Help!
I can't get into the garage by the recently installed back door. It's solid wood in a wood frame and has swollen so much in the wet weather it has jammed in the frame, top and side. I have planed the door before to ease it into the frame. I fear applying too much pressure on the door handle will break it. How can I get this door opened?
By the way the roll-over entrance door for the garage can be opened only from within. There are no keys for the entrance door's handle!
Thanks
Jonathan
Can you get the hinge pins out?
If so, the door may pull out rather than swing open. To swing open needs more clearance than to pull out.
Wait till the next Spring, when it will hopefully contract again?! :-)
David
If the main door has cable-operated latches I'd be tempted to drill through it where the cables run and operate them with rods poked through the holes. Then kick the back door open. Alternatively get some big screw eyes, screw them into the back door, attach some rope and yank hard. Once you've got the back door off plane it some more and seal the planed edges so it doesn't absorb any more water.
If it opens inwards, get someone to hold the handle down and kick it police style. Or use a short piece of 4" x 2" and a club hammer at various points. If outwards, try hammering a 2" paint scraper into the gap wherever you can. Then hammer the edge of the scraper to move it along. These things are usually stuck in just one place. You didn't paint it recently by chance?
I am reminded of a time when my back door did this. For some weeks I was climbing in and out of the kitchen window to get to the garden, mindful that my neighbour at the time was a prison officer who might assume he had a new customer!
Can you dry out the door with a fan heater? You may have to do it in stages at different heights unless you can identify the stuck area.
Fit a stout metal handle pro tem?
If you mean it has a lock but you don't have the keys, a locksmith sounds like a good bet and could be cheaper than a new door.
Chris
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