Need to square a door

[Charles Bishop]

I have a door that has never been painted or sealed. After 30+ years it's sagging against the strike side of the jamb. My idea is to take it off the jamb and square it up, glue any loose joints, clamp until the glue sets and rehang it. This is the Plan:

I'll take the door down and lay it on a sheet of plywood. The plywood will have a jig made of either 1x2 or 2x4 in an "L" shape, where the corner is known to be square. Using this square corner, I'll wedge the door into it, then square up the other 3 corners, checking to insure the sides are parallel. Set glue into the joints (What about the side on the plywood?), pipe clamps across the door and possibly wedge the free sides so they can't move.

Any suggestions or corrections?

[hrhofmann]

nals of the door, if they are the same, the door is square. I would double=

-check the opening before operating on the door.

Are you sure the door is sagging and not the frame of the house itself?

[DerbyDad03]

Do you know for sure that it's the door that it out of square and not the jamb itself?

What are these "joints" that you speak of? You didn't describe the door. Is it a raised panel door, with stiles and rails?

How do plan to "set glue into the joints"?

[Charles Bishop]

It could be a little of both, but a square shows the jamb is mostly square. If it's not, I can reset the strike side of the jamb. (Bigger hammer)

Sorry, it's an entry door, raised panel, 9-light, 6'8, 1 3/4. The "joints" are at the junction of the top, bottom and central rails and the stiles.

Dunno. Maybe a glue hypodermic. There are spaces visible now making it obvious that the joint failure has caused the sagging. (The hinge stile still has a fairly even gap between itself and the jamb. The lockset stile has a huge gap between itself and the top of the jamb.

It's worth a shot, rather than buying a new door.

[Robert Macy]

I thought wood expands 'cross grain' as the cells fatten with moisture, not "...along the grain..." thus lengthening a piece of wood.

Which is it?

[bud--]

If the door is sagging I would expect it to drag on the bottom. If it is against the strike I would expect loose hinges. Impossible to say from the information given. For instance is the contact on the strike side the full length or just top. Can you see joints opening from a sag.

[Sonny]

Not so.

Exactly. The poster has likely not giving the correct info, for us to suggest the proper fix. These measurements would tell us which, the door or the frame, is the problem area, unless it is the hinges that are loose.

Sonny

[Jim Elbrecht]

It is both- though across the grain is more.

You are unlikely to find 2 pieces of wood that expand and contract at the same degree or rate. That's why those panels should be allowed to move. [OTOH- the first person to paint the door will negate the benefit of no glue.]

Jim

[JIMMIE]

Sounds like what I did but my father in law had a huge assembly table with the square already built in. No plywood needed.

Jimmie