out of plumb wall

Have a question. Have a bungalo built back in about 67. doors are the hollow core type, and i'm replacing with solid clear pine. problem is, one door which i thought was warped, is not warped, but rather the strike plate side of the door case is out about 1/4" in

4' (checked with my 4' level).

Any thoughts on how to compensate this, as the new pine doors won't have the bit of flex the hollow core do in order to latch the door..

from the inswing side, the bottom of the wall is in about 3/4-1/2"

Reply to
Picasso
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remove the strike plate, close the door and reinstall the strike plate

Reply to
jim

Other than the other suggestion to simply mount the catch where it would have to be, you have to make adjustments to get the hinge mounts coplanar w/ the closing side or adjust the jamb stop on the closing side to be coplanar w/ the hinges.

If, when mounted, the door swings normally and doesn't either close or open on its own, best bet is to remove the stop and either remount it as needed to the door.

Of course, ideally one would remount the full jamb to get it coplanar and adjust the width to compensate or the wall, but that's more effort.

I'm assuming from the age the door casing/frames are built up of stock not prehung units. If they are prehung, your choices are more limited since the jamb is probably not re-positionable. At that point I'd look at rehanging the door and compensate as needed.

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Reply to
dpb

Had a similar problem with a bathroom door and discovered that the jamb was not plumb, being out about 1/4". I cut two tapered pieces of wood and glued them to the jamb after the casing was removed. With a bit of sanding and Bondo filler, I got the edge straight and plumb and filled in the hinge mortise that was out of position, recut the hinge mortises then installed the door. After adjusting the strike and reinstalling the stops and casing, the door works perfectly. I did also add some drywall compound to build it up around the area that had wood added as I was also painting the room.

With your door out up to 3/4", you may want to strip off 3 to 3 feet of drywall and shim the wall plumb on the hinge side and then make adjustments to the jamb to level the door.

Reply to
EXT

dpb wrote: ...

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Oh, BTW, by coincidence the last issue of FHB has article on adjusting prehung units; includes example for non-coplanar walls as well...

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Reply to
dpb

Keep the current door. Do you really have to replace them all? Paint it.

Reply to
mm

Here is how I would do it, but that doesn't mean you have to...........

Take the casing off the door. Saw through the nails holding the shims and door into the jamb. Plumb door, and reinstall shims and retaining nails. You can even leave it a tiny bit out of plumb for aesthetics if the reveal is going to be too great at any point. Set the reveal where the thinnest part is to the top of the door, and you may even get a self closing door out of the arrangement. Furr out the door on all sides to make the casing look as good as possible. It will still always be a little out of kilter, but

1/4" you can live with. At least the door will swing and close properly. Like I said, that's what I'd do. Your mileage may vary.

Steve

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Reply to
Steve B

Or fix it the right way by de-installing the old prehung door back to the rough opening, fix the wall as needed, and rehang the door and frame properly with enough shims and screws/nails. If it is a split-jamb prehung (very popular back in the day), odds are the halves of the jamb have just pulled apart.

Reply to
aemeijers

Locate the strike plate as needed. Mortise as needed. Fill any boo boos with Bondo and touch up the paint.

Reply to
Colbyt

Do a lot of checking. I assume you will find that the walls on each side of the door are not coplanar and that the wall itself is slightly out of plumb. Each side of the jamb may be out of plumb in opposite directions. I assume that your casing fits the drywall reasonably well.

Lay a scrap of 2x4 on the floor against the base mold. Swat firmly with a heavy sledge hammer to move the bottom of the wall slightly. Hit the other side the opposite direction. Make sure you remove any pictures hanging on the walls before you begin. You may find a very few firm blows will make the jamb line up. You can do some very minor, non-destructive adjusting of the casing the same way. I would sure take this approach before some of the others indicated. You can always rip out and reinstall if my suggestion doesn't work.

I've been a carpenter for over 50 years. Don't tear stuff up until you have to.

Reply to
DanG

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