Home DIY

Do heavy wooden front doors warp?

Mine has started not open jng easily and seems to catch on the bottom edge and where the lock mechanism is, meaning it is too tight a fit to easily unlock with the key from outside.

To make this better I have shifted the lock housing in the frame back a bit but now can't do the second deadlock up.

All in all, it seems o have warped or twisted somehow.

How can I best diagnose this and who should I speak to about fixing it? Or is it new door time?

Can't you wait till @Airhead tells you the best way to do it.

PS No idea, there is specialist boat paints, but they are of an epoxy type so protect from the weather ingress and wear. Maybe a truck bedliner paint?

How old is the door? Are the hinges worn/loose, so the door has dropped?

Dunno how old, the hinges seem solid.

Asking age as some times new ish doors seem to swell with the weather as the doors aren't sealed/painted properly.

With the door open can you lift the bottom edge so the door can wiggle on the hinges?

No. As I said, the hinge's are solid, no movement on them at all.

Would it be more likely to be the frame warping?

Maybe. I dunno.

How do I diagnose? Or better who can I get to sort it? A carpenter?

Unfortunately, you sometimes have no option depending on what paint has been used, or if a very strong cement render has been applied previously. Standard process is a very coarse pad (a bit like a massive scourer) which rotates to cut the surface back.

Open door and close until it's just ajar by a few mm. Is the gap even from top to bottom when looking face-on and when looking sideways along the edge of the door?

If it's still hanging straight and has just swolen at the bottom, then you can just run a sheet of sandpaper underneath until it runs freely.

Here’s how I straightened my badly warped door using a couple of coach bolts, a couple of turnbuckles, and a section of threaded rod.

1 Attachment

Did you use steam or dampen the wood?

Does the door do this every year? Or since your modifications?

Wood's always on the move due to changes in RH.

Get a block plane and remove wood where it's catching. Don't take off too much, but just enough to make it open and close nicely.

Dampened repeatedly with a sprayer. Couldn't take the door off to soak in water as some people suggest.

Building conservation is a completely different game to restoration. If he's a true brickwork conservator, there's no way in a million years that he would be allowed to grind the face of brickwork off.

Never, never, never.

Ours becomes almost unusable twice a year with our crazy dry/wet and hot/cold cycles. Since our back porch is not built on a proper foundation and the door is along the side as opposed to the end, the sagging and rising of it regularly squeezes and gaps the door frame. I’ve planed the door over the years and added the most substantial weather stripping around. I find during dry spells (not during winter though obviously) if I strategically water the periphery of the porch it makes a big difference.

Both sides or just one? I have a bedroom door that needs to be straightened

I wouldn't adjust the door itself..changing the thickness will make it look odd... I would adjust hinges and and a scribe the door stops and follow the curvature. It will look fine I've done many.
Straightening may be hit or miss.. I suspect the wood will return to is preferred state once dried or tension is released.

I wasn't thinking about changing the thickness, but planing the edge where it catches on the frame.

You want to spray it? I don't have any simple advice for that process except, find someone who will spray it for you, in a proper spray shop. It's very nice when done properly. If you don't really need it sprayed then Zinnser stain seal followed by undercoat and top coats depending on what you want to protect it from. Indoors/Outdoors etc. You didn't give enough information to get a decent answer.

That's pretty standard, could be movement in the frame (house) or door. The hot weather causes a lot of expansion in front doors especially if they're painted dark colours.

Should have replied to you in the last comment! It's common for doors to warp. They are exposed to different climates inside and out so the wood responds by warping, they are also set in frames which move with the house. If the dry weather has caused your house to move a bit that could be part of the problem.

It's a carpenter/joiners job but it usually helps to have them doing more than just that. It takes a little thinking about how best to fix it and having someone with a sharp set of planes definitely helps. If I'm working somewhere and notice the front door has a problem I usually work out how to fix it while I'm coming and going through it.

You want to spray it? I don't have any simple advice for that process except, find someone who will spray it for you, in a proper spray shop. It's very nice when done properly. If you don't really need it sprayed then Zinnser stain seal followed by undercoat and top coats depending on what you want to protect it from. Indoors/Outdoors etc. You didn't give enough information to get a decent answer.

It's a marine ply panel that I'm using to provide a boot floor:

I'm going to stick carpet to the top, but wanted to paint the whole panel black before I did so.

I would use some black stick on vinyl on the underside and carpet on the top. Most paint will just be a liability, potentially marking the carpet. If you roll the sticky backed plastic over the edges of the ply it would be quite nice to handle too. The carpet will move to come undone at the raw edges too, unless it's designed to have loose cut edges.