How to Fix a Sticking Door

what's up guys ivan from i'll get my tools here we got a real quick video today i'm gonna address doors sticking to the door jambs i'm sure we all got this problem somewhere in our house i'm gonna go over three or four quick and easy steps how to alleviate that problem so do me a favor like this video subscribe to my channel i do a number of how to diy and home renovation projects and now for my dramatic intro [Music] so as you can see this door is sticking to the jam up there it's making that noise when you hit it generally there's three reasons why that happens first problem is humidity depending on the environment within the house or the season outside the part of country that you live in there's moisture in the air if enough moisture gets into that door it's made out of wood it swells up we got our sticking the second is just general use the opening closing a thousand times week after week month after month the weight of the door itself is going to cause that door to kind of shift more towards that side just gravity weight and use and third is just your house settling depending on when your house was built over time generally it's made out of wood it's going to sag the framing sags ever so slightly but over time things do move as you can see here it's pretty tight over here and i've got a pretty big gap over there um i put a level to this earlier and there's definitely a slope i didn't install this door but that's what i'm dealing with so those are the three general things that caused this to happen so now i'm gonna show you three or four quick easy ways to get this fixed so the first and most obvious step is to tighten up the screws within the hinges this is a typical screw for a hinge it's only three quarters of an inch so it's only getting into the door jamb itself but again over time and usage these screws can get pulled out the hinges can get loose so do that first and i do recommend just using a phillips screwdriver if you use a power drill you're gonna probably strip these again if you have an older house you're gonna strip the crap out of that wood hand tighten as good as you can with one of these first and make sure you do both sides and while you ride it tighten up your middle hinge as well all right so if you tighten that up and it didn't work here's your second option so generally i use either a two inch to two and a quarter inch screw with a coarse thread it's gonna leave a lot more bite than this three quarter inch screw now let me explain why this is the door jamb right here right that's always three quarters of an inch as a framer when we frame these openings four doors we usually leave about half an inch space on both sides that allows us to level the door move it to where it needs to be and put shims in after that you're going to have your jack stud your jack stud's going to be an inch and a half thick sistering to that is going to be an actual framing stud that's also going to be an inch and a half thick all right but i have been in houses where they just have that one stud there so my point being that three quarters of an inch plus about half an inch of space plus an inch and a half uh face of the stud this will give you plenty to bite and grab that stud without going through that first stud now why i say that is because i have been in older houses where they just have one stud for the framing and they have electrical wires running down that stud or maybe some kind of water piping or heat piping and if you do a two and a half inch or maybe three inch screw you run that risk of hitting that pipe in that wiring you're opening up a can of worms all right so i always remove the middle screw you don't need to remove all three one screw is going to put in a lot of work all right so again use your two inch or two and a quarter inch screw put it in there and don't go crazy once you feel that stud give it a little bit of a kick but you don't want to drive it home you can put the whole door out of level all right that's pretty good i saw the hinge move a little bit and that's all that you want you don't want to get crazy with this all right so if that didn't work which honestly it should most of the time i got one uh two more things for you to try give me a minute all right the third thing we're gonna do is actually take the hinge on the door side and crank it in a little bit be easy with this one all right don't get crazy but let me show you how this works so the first thing i do is take the pin out of the door hinge i recommend to use like a 12d spike this is an actual framing now it's made out of steel it can take a lot of hits and it won't bend if you try to use like a little trim nail or a thumb tack or whatever else your homeowners find it ain't gonna work so try to get yourself a nice steel 12d nail put it up in here and there she is so since my door is not all messed up i'm not gonna actually bend my hinge but i'm gonna show you guys how to do it so just get an adjustable wrench like this put it on the two hinges that are on the door side okay as you can see there's one two three that's attached to the jamb these ones two are part to the door now you want to put your adjustable wrench right on that the main reason why i like to use these adjustable spanners is because they're smooth most wrenches have teeth on them channel locks pipe wrench all that kind of stuff you're going to put a lot of marks and martha beauty you don't want that that's why i use these so just quickly put it on the top one all right tighten it up and just give it a couple of tugs in towards the door remember we're trying to pull this door towards the jamb all right so by us pulling in towards the door we're gonna close that gap so just a couple of tugs on it again that's what she said sorry just a couple of quick tugs on it don't get crazy and then go down to the lower one do the same thing a couple of quick tugs on it and then put the door back in drop the pin and that should help you now if those two didn't work i've got one more for you but this one's like end of the world i'm tired of the freaking door sticking every time i want to open it it won't open the screw didn't work the adjustment didn't work nothing worked i got one last one for you it's not ideal but if you're desperate it's gonna work all right step four is the nuclear option you're gonna have to get either an orbital sander or regular sandpaper i recommend about 120 grit that's good enough to trim the door but not so aggressive where you're putting a major cut into the door and not too light where you're not doing anything so about 120 grit should get the job done so look at where your door is hitting the jam and follow it down eventually there's going to be a little gap which means it's starting to open and it should gradually get larger so wherever that point is where the gap begins take your pencil and draw a mark on the jam itself and then on the door all right that's going to give you the reference point of where to stop sanding all right so you have that pencil mark now you kind of want to make a gauge so you know that you're not sending too much of the door off so just take a regular pencil pull the door out and depending on how much you need no more than an eighth inch generally just grab your pencil hold it and just scribe the side of the door all the way down it's wherever your pencil mark is okay scribe it again just like that so that's going to give you a reference point so you don't go too deep or too shallow dude i get another job some of these lines are like gross now i like to leave the door on i know it's going to make a little bit of mess within your room but it's a lot quicker and you can check super easy a lot of people like to take the doors off take them off the hinges carry it downstairs sand it bring it back up reinstall it it's still hitting take it apart over and over and over and over just try to clean the room area kind of get it away it's going to make a little bit of a mess but it's a lot less work in the long run so open your door like i said use your orbital sander or just regular 120 grit sandpaper and just work that down up and down until you get to that pencil line all right and then you just work that however much you need and you'll be able to check it you don't have to always get to that pencil line maybe a little bit less but you're right here close the door closes nice perfect if you close it still sticks a little bit take a little more off it's whatever that you need all right now when you're done just get a little bit of touch of paint just paint the outside of that door don't put a million coats on it because you're going to get back to that problem again if it's sticking just maybe two quick coats shut the door and you're done so i gave you four quick easy steps to alleviate the door sticking to the gym homeownership's a lot of work but the pride is in the progress so good luck subscribe see you in the next one you

Channel: Ivan

Views: 29,811

Keywords: sagging door, sticking door, sticky, rubbing door, door jamb, fix a door, repair a door, interior door, exterior door, how to, DIY, i'll get my tools, home repair, door wont close, door wont shut, door is rubbing, easy fix, cheap fix, quick fix, hitting frame, wont latch, wont close, not latching, not closing, how do i fix a door

Id: pxO_lQLOB8k

Length: 9min 25sec (565 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 30 2021