Door problems

TIMES INT'L

Welcome back to another DIY project! This time around we will look at some small but pesky door problems.
Recently, I’ve had to make a fix on a latch that won’t lock, took just less than 5 minutes and was extremely satisfied afterwards! These problems are like dripping faucets, they’re relatively small, but they eat at you.
So sometimes we have doors that won’t close properly, either you have to lift them up slightly or press them down, or the latch won’t go in.
The first thing you should check is the hinges, see if they went loose, just retighten and you should be back to normal. The other thing to check after is the strike plate, either by poor positioning in the first place or just by the door settling, it would just be misaligned.
Usually, it is just by about 1/8 of an inch or thereabout. You can either take out the strike plate, file it down, or you can re-position it.
Before you use your screwdriver and unscrew the holding screws, check and see what position you have to move it, if you have to lift the door up, then the plate has to move down slightly and vice versa. You can use some craft paint to mark the door bolt and you will see on the plate where the paint rubs off, so you know how much and in what direction you need to move.
Additionally, sometimes it is necessary to widen or enlarge the hold, make sure you use a small and sharp chisel to do this, take your time and chip away small pieces at a time, you do not want to ruin the finish.
For bolts, when they stick or are out of position, don’t panic, usually it’s just the door settling and all you have to do is re-position the catch on the frame, most times you can use back the same screw holes, just remember to take out small pieces with the chisel and keep checking the fit, by bolting the latch, tighten up again, with the bolt in the locked position too.
If the door is dragging or it is misaligned by a lot, you will have to remove it…so we have a bigger project to look at next time!

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