My Hallway Door Won’t Close – Do I Need A Renovation Expert For Repairs?

At BCJ Renovations, we not only provide home renovations and remodelling, but we also offer custom handyman and carpentry services. We understand that sometimes a home owner may not be in a position financially to pay for repairs so we put together videos which can be used as do-it-yourself repair examples.

In this video we were providing custom carpentry and handyman services to a home in Brantford. We addressed a common problem that occurs in homes quite frequently, namely the problem where a door won’t close properly because for some reason it’s become misaligned. If you’ve encountered this problem with one of the doors in your home, this video will explain the common reason for this problem, and what the steps that can be taken to remedy it.

Watch the video, and if you have any questions or would like to speak with an expert about your problems, feel free to contact us and we’ll help you with your issue.

As you’ll be able to see from the video, our Foreman Marc walks you through this common problem with doors and how needs to be done to remedy it.

As mentioned, we were at a home in Brantford in regards to a door that was improperly installed. Our customer requested that we come in and fix the door once and for all.

Custom carpentry and installing doors

I want to go over a few known facts in carpentry in regards to the installation of a door and as a customer, what one can look for as to whether the installation was done right, or why your door has suddenly stopped closing properly.

Some very specific and detailed things I want to point out is the fact that if you look at the surrounding “reveal line” of the door in question, you may notice that the seem between the door is tight at one end of the reveal line and that there’s a bigger gap at the other end of the reveal line.

Also, you can take a look at what we call the “header” of the door where it touches the frame, you may notice that there’s a larger gap between the header and the frame at one point, and less at the other point. In this case (see image) there was a half inch gap near the top hinge of the door, and a quarter inch gap at the opening. This is the end result of a door that’s not been properly installed by a renovations handyman or simply the result of wear and tear (usage) over time.

These gaps indicate that the door was installed or has become out-of-square. In an optimal installation the door would be completely square to the frame. Since this wasn’t the case, what we had to do is remove the frame trim, remove the door and jam, and we had to square the door-jam properly to the opening.

The importance of the door-stop moulding

There was also another problem. As we opened the door we noticed there was some foreign moulding just inside the frame itself. The moulding in this case is called a door-stop. The purpose of this moulding is to stop the door into the jam-opening when the door is shut. On the open side of the jam you will notice that this door-stop went from an inch and 3/8 of an inch, (which has to be the same width as the thickness of the door) to two inches – this is misaligned – and the door was inset too far into the jam.

So we removed the door and jam, repaired it made sure that the door was operating properly. This was done by properly measuring each area we were working on and installing the door with the accurate measurements.

If your door is experiencing the same issues, and you follow the steps above, you can fix your door yourself too.

If you prefer to have one of our renovation handymen come out and fix your door for you that would not be a problem. Simply get in touch with us through one of our free quote forms on our site and visit our full renovation services (click here) page for more information.