As We Age, Everything Sags (Sagging Doors)

As our houses age we often start to have issues with our interior and exterior doors closing correctly.  Most of the time the sympton that arises is the door will start to sag and the top corner on the latch side starts to rub against the jamb.

The reason this occurs, the manufacturers of the hinges only supply 3/4″ long screws to attach the door to the jamb.  Over time, the weight of the door will cause the door to sag and the jamb to bow. 

The solution to the problem with an interior door is to remove one or two of these 3/4″ screws that attach the hinge to the door jamb and replace it with a longer wood screw.   It is important to use either a battery operated or corded drill with a screw tip to accomplish this.  If it is only the top corner of the door that is rubbing against the latch side of the jamb, then you will only need to adjust the top hinge. 

The first step would be take the drill and remove two of the existing interior hinge screws.  These two screws are located on the inside side of the hinge.  Next, insert a minimum of a 2 1/2″ (or larger) wood screw into these holes and use the drill to screw them in.  A good amount of force will be required to drive the screw into the framwork around the door.  Becareful not to overtighten the screw as the screw head may break off or the screw will lose its grip (stripping)  it inside the wood.  The purpose of installing the longer screw is to pull the hinge and the jamb closer to the surrounding door framework.   This should now alleviate the door from rubbing against the jamb. 

If the door still rubs against the latch side of the door jamb in the middle or the bottom, use the same above steps for the middle and bottom hinge.

If it is an exterior door that has the issue, use the following two methods.  If your home is wood framed, you can use wood screws similiar to the example above for interior doors.  If your home is constructed of concrete block, you will need to use masonry screws (special screw that screws into concrete).  Prior to installing the masonry screw into the hinge, you will need to pre-drill the hole with a masonry drill bit.  A masonry drill bit has a different tip then a wood drill bit.  When you purchase the masonry screws from your local hardware store, it will specify the size of the masonry drill bit that will needed.  Some packages of masonry screws come with a masonry drill bit. 

Follow these steps and your doors will be closing as easily as the day they were installed.

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The Squeak That Woke the Baby (Squeaky Door Hinges)

Here is the situation that I was in the other day that was the inspiration to this post. 

I often have my daughter in the office with me and of course on these days it is very difficult to get work related items completed.  She had been fussy all morning long and I was anticipating/hoping that she would fall asleep so I could get some things done.  She finally started to rub her eyes and I knew that we were getting close to complete shutdown of the eyelids.  Finally, it happened, she was out!  Across the hall is a room we designated as a nursery, I laid her down gently in order to not disturb here.  With a sense of relief, I backed my way out of the room, grabbed the door knob and then it happened.  My attempts of getting any work done were gone in a split second as the door hinge let out a squeak.  The squeak was immediately followed by a loud cry and when I looked over my daughter was wide awake.  At this time, I wanted to rip the door off the wall but vowed that the squeaky hinge would never happen again.

The Solution to a squeaky hinge is very simple.  Most of the time, I would have used WD-40, which most of us keep on hand in our garage.   The best way to use this product for this application is to attach the can’s straw to the nozzle and spray the top and middle of the hinge.  This will allow you to focus the spray on the hinge and reduce the chance of overspray.  After spraying the hinge, swing the door back and forth to work the WD-40 into the hinge.  Gravity will also help you.  Repeat if needed. 

Now in my particular situation with it being the Nursery, I did not want to use the WD-40 due to its caustic fumes.   My Baby Safe Solution was to go into the kitchen and grab the bottle of olive oil.  I poured a little in my hand and worked it into the hinge.  The olive oil acts as a natural lubricant.

The olive oil has currently alleviated the squeak, the true test will be tomorrow when my daughter is in the office with me.

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Replacing Exterior Door Hardware

Every once in a while, we all have to replace an exterior door knob or deadbolt.  Remember that you can get the new lock keyed to an existing key as long as it is the same manufacturer.  For example:  Lets say that your front door hardware was made by Schlage (I strongly recommend Schlage products) and you need to replace the side garage door knob and deadbolt.  You can have the new side garage door knob and deadbolt keyed to the same key that operates the front door as long as the new hardware purchased is also a Schlage.  The hardware store that you purchase the new door hardware from usually offers this service for a very small fee. 

I have another recommendation when replacing exterior door hardware.  If the exterior door that you are replacing the knob and deadbolt has a glass window in it, I recommend getting locks that are keyed on the interior and the exterior sides of the hardware.  This means that you need a key on both sides of the knob and deadbolt to operate the hardware.  This will deter theives from breaking the glass and being able to let themselves in by easily turning the knobs on the door hardware.  I must caution you to keep the keys close by in case of an emergency and there is a need to exit the dwelling quickly.  In the Southeast, due to Hurricanes, Impact Resistant doors with Impact Resistant Glass are installed.  Double keyed exterior hardware is not necessary with these doors due to it being very difficult for a potential thief to break the glass.   

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