One of my internal doors slowly swings fully open unless it's latched closed. None of the other identical doors do this so I think it's something to do with how it's hung, but I can't find any obvious problems. It's a solid hardwood door (so pretty heavy) hung on two brass hinges.
A spirit level shows that the door frame on the hinge side is vertical, and the hinge side of the door is vertical as well. A plumb bob made from a nut&bolt on a piece of string shows that the two hinges are in line vertically.
But a check with a straight edge shows that the door is bowed slightly, and the others that don't swing open aren't. So I think you may have found the cause. Thanks.
Indeed. Or it could be related to the fact that the north magnetic pole is leaving Canada and moving towards Siberia. Are there any iron or steel fixing on the door, and if so is it moving in the general direction of Siberia?
Apart from a draught, sometimes wear on the top hinge does this. My garden gate prefers to be half open because of the issue of which part of the pin is worn the most. I hate doors that do this as being blind its not funny walking into the edge of a door you know was not left half closed! How about a little draught excluder on the bottom of the door to provide enough friction to stop it swinging?
Magnetic catch on the door? Magnetic catch on the open position on the end of a door stop? Brian
Yes reversing the door would make it close. Think of the bow as a kind of spring, the bow is straightened as the door opens (or closes) depending on the door shape when it was hung.
I've a wardrobe door that swings shut. The wardrobe is horizontal in both planes and the top of door is horizontal at all openings. What is really strange is that it closes from 180 deg. open. It has 3 hinges, so I guess that there's stress due to a slight bow. The hinges are just screwed to the exterior faces, so there's no adjustment apart from a few mm on the slotted holes. I've tried moving the centre one a bit but if I try to move the hinges too far the door is misaligned and looks bad.
You are right to check the level of spirits in the house if this is happening consistently. Does the room feel cold ever? As if there are draughts when there is no wind? Do you ever sense odours? or hear activity when you are not in the room?
A nut & bolt on a piece of string is a perfectly good pendulum, especially if the iron has been in the vicinity for some time but use of the pendulum to determine spirit levels must be done with discretion and insight and it may be worth consulting someone gifted in its use. It is no easy thing to make sense of the movements.
Hard to get right, bowed or not, when repositioning hinges on an existing door.
What do people do to plug the old screw holes ?. I find those dowels meant for joining wood, hammered into a slightly undersized hole with some pva does the trick.
If the upper hinge is further out, the door swings open. If further in, it swings shut. Just imagine what would happen if the situatoin were exaggerated. Shouldn't be hard to sort.
matches, a bit chiselled off an offuct, filler, nothing, etc. Matches most often.
It does not take much mis-alignment of the hinges from true vertical to cause this, and it's difficult to prove mis-alignment with plum-bobs due to the door and frame getting in the way of the bob.
However, for this to happen the hinge axis must be leaning from the vertical towards the opened edge. You may also notice that the bottom far corner of the door gets closer to the floor as it swings open, a sure sign the hinges aren't quite vertical (assuming the floor is horizontal!).
I have just fixed the same problem of a self-opening door in my Victorian house where the frame must have shifted a bit over the years causing misalignment.
Let the door swing to its open position. To fix it the top hinge axis needs to be moved away from the door, to slightly lift the far edge. Alternatively the bottom hinge can be moved the other way (or both moved a bit).
This will require you to drill out and plug the existing screw holes with 6mm dowel plugs. Also, moving the hinge positions will likely require the door-stopping to be taken off and re-nailed afterwards.
The way I did mine was to confirm the far edge of the door drops as it swings open, then anticipating that the hinges were to loosened/removed, I clamped a couple of my largest tri-squares to the door edge to stop it leaning over.
Next I knocked 4 wedges tightly under the door, 2 each side, to take its weight (this was a heavy solid wooden door), then loosened the bottom hinge screws and completely removed those from the top hinge. Also prised the hinge blade free from its rebate - taking care the door didn't start to lean over!
I then carefully knocked the wedges further in, lifting the edge of the door till the edges were vertical and the top horizontal. Next I drilled out the screw-holes and glued in 6mm dowel plugs.
I had to widen the hinge rebate by about 3mm because the hinge blade will be moved a bit further over.
Then its a matter of accurately centring new holes for the screws. I did this by finding one of those wood drill bits with a sharp pointy end that is close to the hole diameter in the hinge blade. Carefully tap this drill through the hinge hole to make a small starter hole. Then flip back the hinge and finish drilling the screw holes, ideally with a proper screw-sink bit.
When satisfied with the door swing, re-fit the door-stopping (and touch-up paintwork!)
It might also be necessary to pack out the hinges if the door isn't square in the frame.
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