|
|
|
Q.
I have a double wood & glass front door. The stationary door appears to be
hanging correctly (plumb). The main use door is not plumb. It has about a half
inch difference from bottom to top; meaning the top of the door and the
adjacent wall slopes inward. The wall on the other side also slopes, but not a
much as the stationary door. Where the two doors meet, the right (main use
door) is flush with the stationary /left door at the bottom, but protrudes out
by 1/8th inch plus at the top. The stand or post at the bottom of the
stationary door that keeps the door stationary/locked in place has cracked the
wood. Basically, there is an 8-10 inch split in the wood at the bottom of the
stationary door where the post is.
To prevent more damage/splitting of the door what is the best approach to
fixing/plumbing the main use door? Should I try to fix it by adjusting the
hinges, or should I remove the interior and exterior trim (on just the wall
side of the main use door) and try to get the door frame to set
level/straight/plumb in the opening (even though the walls are not plumb)?
A.
Double doors have a
tendency to be problematic. Add to that the fact that these are exterior doors
where you have the disadvantage of temperature/humidity differences between
interior and exterior air, and you have an almost impossible set of
circumstances. You are unlucky enough to have your doors in a wall that is
neither plumb nor uniformly out of plumb, adding yet another dimension to the
problem. An exterior door will almost always be at least slightly warped
because of the climatic differences between the seasons and interior vs.
exterior air.
Here are some choices for you, with a range of difficulty and amount of work
involved, compared with likelihood of success:
-
The best solution for the doors would be to move the wall so that it is
uniformly plumb or out of plumb across the door opening. This would likely
require a considerable amount of work to repair plasterboard, and/or siding,
and possibly interior and exterior trim. It is also possible that the
appearance of the wall will not be good when you are done. I would probably not
try this one.
-
Remove the active door (the one you normally use) and remount the hinges so
that the bottom or top of the door is actually away from the stop on the jamb.
This will result in the doors lining up better, but you may notice the gap
along the hinge side of the door. You will need to fill the screw holes after
taking off the hinges so that you can re-drill the holes. Plug the old holes
with wood and glue and allow the glue to dry before moving the holes. You may
not like the way the door looks with its fit on the jamb, and there is a bit of
guess work on how far to move the hinges. Moving them more than once will tend
to weaken the connection and the hinge may work loose over time.
-
You can try to finesse the fix by inserting cardboard shims between the hinges
and the door or jamb. You may need to add or remove shims that are in place
behind the jamb that were used when the door was installed in the rough
opening. This is also a trial and error method and can be time consuming and
frustrating, but I like it the best of the options available. The shims behind
the hinges are cut from sturdy but thin cardboard, like the cardboard of a
cereal box, or the box that a set of hinges comes in. The shims should be the
same length as the height of the hinge plate, and wide enough to fit between
the edge of the hinge or the hinge pin side and the closest screws. You can
stack them up for larger adjustments. You can move the door more by adding them
on both the door and the jamb, and in opposite locations behind the upper and
lower hinges. This is going to force the doors closer together, and that is why
you may need to change the shims behind the jamb.
Getting doors to hang properly, especially in an opening that is imperfect, is
an art and requires a lot of trial and error. Be patient, and try one thing at
a time looking closely to see what the results are.
You should repair the split in the one door, by removing it, opening the split
a bit with a toothpick or other small device, and gluing with a good quality
epoxy. Clamp it to get a good tight bond, but be careful not to ruin the
finish. After the glue has cured, replace the throw-bolt and re-hang the door.
|