A well-hung door should open when you want it to open and stay closed when you want it to be closed. If your door has a mind of its own, and drifts shut even when there are no drafts in the room, then you have a problem. It is usually quite easy to diagnose misbehaving doors. If your doors do will not stay open, this either means that the door has some loose hinges, or that there is a more serious problem with the door jab.

Doors that are incorrectly installed will swing shut by themselves, and may not stay closed properly. In many cases, correctly installed doors can become loose if the door frame shifts or settles and becomes warped. Fixing loose hinges is quick and easy, but fixing warped or mis-aligned door frames is more difficult.

Tools Needed

• Screwdriver
• Door stop
• Plumb line
• Hammer
• Vice

Time Required:

Fixing loose hinges takes just a few minutes. If the hinges are not the problem, then repairing the door frame may take an hour or more.

 

Step by step Instructions

1. Start by checking your door’s hinges. Support your door on a door stop (or a small pile of magazines), and then tighten the hinges of the door.
2. If the above does not fix the problem, check that the hinge pin is not over-greased. If you have recently greased oiled your door’s hinges, then removing some of the excess lubricant may fix the issue.
3. If excess oil is not the cause of the problem, then the door frame may have been shifted, causing the door’s hinges to become misaligned. You can check the alignment of the hinges by closing the door and performing a visual inspection, or by using a plumb line.
4. If the hinges are misaligned, you have a few options. You could use a shim to restore the alignment of the hinges, bend the hinge pins to increase the resistance, or completely re-align the door.

To Bend the Hinge Pins

1. Remove the hinge pin from one of the hinges, put it into a vice, and gently tap it with a hammer so that it becomes slightly bent.
2. Place the hinge pin back into the hinge, and then test the door. You may need to repeat the process with the other hinges to achieve satisfactory resistance.
3. Another way to provide extra support is to use a longer screw.

To Level The Hinges

1. Open the door and use a door stop to hold the door in a level position.
2. Slightly loosen the screws on the hinge that appears to be closest to the door’s frame. place a shim between the door frame and the hinge, so that the hinge is pushed towards the doorway.
3. Re-tighten the screws.
4. Test the alignment of the door.
5. If the door is still not properly aligned, remove the door itself from the frame, and remove the screws on the hinge that is hanging furthest in. Use a chisel to deepen the area where the hinge rests, and then replace the hinge.
6. To re-hang the door slip in the top hinge pin first, then the bottom one, and finally the middle.
7. Test the alignment again.
8. If necessary, repeat the process until the door no longer shifts open or closed by itself.

 

Some Final Tips

• Bending the hinge pins solves the symptoms of the problem, but does not actually fix whatever it is that has caused the hinges to become misaligned. It is a good stop-gap solution if you cannot, or are not allowed to, modify the door more extensively. However, if the problem reoccurs you should take steps to find out what caused the issue, and to solve it completely.
• Take care when adjusting the door’s hinges. If you use too large a shim, the door may not hang properly and may become difficult to open or close. If you encounter this problem, then instead of using a shim, deepen the mortise on the door itself. In some cases, you may need to move the hinges on the frame. If you do this, be sure to fill in the original hinge holes. One easy way to do this is to fill the hole with cocktail sticks and woodworker’s glue, then cut the sticks down to size and paint over them once the glue has dried.
• Doors can be quite heavy and unwieldy. It is a good idea to have someone working with you when you remove the door from the frame. Do not risk injury by attempting to take on heavy jobs unassisted.
• You can fix a door that opens on its own by following the same procedure, except instead of working in the top hinges, you target the lower hinges instead.

Conclusion

You should not need door stops for all of your interior doors. As long as there are no drafts (from open windows, or open exterior doors), then you should not need to use a door stop. It is a good idea to tackle loose hinges and swinging doors as early as possible, so you can quickly and efficiently determine whether there is a more serious problem.

If the door frame is completely out of alignment, then you may need to replace the entire frame. This is a much more complex job, and before you attempt it you should call in the experts to determine why the fame is so badly out of alignment. Subsidence can be a serious issue, and is not something that you should ignore. If your door frames change alignment suddenly then it is worth investigating what may have caused this.