putting door in tilted wall

[calerner]

I am finishing a room in my basement and one of the walls in which I'm going to put a door is fairly significantly out of plumb such that if the door frame were placed to line up evenly with the drywall on each side (inside and outside not right and left) of the rough opening, the top of the door would be tipped backwards somewhat and would tend to close on its own when opened part way. Other than rebuilding the wall

- it's out of plumb because of some obstructions I was building around

- what's the best way to deal with this?

Thanks for any help.

Charles

[Old Guy]

A curtain???

Old Guy

[SonomaProducts.com]

Plumb the door frame in the wall opening and adjust the trim as necessary to compensate for the variance. So you have deeper trim at the bottom on one side and shallower trim at the bottom on the other side and the inverse at the top.

You always plumb and square the frame > I am finishing a room in my basement and one of the walls in which I'm

[Swingman]

wrote

Casing ... install the door level and shim out your door casing/trim. Standard practice these days is to use an acrylic caulk to fill in the gaps between the casing and wall.

If the gaps are large, consider building out the wall under the casing with

1/4" plywood, in the appropriate places,.. the same width as the door casing, then caulk where you have to ... if it's that bad, the use of caulk is justified, but plan on having to do it again a few years, although an all acrylic or siliconized-crylic caulk should last a good while.

[Buck Turgidson]

I was looking at your table saw push stick on your website. Is it made from solid wood, or ply?

I have some 3/4" baltic plywood that would be about this size. Would the ply directions give it enough strength?

[Swingman]

Absolutely ... I always make them out of plywood. Cheap, stronger, and a good use for otherwise unusable scraps that are not flat or unsuitable in some other manner.

Make 'em out of different thicknesses ... a 1/4" 'push stick' can come in handy when cutting thin strips.

[Mike O.]

Everyone else has given you good advice. Plumb the door jamb. In this case it sounds like the top (of the jamb) would be flush with the rock and the bottom would be hanging into the room.

If the gap behind the casing is going to be too much, to live with, take some stock the same length as the casing and cut a long wedge to nail to the back of the casing. You can do that with a straight piece of scrap nailed to the stock. Flush the stock on one end and hang it out (the amount that the casing will be a way from the wall) on the other end. With the scrap against the fence, rip a nice 7' wedge. Attach that to the outside edge of your casing (times two) and then install.

Mike O.

[calerner]

Thanks for all the quick replies.

I like the idea of the wedge if needed to fill a gap between the casing and the drywall. But what about the gap between the jam and the casing on the opposite side? If part of the plumbed jam, say the bottom room side sticks into the room then the opposite part - the bottom hall side - will be within the rough opening leaving a gap between the jam and casing. Would you try to fill that with a wedge also?

Charles

Mike O. wrote:

[skeez]

Best fix? FIX the wall. fix#2-set the door fitted to the opening. [out of plumb] remove one or more hinge pins and lay em down on concrete or other hard surface and whack em with a hammer. this will put a slight bend in the pin and will keep the door from closing on its own. it also does not show! if you set the jamb plumb in a non plumb wall and try FIXING IT with fillers or caulk its GONNA SHOW. by bending the hinge pin slightly you can make the door and the wall look right and opperate correctly and nobody will be the wiser.

skeez... who has done this door stuff for a long long time. flame retardant suit on!/...

[John Grossbohlin]

You didn't mention what the ceiling and floor situations are nor how far "significantly" out of plumb the wall is. The less finished the floor and ceiling the more flexibility you have in dealing with the problem. If it's a less than say 1/4-3/8" out of plumb I deal with it with the trim. That said, if "significantly" is more than say 1/4"-3/8" but less than 3/4" top to bottom I'd be inclined to first see if the wall can be persuaded into being plumb, or nearly so, in the vicinity of the door. A 2x4 beater-board and a sledge hammer could quickly plumb up the wall in many cases though the room corners might not be square (they might not be square now anyway!). If it's more than 3/4" or so you might want to cut the nails holding the wall to the floor with a Sawall and move the wall bottom. I'd rather end up with a room corner that is out of square than end up with a door that looks and/or performs poorly hung.

John

[Lyndell Thompson]

A sliding door might be an option.........but I don't guess you have room for a pocket door assy. Might be able to custom build a sliding door. Use sliding door harware. Good Luck Lyndell

[J T]

Sat, Jan 5, 2008, 2:25pm (EST-3) [e-mail] doth query: the top of the door would be tipped backwards somewhat and would tend to close on its own when opened part way.

So? What's bad about a self clsing door? Keeps the dog out, and you don't have to bich at the kids to close the coor.

JOAT You can't always judge by appearances, the early bird may have been up all night.

[Hoosierpopi]

If you widen the jam you should be able to set the door plumb and address the out of plumb wall where it meets the jamb with molding and drywall mud. Bu all means, hang the door plumb. Some of the newere "Home Depot" interior doors come with a two-piece jamb assembly that might make this effort a bit simpler. But, adding a bit of 1/2" stop molding to he non-hinge edge of the existing one-piece jamb should allow you to "thicken/widen" the jamb sufficiently to place it plumb.

[Mike O.]

On one side of the door (the side that hangs out) you will put your long wedges on the outside edge of the casing. On the opposite side of the door you will put the wedges on the jamb. The wedges will all be the same.

Mike O.