remove interior door jam without destroying it?

[deborahstraka]

Hi all,

Well, we hired a carpenter to install several interior pine doors...and he really botched it. The doors are hung visibly crooked :( Is there a way to remove the jams without destroying them...so we can re-hang it correctly?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Very slowly, using putty knives. Use thin, flexible ones to break through paint (if any) and slide under the wood. Use thick, rigid ones to slide under a pry gently. Leave the skinny ones in place to protect the wood from the thicker tool. As you establish gaps, slide in pieces of thin dowel. Continue with a thin pry tool, available at any decent hardware store. Plan on doing a little spackle work. A few dents in the wood are inevitable.

Have your favorite scotch available, and keep children away, in case you invent new obscenities.

[DanG]

Thin, wide-bladed pry bars. Use a pin punch to set as many finish nails as possible. Pull all finish nails through the board toward the back side.

Here some handy tool types: wide bladed pry bar:

for pushing finish nails through:

for easing trim off:

for pulling nails out the back:

[DerbyDad03]

Obvious question:

Why aren't you making the carpenter fix it?

If he destroys the trim, it's his resp> Hi all,

[EXT]

It is much more work to fix a crooked jamb than to install them originally. If you hired a carpenter to install them originally, why take on the work to fix it, make him fix them.

[Art]

Remove trim from one side. Use sawzall to cut exposed nails.