How to Adjust Interior Doors

It's a fine door, but it's stopped closing properly without a fight. This is a problem common to interior doors at all times of year, especially during muggy summers, when damp air makes wood swell. Whether you think this is a summer-only or year-round problem, follow the steps below to adjust your interior doors so they open and close smoothly.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil Hammer Screwdriver Manual or electric drill Sandpaper and sanding block Hand-plane Paint or varnish (to refinish sanded or planed areas) PREFERABLY: another person to help hold and move the door

Instructions

Adjusting interior doors

1. Examine door hinges first. With frequent use, hinge-pins pull loose, and hinge-screws loosen. Before taking other action, hammer loosened pins in firmly and tighten any loose screws. This may be all you need to do. If the wood frame is old and the hinges no longer hold tight, remove the hinges from the door (first), mark the frame for new screw-holes and move hinges. Mark the door, same, drill new holes for hinges. Ask your helper to hold the door and rehang it. Sand and repaint/revarnish around old hinge marks. In a situation where the whole edge of the door next to the knob is the obstruction to closing, you can be fairly sure that the problem involves tightening the hinges.

2. Use your pencil to mark areas that stick or obstruct the closing on a door where the hinges seem secure. Both weather and the settling process that a house goes through with age can create places where the frame and the door no longer meet smoothly. Another villain is paint-accumulation -- even the best of thin, even coats pile up with years of repainting. Look at the door from both sides, determine exactly where the frame and door stick, and mark. (Looking at both sides of the door is likely to allow you to determine both the length and depth of the sticky spots.)

3. Remove door from frame, leaving hinges in place on frame. Lay or prop door on work surface, and sand down small sticky areas. Larger areas may require planing; follow your pencil marks carefully to avoid removing more wood than you need to.

4. Get help, if possible, to test whether you have solved the sticking problem. There is, unfortunately, no way to do this except by trial and error, so be prepared to rehang the door (with at least one screw in each hinge to test) several times to test the new fit.

5. Repaint or refinish any areas you have sanded or planed bare. Changes in the moisture of the air can swell or shrink wood; refinishing is the best way to shield wood from strong responses to moisture changes.

Tips & Warnings

• If you suspect that paint accumulation is your biggest problem, be certain to check the door edge closest to the hinges. Here we often use a heavy hand -- paint it "once and for all" because it's hard to reach. Sanding or planing down this area and minor hinge adjustment may be the answer.

• Sometimes a door fails to close because of shrinkage; the latch no longer meets the latch-plate. A quick fix for this is removing the latch-plate from the frame and inserting thin wood strips under the plate to bring it closer to the latch. The most attractive version of this is achieved by using a trim-strip to build up the full side of the frame; reattach the latch plate and refinish.