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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