Front door warped (from heat or rain) and can't lock it

[Maimai]

Hi there, just joined today as found this site. Every year in summer m

front door warps a bit and gets a bit tighter to lock. It's masionette in an old house, west london so there is some subsidance a is built on clay. I don't believe the lock is the problem. So ma need to shave a bit of the bottom and right of door in short term However I've got a twin door ie, the house is two flats with tw identical wooden doors beside one another as individual entrances t each flat (so can't jus tbuy a new door). I've noticed some cracking o the porch just a few inches from the front door. This has happened an been filled twice before in teh ten years I've lived here. In winte there are huge gaps in the door so something has moved (frame/house?). But my neighbours don't seem to have this problem. Any help gratefull accepted as don't want to be ripped off. Ma

-- Maimai

[Mr Alun Davies]

Shave ½" off the bottom of the door and fit a brush to the bottom.

[Weatherlawyer]

Get an heavy blunt instrument and lean hard on the middle of the rebate to see if there is any give in the frame. It sounds like the middle screws are no longer holding the frame to the wall.

You might be able to refix it with the same holes using rawl-plugs

-unless it was nailed.

You may need to try and get the old holes cleared by redrilling but if red or brown plugs will fit long wide screws will suffice.

If it is a nailed frame putting 4" nails alongside the old ones may help. Oldish nails can rust through but tend to leave the wooden wedges fairly intact.

A big problem will be if the packers (gaps spacing bits of wedgie stuff) may have dropped or shrunk. If the frame is very loose it will need repacking. Failure to do that will result in the gap between th door and frame increasing when you send the nails or screws home.