so let's get  started so the big thing that tends to happen   is the weight of the door starts to come this way  and so you to verify that we want to take a look   at the actual uh door and see where the rubbing  is and the gaps between the door and the door jamb   okay so as we look here and we see at the top of  the door on the side of the door knob it's very   tight the gap is again that's where my rubbing  is happening okay and as you work your way down   you'll see the gap gets bigger as we go past  the doorknob and you get sort of a decent   gap here okay so the rubbing is not here which we  know it's at the top when we go to the other side   of the door we'll see that this is very similar  in the size of gap but as we go up again we're   past the middle hinge and going towards the  top hinge what you'll see is the gap gets wider   okay and so there's three things to look for um  to see what could be causing this problem again   a lot of times it's the weight of the door pulling  over time and it starts to want to uh again push   the door down okay so the first thing we want to  look at is the actual hinge itself we want to see   number one is the hinge still tight in there and  is the screws holding it into the door jamb okay   so the first thing we'll do is we'll just take a  basic screwdriver and we'll test it and on the top   tight on the middle loose okay and then the  bottom one loose as well okay so that could   be our problem um i will say my gut feeling  is by looking at the door jamb itself here   there's not a lot of give here even with the  door open so i don't think it's the screw   is the issue but we want to definitely rule that  out because that could potentially be the problem   so the first thing we'll do is  work on the bottom screw first   and we're going to basically try to tighten  that up so i'm going to pull the screw out it's hard to get the screw out because  again it's not grabbing to anything   so one of the tricks that you'll  see is using the toothpick method   to sort of give it something to sort of uh  get tighter on okay so something for this   something for the screw to grab on to okay  so we're gonna do is we're gonna go ahead   get this started okay so you see that i've  two i basically broke a toothpick in half and   put it in there and then what we're  going to do is we're going to tighten it   okay and you can start to feel it catching before  we get too tight we're going to break this off   so that again you're not  having a toothpick stick out   okay and that'll tighten it up okay so that's fix  number uh one you're putting a little toothpick   in there see if that'll tighten it up for you okay  let's take a quick look does that fix our problem   no and i didn't think that it would fix our  problem so let's go to number two and the   second thing we had talked about was this middle  screw in this hinge um and so what i'm going to   do is again take it out you can see it's just  harder to get out because not really grabbing   and so the first thought is we could do  the same thing with the toothpick but   we're not going to do that what we're going  to do is we're going to take a longer screw   okay so just to show you we this is a  much longer screw than this original screw   and the point of it is the small screw just really  attaches to the door jamb what we're going to do   is try to get into the wood behind the door jamb  okay and so to that point you want to make sure   there's nothing on the other side of the door that  could potentially be a problem which of course   looking here we can see that there's going to be  nothing there so what i'm going to do is screw   this in here okay and again the idea is i can pull  this tighter now full disclosure i don't think   this is going to fix my problem with the door  jamb but i'm going to still do it because again   this could be a big one particularly if you see  this is loose so let's go ahead and screw this in okay screw is in let's see if it fixes it no and again i didn't think so that was the problem  i really feel like the issue is with the hinges   but i wanted to show you because again if you have  a loose hinge attached to the door jamb that's a   common problem so again those two fixes will start  but again i sort of knew from the beginning that   the third fix is what's going to help me out here  the issue tends to happen with the knuckles on   the door hinge is that they get bent and warped  over time particularly if you take the door off   you paint the door you maybe switch different  hinges and not realize that that could cause   a lot of problems because they're not always  perfect to fit so again i think this is going   to be my problem so let's go ahead and start with  solution number three the good thing about option   number three is you don't need any extra equipment  you don't need that long screw you don't need the   toothpick not to probably have that but  but what you do need is a couple of tools   one is a hammer and two is some type of thing  that can help knock the pin out this is actually   an older pin that i have that goes into the hinge  um so what i'm going to do just for making it easy   i'm going to grab it with these channel  locks and just go ahead and knock the pin out okay okay got a little scuff here um it's okay  we'll clean that up and we'll do that later   but again just trying to show you  from an awkward angle with the cameras   um to see so just want to have it loose  up there okay take the old pin out so what you can see is this is out of alignment  now what you can do now you could put a wedge or   some shims under the door to help lean it into  the place you really want it okay um but i'm   gonna as you can see it's already lining up a lot  better um the pins is flying in there but what you   can see again is the the hinge or the knuckles  that are on the hinge that attach to the door   are more this way compared to the hinge knuckles  that are along the door jamb so what we need to do   is to just adjust those uh in the  right direction so that this will   straighten this out keep pull the door over  and that way then the door will close easily   okay now i had showed you some channel locks you  don't want to use those for that the channel locks   obviously have uh teeth on it and that would just  sort of mark up your hinge so you don't want to   do that so the last tool that you're going to  need is really just a crescent wrench and you   don't want to have this super tight or anything  you just want to make it to the point where   it's it's snug but again not tight so what we're  going to do is just do a little pulling or prying   on the hinge to straighten things out what i'm  going to do again you could very easily have   a a wedge under the bottom of the door on  the side of the door handle and pull that   up i'm just using a little bit of pressure here  to see it and what i'm going to do is i'm going to   take the part of the hinge remember those little  screws that's also what's inside the door so you   don't want to be real crazy and just yanking on it  but what you want to do okay is just give a little   tug okay just get a little bent and we're gonna  do that for the side of the knuckles that are   uh on attached to the door so in this case it's  the top it's the top one the middle one and the   bottom that's what's attached to the door okay  so we're gonna do again just sort of give a bend okay okay so it gave a little bit it's  still snug so we're gonna go ahead   and we're going to loosen this up a little bit  and we're going to do the top a little bit more   here okay so that one bend a little bit more i'm  keeping the hinge in here just so it keeps things   close for me so again we're starting to get  better it's already closing um but again i want to   looking at the line the alignment  here i can see we're getting better   i guess i push it up to get more of the  gap over here so that it close easily   there's just a little bit maybe this middle one  though so i want to go a little bit more okay okay let's see if we get a little bit closer   so the door shuts now again can we tweak it  a little bit more we could you could in some   cases again looking at the alignment of moving the  uh the hinge that's along the door jamb but the   thing is you're really trying to move the  door in and so the problem tends to be   um from the hinge that's attached to the  door so that's why we want to focus on that so again it's closing pretty good there um  what i could do is just do a little bit more okay this is where if you have a wedge  or shim you could definitely use that   i'm trying to show you guys how to do it  without in case you don't have that available   so you can see the knuckle as i straighten it  out okay that looks pretty good right there   and so i think i'm gonna do is  correct this just a little bit a little bit this way a little bit that way  and i think that's going to do it just go ahead stick this back in all right so that's it it's done so let  me go ahead and just push this all the way   good all right so there you go nice easy shut  the gaps decent here on both all around the door   um easy fix uh so again the three things you can  do um really all these would take 60 seconds at   the most i just wanted to take some time by  showing you guys to do it the right way but   the keys are number one look where your gap is if  you're seeing it's on here on the top most likely   the weight of the door over time is pulled down on  the hinges and these have gotten bent a little bit   but before you go to that route make sure that the  hinge is attached to the door and the door jamb   okay if they're not again you can do the method  i did with a little toothpicks where you can sort   of tighten up the screw or probably better yet in  most cases is taking the bigger screw and driving   it past the door jamb into the actual wood um you  know of the studs and whatnot so that's the second   thing but again i sort of had a feeling that  this was the bent one and i could sort of tell by   looking at the gaps between um between the hinges  the bottom is real close the top is now close   there probably could be a little adjustment  in the middle one but sometimes you sort of   get where you need to get and i'm just i'm happy  with it so a little cleaning of the scuff marks and otherwise looks good i'm happy with it so i'm  interested in hearing what you guys think on how   it turned out or knowing what questions you have  let me know in the comments i hope you found the   video helpful and if you did please push that like  button and if you enjoy doing a variety of diy   projects definitely consider subscribing now if  you're interested in diy investing and financial   types of videos check out my first channel healthy  wealthy and wise i have a lot of good stuff there   as well i'll link it for you in the description  thanks so much for watching and have a great day

Channel: How To with Kevin

Views: 134,620

Keywords: how to fix a door that wont close, how to fix a door that won't close, how to adjust a door that wont close properly, how to fix a sagging and rubbing door that wont close, door diy, door tips and tricks, sagging door, door that wont close, rubbing door fix, door hinge, home improvement, home diy project, do it yourself, door repair, diy tips and tricks, door wont close, door wont shut, door is rubbing, how to fix a door that wont shut, how to adjust door hinge, door sticks

Id: kY4x98SZBw8

Length: 13min 52sec (832 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 28 2022