Warped door put to salvage test

Q: Our large -- 48 inches by 83 inches -- and very heavy wooden front door no longer closes tightly because it is warped.

The hinge side is even all the way. But, when closed, the side with the lock is flush with the molding at the top but flares along the length to the bottom, where it sticks out by 3/4 inch. It is a challenge to insert the dead bolt.

Is there anything we could do to salvage the door? If not, what replacement options do we have? Ideally, we'd like to keep the large size, but we could be persuaded otherwise. We're not locked in to a particular material.

A: First try to salvage the door. With some patient adjustments to the hinges and the warped side of the door, there's a pretty good chance you can make it serviceable.

If your salvage effort is unsuccessful, we see your options as:

• Maintain the existing frame and have a custom door built and hung;
• Remove the door, frame and all, and install a new unit in the rough opening;
• Reframe the rough opening and install a standard unit.

We'd opt for option one or two because, for aesthetic purposes, it's important to maintain the size of the front door. But a new entry door of that size coupled with the wages for a skilled carpenter to install it would cost you not hundreds but thousands of dollars.

So the first thing we'd try is to correct the way the door sits in the frame. We'd do that by adjusting the hinges. Because the door is very heavy, we bet you've got at least three hinges -- more likely four.

The lower portion of the lock side of the door is kicked out, so the biggest adjustment will be to the top hinge. Smaller adjustments should be made on the middle one or two hinges. The bottom hinge will remain where it is.

The goal is to move the top hinge toward the interior of the house so that the opposite side on the bottom will move toward the exterior, reducing or, with luck, eliminating the gap created by the warpage. A 1/4-inch relocation of the top hinge should result in a 1/2-inch or larger movement of the lower leading edge of the door toward the jamb. ...CONTINUED

All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.