Went through this myself with the 8ft doors in my living room. First thing I learned is the little plastic hinge pin stops are useless on a door that heavy. All that weight swinging means way more force at the end of the arc, and they just snap or loosen up within a year. Toss that idea if you're dealing with tall doors. What finally worked for me was a floor mounted stop set so the door hits it around the last foot of travel, plus a wall bumper as backup behind the knob. The floor stop takes the hit where the door has the most leverage against it, not out at the knob where everything gets torn up. Get the solid brass or steel ones, not the hollow chrome plated junk that crumples. Long screws into the subfloor, not the finish floor, or they'll rip right out. Also check the hinges while you're at it. My doors kept slamming because one hinge was loose and the door was dropping out of square, which made the swing way faster. Three screws tighter and a couple drops of oil and suddenly the stops weren't getting hammered every time someone walked through. Cheap fix, boring fix, but it made the biggest difference.
Tips for door stops on tall doors that actually hold up
Nov 07, 2026
Last reply: 9 hours ago
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My 8ft living room entry was the same test run. I completly agree that the flimsy plastic stops are an absolute joke on a door that heavy. I tried installing a floor-mounted stop set like you described but found it a little too hard to secure cleanly without visible mounting hardware on the subfloor. I ended up going with a recessed wall stop instead. It's a small brass piece that sits flush inside the door jamb, maybe three inches tall, right where the door hits the frame at the end of its travel. The key benefit I noticed is that the stop doesn't just stop the door, it actually cushions the energy. It doesn't just make a loud 'thud' because the mass of the door is hitting a hard floor surface. The softer impact against the trim takes the worst of the shock. I paired this with a heavy-duty magnetic door closer in the main frame. It doesn't prevent the initial impact, but it handles the retraction and slows the door down enough that the impact is far less violent. It definately saved the integrity of the door jamb hardware.
On mine the slam wasn't even a hardware problem, it was the furnace. The return air path in that room was weak so every time it kicked on it yanked the door shut hard enough to rattle the trim. Cracked the door about an inch and cut the undercut a little bigger and half the slamming went away before I even touched the stops. Still run a rubber tipped floor stop becuase with kids in the house something was going to get abused no matter what, but the rubber ring made it way quieter than the bare steel ones I had before.
I keep seeing this idea that a stop mounted in the jamb somehow 'cushions' the impact and I don't buy it. That trim piece isn't absorbing energy, it's just becoming the thing that takes the hit instead of the wall. On my sister's place the flush stop sat fine but over a couple winters the casing worked loose and you could see the joint cracking at the top. The door doesn't know where the force goes, the frame still pays for it. If your jamb is solid oak maybe you get away with it, but on standard casing I'd rather put that force into the floor where nothing flexes.
One thing I'd add is the hinges themselves get underspecified on these tall slabs. Mine came with standard 3.5 inch hinges and after a year the top one was taking all the weight and the door started swinging shut on its own. Swapped to 4 inch ball bearing hinges, three per door, and the drift vanished completely. The door also sits square now instead of raking down at the latch side. Check the top hinge screw that goes into the stud, that one does most of the holding.
Update: took the advice about upsizing the hinges since my top one was clearly doing all the work, and the sag is gone. Door swings way smoother now. But I think I've got the furnace thing happening too, it realy picks up speed right when the heat kicks on. Tried just leaving it cracked an inch and it helped some. Anyone actually widened the undercut on one of these? Curious how aggressive you can go before it looks wrong.
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