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Posted by evodawg on June 20, 2008, 11:16 pm
David Nebenzahl wrote:
> On 6/20/2008 6:02 PM evodawg spake thus:
>
>> nospam@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>> The front door of my house is out of square. The top of the door
>>> slopes down from the hinge side to the lock side leaving a gap. Do I
>>> need to shim from the bottom? TIA
>>
>> Is the door out of square or is the house settling making it look like
>> it's out of square?
>
> Hardly matters, dontcha think? The door is out of square with respect to
> the frame.
Well I would think you would want to know why it's not square. But I guess
if I were you I'd just tackle the job without a clue.
>
> (Unless you think you can rectify this by jacking the house and squaring
> the door frame ...)
I'd think again if the house is settling and causing door problems, you'd
want to know. But I guess if I were you I'd just wish it away. And of
course shim the door. So I could shim it again a year later!
--
"You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"
Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586
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Posted by ransley on June 21, 2008, 12:34 am
wrote:
> The front door of my house is out of square. The top of the door
> slopes down from the hinge side to the lock side leaving a gap. Do I
> need to shim from the bottom? TIA
How old is it, my 80 yr old hinges are worn thin and allow a similar
sag, it is common. If you have exact same hinges inside your home take
off a bottom hinge and use it on top. even changing the bottom to top
might help a bit. A new hinge is best if you are lucky enough to get
the exact size and hole pattern. I will use a hinge off an interior
door some day to fix a similar issue. I dought a shim would work since
your pin and hole on top is worn larger, so it sags.
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Posted by nospam@gmail.com on June 21, 2008, 11:22 am
wrote:
> The front door of my house is out of square. The top of the door
> slopes down from the hinge side to the lock side leaving a gap. Do I
> need to shim from the bottom? TIA
Ok, here's some more info and some pictures... hope it helps....
Gap is as follows:
Across Top: 3/8" @ latch side, 1/8" @ hinge
Down Latch side: 3/8"
Down hinge side: 1/8" @ top, less than 1/8" @ bottom
http://picasaweb.google.com/rob.ainbinder/FrontDoor?authkey=ixsc9CH9pWk
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Posted by evodawg on June 21, 2008, 12:41 pm
nospam@gmail.com wrote:
> wrote:
>> The front door of my house is out of square. The top of the door
>> slopes down from the hinge side to the lock side leaving a gap. Do I
>> need to shim from the bottom? TIA
>
> Ok, here's some more info and some pictures... hope it helps....
>
> Gap is as follows:
>
> Across Top: 3/8" @ latch side, 1/8" @ hinge
> Down Latch side: 3/8"
> Down hinge side: 1/8" @ top, less than 1/8" @ bottom
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/rob.ainbinder/FrontDoor?authkey=ixsc9CH9pWk
It looks to me that the door frame is not plumb and level.
Is the casing plumb? That's a pretty good size gap. I'd pull the trim off
the hinge side and shim the bottom out if in fact the casing is not plumb.
Whats the gap at the bottom look like?
Rich
--
"You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"
Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586
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Posted by Steve on June 21, 2008, 3:12 pm
> wrote:
>> The front door of my house is out of square. The top of the door
>> slopes down from the hinge side to the lock side leaving a gap. Do I
>> need to shim from the bottom? TIA
>
> Ok, here's some more info and some pictures... hope it helps....
>
> Gap is as follows:
>
> Across Top: 3/8" @ latch side, 1/8" @ hinge
> Down Latch side: 3/8"
> Down hinge side: 1/8" @ top, less than 1/8" @ bottom
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/rob.ainbinder/FrontDoor?
authkey=ixsc9CH9pWk
That's a massive gap on the latch side. It looks more like 1/2". This is
a more serious problem than the top. The misaligned top is cosmetic.
Upside: The gap is nice and straight.
Downside: The latch is barely catching.
The top is out of square, but I can't tell if it's out of level. I'm
guessing that the door frame is racked down a little on the hinge side.
Somebody once applied caulk to the top hinge-side corner of the casing,
which tells me that corner separated once upon a time. That makes me
think the house has settled some. It's not terrible settling, or you'd
have cracks in the wallboard running up at an angle from the door
corners.
If you hired me, my best solution would be to rehang the door. That's
about a four- to six-hour job. It's not hard, just time-consuming:
remove the casing; cut the door out of the wall with a reciprocating
saw; rehang the door; reapply the casing; caulk; paint.
My second-best solution would be to put shims behind the hinges to close
up the gap on the other side. I wouldn't try to do anything with the gap
at the top, because it would require pulling the door out of the wall.
I like to have about 1/8" gap at the top, bottom, and latch side, with
1/16" at the hinge side. You might not be able to get that with the door
and frame you have. The door might have been replaced once upon a time,
and replacements are never as good a fit in the frame as a pre-hung
door.
--
Steve Bell
New Life Home Improvement
Arlington, TX
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