My steel exterior door is not closing properly. The doorknob bolt will lock into place by itself but the deadbolt just six inches higher will not unless I push hard on the top corner of the door. The space between the doorframe and the door is larger on the top than the bottom. There is a draft at the top but not at the bottom. This door has been fine for
10 years. What could have caused this? How can I fix this?Thanks, Paul
On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 02:36:39 -0400 "Paul M" used 10 lines of text to write in newsgroup: alt.home.repair
Inspect the hinges first. With the door open lift up on it and see if it's wobbly. You may need to replace the hinge(s) or screw them in more.
If that's not it.....
The frame may be "tweaked" in the opening.
Get a cordless drill with a phillips head tip. Take out the center screw of the top hinge. Go back with a large 3 or 4 inch screw in that hole. The goal here is to suck the frame in closer at the top by anchoring it tighter against the king stud. You may have to play around with different screws at the other hinges to get the frame back square.
-Graham
Remove the 'snails' from my email
WOW
No help here Paul .. Just Really Freaking when you see a post that Your Sure you didn't make, with Paul M on it! LOL
Paul
For starters make sure all the screws are tight at the hinges. Also, try and wiggle the door with it partly open and observe the hinge side area for movement. There should be none. And look at the door from the side to observe whether it looks warped. It should not be, but perhaps a wood core inside caused it to warp. If it was right before then obviously something has changed. The door is metal, but the frame is probably wood or at least mounted in a wood frame. You might be able to hold a wooden block against the upper portion of that hinge side frame and hit it with the largest hammer hou have. The idea is to pull that area in further. Then you would pur a couple screws in from the side to hold that position. If all else fails you could find a bigger, more aggressive seal to keep out drafts and move or open up the striker plate so that the lock engages more easily.
Thanks for the replies. It doesn't seem to be warped or wiggly anywhere. I moved the doorknob plate back a bit and the deadbolt will lock without any pushing but now the door opens too easily, strong wind and dogs, when the deadbolt is open. The doorknob bolt fits right but doesn't seem to be long enough now because of the space between the door and the doorframe. Any suggestions?
Paul:
PM> My steel exterior door is not closing properly. The doorknob bolt will PM> lock into place by itself but the deadbolt just six inches higher will PM> not unless I push hard on the top corner of the door. The space between PM> the doorframe and the door is larger on the top than the bottom. There PM> is a draft at the top but not at the bottom. This door has been fine for PM> 10 years. What could have caused this? How can I fix this?
The house shifted slightly, probably due to the cooler weather. We have a similar problem here. Not sure why it suddenly happened after ten years -- maybe there have been some shiftings over the years and this is the first year the shift was sufficient to cause the door to not latch. Was anything changed this summer, such as reroofing, landscaping?
The 'solution' here was to buy some ¬" wide x ¬" thick self-stick insulation to go around part of the doorframe where the air leakage occurs. I found if I went too far then the door would bind and not close. There was still a draft at the upper corner so I applied a second layer for about 2".
- ¯ barry.martinþATþthesafebbs.zeppole.com ®
How about installing an insulated decent quality storm door? Tony
Nothing has changed. Maybe the hot one day, cold the next summer we had caused the problem. I moved the doorknob plate back a bit and the deadbolt will lock without any pushing but now the door opens too easily, strong wind and dogs, when the deadbolt is open. The doorknob bolt fits right but doesn't seem to be long enough now because of the space between the door and the doorframe. Any suggestions?
Thanks, I'll try it.
I thought a storm door was a bad idea with a steel door.
Check hinges, they wear and can come loose on the door or frame. See if you can lift the door by the handle and if it raises you need hinge work
Hi, Not really I have one on my main entrance door. It's cold here in winter. Tony (Alberta, Canada)
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