Door frame partly split at top hinge.

[Chris Wilson]

Modern (18 year old) house, door has been strained too far open by big dog! The frame at the point of the topmost hinge of 3 has split over a length of about 6 inches equidistant top and bottom of the hinge. the crack then peters out back into unsplit timber. What's the best way to make a permanent repair? I was thinking of removing the door and hinges from the frame, slightly opening the gap up by inserting a slim chisel blade or similar, injecting a good epoxy adhesive and letting the crack spring back relaxed again. Good enough, or something better?

A pic speaks a thousand words, the problem is at

[Chris Oates]

PVA wood glue is much easier to get into small cracks, wipes off easily & is surprisingly strong.

[Andy Hall]

work.

What I'd do is to take off the architrave on the side where the door is shown in the photo i.e. in the room on the right.

I'd probably use polyurethane glue, but then drill and countersink through the frame from the room side - i.e. at right angles to the hinge screws, above and below the hinge; and screw into the frame. This will strengthen and clamp at the same time.

You could risk not screwing through the frame - PU glue is pretty strong if clamped properly and no big gaps to fill.

Finally refit the architrave and then consider adding a third hinge if there are only two.

Then all that remains is some valium for the dog :-)

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[The Natural Philosopher]

inject PVA and nail the crack shut.

(No dear, this is a DIY group, and we are discussing door frames :-))

[BigWallop]

The crack is right along the line of the screw holes so take the screws out and squirt some watered down PVA wood glue, about 50/50 mix, into them, as deep and as mush as possible, then leave it for a full 48 hours to cure off. You should then be able to make a narrow drill hole, about half the diameter approx' of the screws, through the hard glue and put the screws back in.