Moving front door back 1/4"

[John]

Hi there. I bought a house, and we noticed we had problems with draftiness from the front door. I bought new seals, and as I was installing them I saw the root cause of the problem: The front door hung about a 1/4" to far forward. The result is that on the hinge side of the door, the seal is being compressed to much, and eventually fails. The compression also pushes the far side of the door away from the seals, so that when it gets cold, the magnets on the seal won't grip. That was last winter.

I now have to move my hinges back about 1/4". What I'm afraid of is that to do that, I would have to drill the new mounting holes very close to the old mounting holes, an I'm worried this may cause a failure (door is heavy). I could fill the original mounting holes with something, but I'm at a loss as to what to use (white glue shrinks, putty's to weak, maybe epoxy?). The other option is to replace the actual door frame, but I'd like to avoid that.

Anyway, just looking for any advice anyone who might have done something like this in the past.

Thanks

John

[dpb]

John wrote: ...

...

Piece o' cake... :)

Wood match sticks (w/ any carpenters' glue optional). Taper a couple a little and drive enough in to fill the holes solid. Will prevent the hole from collapsing...

The alternative is to try to make a single tapered plug but that's tougher to shape than simply drive in the smaller pieces one at a time.

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[Jim Elbrecht]

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I'd drill a 1/4" hole into the old screw-holes, lube a 1/4" dowel with carpenters glue & drive it in. Chisel flush and proceed.

Jim

[HeyBub]

Add additional seals - the kind that fit ON the door frame rather than within it.

[TimR]

Or, drill 3/8 inch holes, fill with epoxy/glassbead paste, drill pilot holes.

[RicodJour]

Keep it simple. Golf tees are a surprisingly nice fit for hinge holes.

R

[John Grabowski]

*I was just wondering if the door stops could be removed and trimmed or relocated to make the existing door location work. In addition to what has been said about plugging the old holes I would suggest that you predrill the new holes with a small diameter bit and use very long screws that will go into the frame behind the door frame.

[dadiOH]

Use the tooth picks and glue, not to worry about the weight as it is carried by the mortices...the screws are just to keep the hinge leafs *in* the mortices.

[willshak]

John wrote the following:

I love the suggestions so far; glue matchsticks in the holes. Response: No that won't work. Glue a dowel in the holes. Response: Nope Glue golf tees in the holes. No Response yet. Cut out the sections and replace with wooden patches. Drill bigger holes. Fill with paste. Move the door frame stops.

Here is my suggestion: Leave the door where it is and move the whole house 1/4" forward. :-)

[RicodJour]

Couldn't he just move?

R

[professorpaul]

The dowel routine is by far the best. I've used it in gunsmithing/ stock issues where I needed to remove such things as a butt plate and replace it with a rubber recoil pad. You won't see the dowels, as they will be under the hinges. You do need an hour or so for the glue to set up, of course. Wood glue, or epoxy... your choice.

[Stormin Mormon]

I'd use a different type of door seals.

[hrhofmann]

I lean toward using multiple toothpicks and wood glue. Coat the toothpicks with gluse and keep jamming them into the holes until you have to use a hammer to fully seat them. Then wait overnight (while keeping anyone from using the door since it is now not hinged) and then drill new pilot holes (1/8" maximum) in the correct location. I have done this maybe 6 or 8 times when rehanging exterior and interior doors in various hoses I have owned or helped repair.

[Tony]

But don't use the painted ones.

[Tony]

I normally split a little wood off a nearby 2x , glue and hammer it in. More than one if I see fit. We all know that a properly glued joint is stronger than the wood itself.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Wed 20 Jan 2010 01:08:06p, dpb told us...

In a similar situation we drilled out a straight-sided hole in the old screw hole, then hammered in a like-sized dowel coated in glue. Never had a problem.

[terry]

In addition to plugging and drilling new holes, maybe use some longer screws?. Especially if there is something solid in there beyond the door box for the ends/tips of those longer screws to grip into. Screw right through the door jamb if necessary. Longer screws at the top, for example, might help support the outward leverage there, due to the weight of the hanging door!

Some heavier doors have extra hinges! Our wooden front and back doors have three sets of hinges each.

While in Malta couple of years ago noticed that many doors had 'four' sets of hinges! IIRC one rather massive church door had five hinges.

Maybe one could reposition door temporarily, remove it again and then add another hinge/s, before reinstalling it permanently.

Would n't worry me if I had a continuous hinge all the way down the door. Except it would probably be a bu**er to install. Suggest; do anything logical to support the weight of the door at the slightly repositioned hinges. Think outside the box (door box that is!) :-)

We had a similar problem btw. Someone had used the wrong hinges when replacing a door and there were air gaps. So we bought a couple of different type hinges with different screw mounting hole spacings and reinstalled the door using the most suitable hinges. Door now closes evenly all the way round.

Good luck.