Door warped after painting

[Grahame Collins]

Hi everyone,
After a week of renovation the son and I constructed an internal wall and fitted an internal door. The door is a standard softwood frame with hardboard skin,nothing special.

It was hung on its hinges and fitted with lock and lock plate and opened and closed flawlessly for the best part of a week while the the rest of the room was completed and painted.

We removed the door and undercoated and painted the door jambs and architraves no problem,then undercoated and painted the door. We finish coated the door in enamel as were the jambs and architraves.

I am aware that painting one side only of any large surface is an invitation for warping. Given that, we top coated the edges first and then re hung the door and did the finish coat to the broad surfaces while it hung back on its 3 hinges.

The door now has a 4mm warp in it and won't close on the original lock plate position. I know its only an adjustment but it means moving the lock plate screw hole positions (I'll fill the old ones with plasti bond and re drill ) but I am wondering was there anything else we could have done to avoid this warping. Its a pain in the bum as I had it fitting really well with equal gaps all round.

Grahame

[Dirty Doogie]

It has always been a common problem for me over the years that everytime I take a light weight honeycomb core door off and repaint it, I can never rehang it so the striker plates, lock bolts line up as well (or at all) as they did previously.

I never considered that a door would warp during the painting process and put my problem down to the hinges not quite going back the same way on the jamb. Often my misalignment problems would be solved by loosening the jamb hinge screws and retightening them by hand.

By doing this I realised that before putting in any locks catches etc the door had to be hung with all screws in place in all the hinges instead of only 2 screws or less in each hinge. Also care has to be taken rehanging the door as the first top screw has a tendancy to not go back into the exact same hole centre due to the weight of the door.

[OBBob]

Hi Grahame

I'm not sure what the answer is but I feel your pain. There is an art to hanging doors and when you get it just right its a fantastic thing! Sorry it went pear shaped for you.

[Grahame Collins]

I was a bit miffed as I had picked the brains of the chippy staff members at school whose advice got me to the point of setting up with a perfect gap.

Where I stuffed up was hanging the door off one screw in each screw. Obviously those extra screws make quite a difference.
Thanks to the advice of the guys I can confidently go about re adjusting the said door . I will take wedges and chock the door outer edge base and reset the screws.

Thank you one and all for your help.

Grahame

[rod1949]

When you had the door off for painting did you have or leave it out in the sun to dry? You may find the sun has pulled it and you may need to reverse the action by putting it back in the sun the opposite way. Or lay it flat and chock the the two opposite corners with the other two free thus allowing it to re-settle.

[Grahame Collins]

Rod

The door never was left in the sunlight at any stage . I was very aware to the fact the it could warp. Everything that was done to it, happened inside .

It was laid on some plastic crates and and the edges undercoated first,then stood on its end and both faces undercoated. The edges were top coated and the door re hung on the hinges.The top cot was applied to the door surface via a roller.

I am sure its more hinge misalignment than warpage.

Grahame

[thesupervisor]

i always seal all the way around a doors edges with timberglow timber seal this must be done once all planing and sanding is compleated ive prob hung 1000 doors and have never had any probs with this method so far www.timberglow.com