Problem Hanging Door

[bunchan]

Hi all,

I've just hung a door in my hallway and everything seemed to go ok but when closing the door I can feel resistance start from when the door is about 1" from being fully closed. Everything is square and nothing is rubbing or touching so I think it has something to do with the hinges. I'm using the stardard type of door hinge and recessed it into both the door jam and the door but I must have done something wrong. I'm not sure, but I think I may have positioned the part of the hinge with the pin too close to the door and jam. Would this cause the resistance on closing that I am experiencing?

All advice and suggestions for a fix are much appreciated.

Thanks.

Steve

[Vernonv]

Check that you are using butt hinges and not a non-mortice (flush) hinges.
Make sure the screw heads don't protrude past the hinge face.
Make sure the hinged side of the door is not scrapping against the lip on the jamb.
Make sure there is adequate clearance around all edges of the door.
If there are 3 hinges on the door, make sure the centre hinge is not offset.

Can't think of anything else ...

[bunchan]

Check that you are using butt hinges and not a non-mortice (flush) hinges.
Make sure the screw heads don't protrude past the hinge face.
Make sure the hinged side of the door is not scrapping against the lip on the jamb.
Make sure there is adequate clearance around all edges of the door.
If there are 3 hinges on the door, make sure the centre hinge is not offset.

Can't think of anything else ...

Thanks Vernon,

I am using butt hinges.
The screw heads don't protrude but the resistance starts well before the two faces of the hinges come together so it's not that.
There is plenty of clearance around all edges.
There are three hinges and I unscrewed the center hinge from the jam and the door closed with much less resistance. Not completely resistance free but almost. What does this suggest?

Steve

[rod1949]

Its hinge bound. It may be at the top or the bottom or both, you will need to look at each hinge to see which one is pulling when you close the door.

The easiest way to fix it (providing you have clearance on the opening/latch side) is to pack under one of hinge leafs, usually the one on the jamb/frame and un-screw the screws sufficiently to place the packing.

For packing you can use paper (folded several times) or the cardboard backing of a writing pad which this may have to be folded once or twice also. Its a matter of trial and error until the binding is eliminated.

You may get away with just doing one hinge, but if the gap on the closing side becomes uneven then the other hinge will need to be packed to suit.

[Barry_White]

One thing that can cause that is if the door edge isn't square to the face of the door and the jamb opening isn't parallel to the door edge which can cause them to bind before the door is fully closed.

[rod1949]

One thing that can cause that is if the door edge isn't square to the face of the door and the jamb opening isn't parallel to the door edge which can cause them to bind before the door is fully closed.

Here is an exaggerated pic of what I mean.

Or the hinge recesses are too deep.

[Barry_White]

Or there is a bow in the jamb or the door edge or both.

[Vernonv]

I'm thinking Barry is on the money - bow in the door or jamb.

[bunchan]

Thanks everyone. There is a slight bow in the jam which I originally thought was the problem because it was grabbing a piece of paper I put between the door and jam to test this. But then I thought maybe the recesses are too deep so I played around with packing a couple of them (one at a time) and now I still have the same problem but there is a clear gap between the door and the jam on the hinge side, so I think it's more than the slight bow in the jam.

I'll play around with packing the recesses and hope that cures it. If not, I'll plane out the small bow in the jam and see what happens then.

Thanks again. If I have no joy, I'll be back to pick your brains.

Steve

[thesupervisor]

here is a little trick
put a punch in the hinge and close the door not too much you can strech the hinge just enough to make it clear the best way to prevent this from happerning is before you cut your hinges with a belt sander give that edge a leading edge so you have more clearance against the jam ,
ive only hung about 5000 doors done 200 this year already

[mikm]

Did you put the door stops on before or after you hung the door?
If before, you might be binding on the head stop.

If this is in fact the problem and depending on how close is too close, you could hold a block of timber against the side of the stop at the hinge end and give it a love tap with a mash hammer to mover it over a bit. Pin it again a couple of times in the new spot when the door works properly and Bob's your mother's brother.

[bookend]

Just one other thought. You didn't say if the door is a replacement.

If it is a replacement, you would be very unlucky if the new door is a different thickness to the original but it has been known to happen. If it is thicker, and you weren't aware of it, it will push and bind on the door stop when you close the door. You might have to remove more than just a bow from the door stop. Alternately, use mikm's method of moving the stop.

[bunchan]

It is a replacement door but there are no door stops in place yet so I am guessing that it's an issue with the hinges. I haven't had a chance to fix it yet but will get on it today. Hopefully a bit of packing will fix the problem. I don't want to have to reposition the hinges.

Steve

[old pete]

Hi Bunchan,

Sadly I believe your door is what we call hinge bound. You could move house and leave it some one else to analyse and fix the problem, the easy way, or you could fix it yourself.

First step before doing any packing etc is to ascertain just what is causing the problem. Temporarily removing the centre hinge is an excellent start.Next thing to do is to ensure the problem isn't with the placement of the door stops but one is rarely so lucky. If that is the problem with an existing door replacement against existing stops then you have set the hinges too far back on the stiles. If you have set all the screws (and you shouldn't have at this stage) you will have to drill out the screw holes and replace with dowels and then try again. If that isn't your problem then :-

You really need two folk to do the analysis.

Have your helper slowly close up the door just a little beyond the point where it starts to bind whilst you very carefully watch the behaviour of each flap of each hinge in turn. One or other of the hinge leaves will try to pull away a little either from the door stile or the door frame. The cause can be either too deep a hinge mortice or too little. You should be able to infer from ' what moves where' just where packing is required.

To determine the amount of packing required just ease off the screws a bit and slip in a couple of temporary thin cardboard shims between the screws. Try the door again and adjust by addition of more shims if necessary. When you get it right then cut fresh cardboard shims accurately to the size of the hinge flap/flaps, punch out the screw holes with a wad punch, remove all the screws and position the final shims and do up the screws.

Work the same process through each hinge top and bottom and then replace the centre hinge. If the problem returns when you replace the centre hinge check as before and also check that the stile of the door isn't bowed and is perhaps being dragged back to straight by the centre hinges as this could build in a heap of stress.

There's also a possibility that the stile is straight but the vertical alignment of the hinges is a bit off

Good luck, correcting hinge binding is an absolute bugger of a job specially if you have set all the screws and need to make very minor adjustments.

I've repaired or repolished dozens of cabinets over the years where the doors fitted well and closed beautifully but shims emerged when the hinges were removed so don't fret; your'e not on your own and the problem is correctable:roll:

Old Pete

[chippyk]

Thesupervisor is on the money, as an ex builder i have used the old nail punch trick hundreds of times over the years, works everytime,hope this helps.


chippyk

[rat52]

Place a straight edge against the hinge knuckles to make sure the centre pins are all in the same line. ( How to explain this in words. ) Parallel to the face of the door and then at 90deg to the face.

If a hinge is off line then you will get the binding effect.

[bunchan]

More suggestions, great. Thanks again guys. Old Pete, Thanks for the very detailed explaination. I will getting on this tomorrow morning so hopefully I can remedy it without too much hassal. I'm sure it won't be that easy though.

Steve

[rrich]

Or the hinge recesses are too deep.

YES!

I always make my hinge mortises shallow by about .2 mm.

Just take the hinges off the door and jamb and insert a couple of thicknesses of printer paper under the hinge.