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LegacyGT
14th November 2006, 12:02 PM
Our weatherboard home is built slightly on an angle and the back door has a huge gap at the bottom and still doesnt open fully because it gets stuck on the flooring when about 75 degrees open.

Is there any way i can fix this? is there a special type of hinge that i could use or something?

silentC
14th November 2006, 12:17 PM
Get your spirit level out and see what's out of whack. Is the door leaning into the room at the top? Is the wall out of plumb? What about the floor, is it level? There might be something you can do but you need to work out what is actually out of plumb/level first.

Old Codger
15th November 2006, 09:22 PM
you can get rising butt hinges that will lift the door as it opens
or you could put a slightly wider hinge (broad butt) on the bottom to move the pin further away and cock the door up as it opens. This sort of thing is often done on gates on a sloping driveway.
But I think Silent is right and you should look at where the problem is and try to correct the wall or frame or floor framing supports.

rowie
15th November 2006, 11:07 PM
If the horizontal edges of your door are parrallel, unscrew the bottom hinge from the jamb and place a strip of timber/cardboard/whatever that is equal in thickness to the amount you need the toe of the door to rise. And, or, mortice the top hinge further into the jamb. Do a bit of both if you want a good job. Plane off the bottom vertical edge of the door if it touches the jamb when closed. If top gap looks good when the door is closed, plane or saw the bottom edge till it is square to the hinged side and add one of those weatherstrip things to the bottom of the door to fill the gap.

silentC
16th November 2006, 08:40 AM
The door is hitting the floor when it is swung open (75 degrees). It's probably not square in the frame either, but that wont cause it to hit the floor. Either the hinge side of the jamb, or the whole wall, isn't plumb, or the hinges are not set equal from the inside edge of the jamb, or the floor isn't level or there is a hump in it. There's no point packing the hinges because all that will do is square it up to the jamb, it will still hit the floor when it swings open.

If it's the wall, unless the wall can be straightened, which might be a major job, the easy way would be to hang the door plumb using a broad butt hinge on the bottom, or just moving the existing hinge out. This will leave it protruding a bit from the bottom of the jamb and not closing against the stops, which will cause a draft, so you'll also need to look at the stops. If they are loose stops, you can move them but if it's a rebated jamb you have a problem.

If it's a hump in the floor, then you can get underneath and see if there's a problem there. Probably not much you can do about it though, unless you want to get into replacing stumps.

silentC
16th November 2006, 09:03 AM
Actually, I've had a think about it and packing the bottom hinge might do it if the jamb isn't plumb in the opening. Better get that spirit level out.

LegacyGT
20th November 2006, 02:11 AM
got the spirit level to the door and the jamb with the hinges on it seems fine.

the floor is wonky and the opposite side jamb is out too.

conwood
20th November 2006, 01:52 PM
If none of the above suggestions are suitable you could consider hinging the door from the other side?????
Or, get underneath and pack/fix stump to re-level the floor. I'll be doing this in the next month or so.

Cheers,
conwood

silentC
20th November 2006, 02:02 PM
Trouble is, he has a hump in the floor, so it needs to be dropped, not packed. If the flooring is sitting on the joists, and the joists are on the bearer, then there's not much to be done. I doubt you'll want to try and jack up the whole wall just to raise the door.

I think you really only have a couple of viable options: cut more off the door and use a weatherstrip to seal it as per Rowie, or adjust the hinges/try a broad butt hinge in the bottom as per Old Codger. I don't know if the rising hinges would work because you might bind against the jamb head before the door is open enough to clear it? Not sure, haven't seen them in action.

But first, get underneath and at least see if you can work out why the hump is there. You might have other problems that need attention... How high is your threshhold? What sort of hump are we talking?