rehinging a french door

**grumpywombat** · 15th August 2003, 09:55 PM

We have a french door that is sagging. Innapropriate round head metal type screws were used to attach the lower hinge to the door frame. Whenever the door is fully closed the round heads press firmly against the door hinge, eventually working it's way out against it. I unscrewed the lower hinge screws and the wood in the frame (~30mm width oregon) is very crumbly, re-inserting the screws solved the problem for a few days but the screws worked themselves loose again. Appart from being about to drop off, the problem with the sag is that the door squeals against the brass strip that is probably meant to act as a draft stopper, making the door difficult to fully close no matter how much lifting and jiggling is done.

I feel quite confident and competent enough to reposition the hinge, marking out and chiselling the hinge rebate (?), aligning the door etc...

I intend to use self tapping screws with a 1/2-2/3rds diameter pilot hole predrilled.

Question:

Should I re-position the lower hinge above or below it's present position (10inches or 250mm above the bottom).

Or should I put a new block of wood in the to replace the buggered door frame. This I see as being fraught with problems. Another sugestion was to clean out the crumbly wood and introduce a glue or other hard setting compound, I think not.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

**journeyman Mick** · 15th August 2003, 10:46 PM

Up or down, whatever looks better, it doesn't really matter as the top hinge takes most of the load. Of course as it is one of a pair (I assume, as you said french doors) you will have to move the hinge on the other door to stop it bugging you!

Mick

**grumpywombat** · 16th August 2003, 07:40 PM

Cheers Journeyman,
Will do.
GW...

**grumpywombat** · 17th August 2003, 07:38 PM

Journeyman,

Measured, Marked, Chiselled out recess (rebate?) for the hinges.
Very carefully! Fit nicely, very square, remounted the door, door wouldn't close. Filed off the bottom of the door and eventually it shut without dragging or noise.

There is a ~3mm thick and high brass draft stopper in the plinth (step the door closes over)(?) that had a very shiny top!

I waxed up the brass and watched where the wax got cleaned off on shutting, rewaxed, reshut the door, eventually working out where the bottom rail was still too low.

Should I have approached the problem differently?

Now I have two recesses where the hinge used to be. Should I find a suitable thickness plywood offcut and shape it to fit the recess, then glue and screw and repaint or should I use some "filler" and shape that? The door get's alot of use, it is the main access to the backyard. During summer the French doors are usually permanently open and the hinges are exposed to the sun, during winter they are open/closed about 20 times a day.

Anyway, very happy with the result, took an hour or so but it was good to be out in the sun on such a nice canberra morning.

Cheers,

GW.

**journeyman Mick** · 17th August 2003, 09:38 PM

Hard to tell without seeing it if I would've approached it differently. Presumably you didn't move the top hinges so the doors are sitting where they were originally. The brass strip on your threshold may have been added later and might be the cause of the problem. Or maybe the jamb itself has somehow crept down, causing the door to stick, or maybe the threshold has grown/swollen. Like I said, hard to tell, but the main thing is that it's working now and you're happy with it.

As far as filling the old rebate, if the jamb is painted then either bog or ply is fine, but if it's clear finished then you'd best dress down some similar species timber and plant that in there. I spent a few hours in the sun too this afternoon and worked up quite a sweat, spring is on its way up here.

Mick

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