Home Improvements

[Sawdustr]

Good Evening Friends,

You are setting a new prehung door in an interior door opening. How will you know if you have the door hung, plumb and true, after it has been secured into the opening?

[handyman john]

I suppose you could spend all day with levels OR you could hang the hinge side plumg and then just CLOSE THE DOOR and use shims to adjust the gap before shooting all the rest in. But that's just me, a lazy guy at heart.

[Sawdustr]

Good Morning John,

That is one sure way of getting it where you desire to install it and I guess I am kind of in the same mode however, to really test if the door is hung correctly is the fact that the door will stay where you put it when it is open.

In other words after you open the door but, don't want it all the way open it will not move from the position you place it and it is then that you know the door has been hung properly.

Thanks for your reply.

[handyman john]

I suppose we should remind people that PLUMB is from BOTH directions. The HINGE face needs to be plumb as does the WALL FACE or side of the frame.

If either is not plumb you are absolutely correct, the door will either swing opened or closed without anyone's help (ghosts aren't doing that). 

And it's not just OLD buildings with that problem; I work IN one of my clients' buildings (2 years old) and NO DOORS are hung correctly. EVERY door has at least a 1/2" reveal on the latch side and almost every door is out of plumb.  With 47 numbered rooms and an additional 20 doors besides that I suggested to the building owner he should go back to the builder and insist the door hanger get FIRED. Since the builder is a "big guy" locally it is one of those "opportunities" for me to KNOW the terrible workmanship. When MY customers ask I have an answer for them.

[Dave in Md]

Ralph, once in a while you will get a door that will either open or close due to airflow,  an easy fix is to remove 1 hinge pin, and smack it in the middle with a hammer to give it a slight crook, the added tension when you replace the pin helps to hold the door in place.  I have one door in my hall that if my daughter went by it too fast would close a couple of inches and the next person down the hall would hit the edge. This was the fix.

[Sawdustr]

Hey Dave,

Great tip and I am still laughing about the daughter going by the door and heaven help the next person.

I couldn't resist a kudos for this one.

[Dave in Md]

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Sawdustr wrote:

Hey Dave,

Great tip and I am still laughing about the daughter going by the door and heaven help the next person.

I couldn't resist a kudos for this one.

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Next person was generally my wife, so.... not having a solution was not an option.

[RussBoyd]

Don't forget when hanging a door, besides not opening or closing by itself, the "reveals" are very important in a well hung door. Both the sides and the top.

[handyman john]

Yep, the building I am referring to above most doors won't LOCK because the strike plate is too far away and the door STOP strip on some doors never contacts the doors! 1/4" is acceptible - 1/8" is standard.