Expanded doors

[James Varty]

I built a sound-proofed drum practice booth in my garage last summer, which has an inner wall and outer wall, both with fire doors and softwood frames. I wanted quite a snug fit, but the doors opened and closed perfectly in the summer with a good 2 or 3 mm clearence. I've had the doors left open for the last 3 months or so, and now both doors wont shut. I dont want to have to plane the edges as I painstakingly varnished them and applied a rubber seal for insulation. I only noticed this problen a few days ago and have had a dehumidifier on in the garage since. Is this likely to make any difference? Any other tips for reducing the size of the doors would be most welcome. If I plane them, will they then be too small in the summer?

Regards

James

[malc]

If you plane them in the summer the gap will be larger but there isn't much you can do. I would plane them then get some self adhesive foam strip like this

and apply it to the bit the door closes against.

[Cicero]

================================ If performance is more important than appearance you could probably fit a

2" or 3" overlapping piece to each side and the tops of the doors. This could then be fitted with some insulation / foam to complete the sound-proofing by sitting on the architraves. Design of the overlaps would depend on the profile of the architraves but it should be straightforward. If you do the above you can plane the doors to provide a good clearance gap.

Cic.

[Cicero]

-------------------------------- Correction...

That should read ".......... to one side of each door (the opening side) and the top". The doors wouldn't open if fitted as per original text.

Cic.

[Mike]

That amount of expansion suggests a lot of damp and/or the doors were not properly painted/varnished. Paint or varnish will reduce the amount of airborne moisture that the door absorbs and therefore reduce the expansion in winter.

It's quite common for people not to varnish the top and bottom of the doors but you would be surprised how much difference this can make.

When I moved into my house almost all the softwood doors would catch on the frames in the winter but had 2-4mm clearance in the summer. When I re-varnished them I did the tops and bottoms which were bare wood, none catch now at all, there is still a little expansion but not enough to cause a prob.

Mike