Raising/lowering doors

[David Nebenzahl]

Got a client who has a set of double doors in a room that has settled, causing the doors to no longer line up well. Looking at them, it's pretty apparent that if a guy could only lower one of the doors by a skosh (let's say 1/2" or less), they'd look a lot better.

I'm leery of trying this, as it would involve drilling a new set of holes for the hinge screws very close to the existing ones. (I'd also have to extend the mortises a little.) Is there some trick to make this work? It just occurred to me that I could use the old trick of filling the old holes with toothpicks and glue, then drilling new holes; would this work OK? And would it be better to move the hinges on the door or the jamb?

[DanG]

Neither one. I think you should look really hard at what settled, why it settled, and what you could do to get back to where it belongs.

Consider looking into raising the jamb on the low side. A 1/2 inch is huge, far beyond my definition of a skosh. Hardwood floors? Carpet? If it is carpet, you might try using a heavy crow bar under the bottom of the jamb to pressure that side up. Have some wedges already prepared to hold the jamb. Watch carefully at the jamb trim, etc for movement. How is the gap between the doors? Tight at the top and bigger at the bottom? How is the reveal at the top of the door? You can move doors quite a bit with shims behind hinges, subtle movement of jambs. Think about steel doors in steel jambs - you don't get to move the hinges on them. ______________________________ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[David Nebenzahl]

DanG spake thus:

What's settled is the *whole house*. Believe me, I'm not about to (nor does my client wish me to) jack up the house just to get the doors level.

It's very apparent by looking at the doors that the wall the doors are in has become somewhat of a parallelogram. There's a large gap at the top of one door and almost none above the other.

I don't see how you can move a door jamb up or down, independent of the rest of the house structure. To me, just moving the doors within the doorway makes much more sense.

And the floors are hardwood, in very good shape.

[DanG]

Ever hung a door? ______________________________ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[David Nebenzahl]

DanG spake thus:

Yes, a few times. Why do you ask?