Ron Hazelton

How to Fix a Stuck Door

Windows & Doors

Savers

Doors

HOUSE DOCTOR TRANSCRIPT

“STUCK DOOR” PAT

Yeah, just like that.

RON

Boy, you really gotta slam that, haven't you?

PAT

You really do.

RON

And what about your latch here? That doesn't seem to work either.

PAT

Nope. It doesn't work either.

RON

Okay. Has it ever?

PAT

Never worked.

All right. So it sounds like the door might not have been fit properly. And it seemed also, when I tried to close this, that it was sticking a little bit right in here.

PAT

Yeah, during the damp weather, it seems to swell up and make it all the more difficult to close it.

RON

Well, welcome. This is Pat. She was just telling me about some problems here with her kitchen door.

These are kind of typical, actually, and sometimes they get worse as the weather gets wetter. So we're going to play detective here in the next few minutes, kind of find out what's causing some of these, and figure out how to fix them.

Well, let's start by seeing if we can get rid of some of this rubbing right here. Now, it looks to me like the side of the door right here is rubbing against the door jamb somewhere in this area, but I'm not sure exactly where. So here's one way we can find out. Pat, give me a hand here, would you? This is carbon paper, and believe it or not, you can still buy this. And I'm going to put the carbon side out toward the door. So, Pat, if you can hold that side right there. You could tape this up if you're working by yourself. Now I'm going to close the door…

All right, now, come up here and take a look. Look at this right here. You see the carbon has transferred to the side of the door right here, wherever there's contact. So what we're going to do is we're going to start by removing some of this material in precisely these spots.

When it comes to removing material from the edge of a door like this, well, you could use a file or rasp like these, but I think a much better tool is a plane. Now this is a little bit small, but for this job, where we're just taking material off in very small areas like this, I think this is going to do the trick. Let me get a couple of passes here. There we go. All right, now I could take probably just a little bit more off…

Let's set the blade a little bit deeper…

Okay, well, the door is clearing nicely. There's no contact between the edge right here and the jamb. So next, let's deal with this latch. Now, the way a latch is designed to work is that this tongue right here is supposed to go inside this strike plate right here. The problem is that if the strike plate is too high or too low, then the edge of that tongue catches either here or here. If it's out of position this way, it can catch on this edge or this edge instead of going directly into that hole.

One way to figure out how well this tongue or latch aligns with that strike plate is to take some lipstick and kind of paint the surface of the tongue or latch like this. Kind of coat the whole thing. Any color will do.

And then very slowly just close the door.

Now come around here and take a look at the strike plate. Here's the lipstick right here that was on the latch. Here's the top of it. Here's the bottom of it. As you can see, it falls pretty much in the center of this hole right here. So this being out of alignment up and down is definitely not our problem.

Now, the other possibility is that the strike plate is out of position horizontally. So to check that, we're going to put some more lipstick here right on the edge of the latch. And I'm going to retract the latch, close the door, press on it, and then kind of work the handle two or three times like this. This is going to hammer that latch against the strike plate.

Now let's go inside and see if we've got a mark.

Okay, now you can see the lipstick is right along this edge right here. That means that's where it's hitting, and we've got a couple of choices now. We can either try to move this forward, or we can try to remove some material right along this edge. And I'm going to go for that option right now.

Well, here's our strike plate. I'm going to clamp this in this small bench vise right here. There we go. And then we'll take this file, and this is a mill file made especially for metal, and we're going

to begin to remove some material right here. See the red right there? All right, we're going to just file this off a little bit.

Okay, let's give it a try.

How sweet it is, huh? Very nice. Okay, that's two down, one to go, this latch right here. Let's see how we're going to tackle that one.

Here, too, we'll use our lipstick technique. I'm going to paint the end of the bolt here, the deadbolt, completely all the way around. You want to be sure to get up close to the edges here like that. And then we'll retract this, close the door, and activate the deadbolt a few times.

Well, there's our lipstick mark right there. Now, we've got a little bit of a problem here. I can't file this away because you see the mark comes way over here. I'd only have a sliver of metal left, and since this is a deadbolt, well, that would render this strike plate virtually useless.

So we're going to take a little bit different approach here. We're going to actually move this plate, and we'll begin by taking it out.

Now, this strike plate has a security plate beneath it. We're also going to have to remove that.

All right, now that's about the amount of material I think I'm going to want to remove. Let's look at our strike plate again. See, this is how far that overlapped the hole right here. I'll give myself just a little bit extra, and we can start to remove this now with a chisel. I have to go very carefully here because I'm very close to the edge. I don't want to chip this out. So we'll just take this out a little bit at a time, work our way down here. I'll probably do most of this by hand. I may need to use a hammer as we get a little closer to the bottom here.

Now, because the strike plate is only moving over a small distance, the old holes here would be too close to the new ones. The screws would tend to slide into the old holes. So we're going to plug these up first by drilling a hole and then driving in some doweling right here all the way to the bottom. Remember, those were very long screws, about 3 inches. Then we'll take a chisel, and we're going to cut these off flush with the bottom of the mortise.

Now, using a self-centering drill bit, we're going to re-drill our holes here.

Got one there, one up here. Now I'm going to change to a longer bit and complete the pilot holes for the screws.

Now we reinstall the finished plate right here. The only thing we've got left is to deal with this little gap right here on the side. I'm going to fill that with some polyester resin. Now, this is often used by the auto body people under the name of Bondo, other brand names as well. But the nice thing about it is that we can put this in here, pack it in, and it'll set in probably, in this case, 5 or 10 minutes. I put quite a bit of catalyst in this. And we can clean off the excess.

Now, I've scraped away a lot of the excess polyester resin with a putty knife and waited until this has just begun to harden up. It's like hard rubber right now. Now what we're going to do is remove the strike plate, take the screws out. And now you see that area that we've just filled in right there. There's still a bit of this polyester resin left on the brass here and I'm going to use some soft scrub and clean this up kind of nicely. You've got to get this, though, before it gets really hard.

Well, this should complete our repositioning of the strike plate. We'll snug up these screws one last time. Of course, we'll paint this out right here. Now, let's close this door and see if it works.

Looks pretty good. Give it a try.

It latches?

PAT

Sure does.

RON

Deadbolt works?

PAT

That's perfect.

RON

Just one thing. As soon as you possibly can, get some paint on the edge of that door where I planed that down. That's raw wood right now.

So thanks for having us over. This is a good opportunity, really, to go through some of the common problems you might run into with your own door.

And, in fact, if you do have a door that won't latch properly, that scrapes, or the deadbolt won't work, well, one of these procedures ought to take care of it.

From the archives of the House Doctor

Few things are more frustrating in a home than a door that refuses to behave. In fact, sticking doors are among the most common household complaints, often showing up as homes naturally shift with seasonal humidity changes. Whether you have to slam it with all your might just to get it to stay shut or a deadbolt that won’t turn no matter how much you jiggle the key, a stubborn door becomes a daily nuisance that’s impossible to ignore.

In this video, we follow Ron as he walks us through the "detective work" required to diagnose the stuck door and how to solve it.

Finding the Problem

Before reaching for your toolbox, you need to understand why the door is failing. In order to do that, get a sheet of carbon paper and position it with the carbon side facing the edge of the door. You can have a partner hold it or use tape if you’re working alone. Close the door and watch as the carbon transfers to the side of the door where there is contact. You’ll see black marks that show precisely where the door is hitting - and it serves as a marker for the areas you will need to file down.

In the video, Ron shows us the black marks that were transferred to the door - exactly where he will shave the door to clear the jamb.

Which tool is best?

While you could use a file or a rasp, Ron recommends a plane as a much better tool for this task. A small plane is ideal because it allows you to take off material in very small, controlled increments.

With small movements, start removing material in precisely the spots marked by the carbon. Go slowly and check the clearance as you don’t want to shave off too much! You can always adjust the depth so that if the door still rubs, set the blade a little deeper to remove slightly more wood.

Ron warns that because you have planed the door, you are left with "raw wood". You must paint the edge as soon as possible to prevent future swelling from moisture.

Fixing a Latch That Won't Catch

If your door closes but won't stay shut, the problem is likely an alignment issue where the latch tongue is hitting the strike plate instead of entering the hole. For this, Ron's ingenious trick is beyond the toolbox - it involves a stick of lipstick.

Using lipstick, coat the entire surface of the tongue or latch. Then, close the door slowly, letting the latch make contact with the strike plate.

If the lipstick falls in the center of the hole, vertical alignment is not your problem.

Check horizontal alignment by applying lipstick to the edge, close the door, and work the handle two or three times to "hammer" the latch against the plate.

Filing the Strike Plate

If the lipstick mark shows the latch is hitting the edge of the plate, Ron suggests removing material from the plate itself.

Remove the strike plate and secure it in a small bench vice. Use a mill file (specifically made for metal) to file off the area where the lipstick marks appeared.

Resetting a Deadbolt Strike Plate

When a deadbolt won't engage, it may be because the alignment is so far off that filing the metal would leave only a "sliver" left, rendering the security plate useless. Ron’s solution is to move the entire plate.

After using the lipstick test to find the new required position, Ron uses a chisel to remove the wood necessary to shift the plate. He advises working very carefully near the edge to avoid chipping the wood.

Because the strike plate is only moving a small distance, new screw holes would be too close to the old ones. Ron fixes this by drilling out the old holes and driving in wooden doweling to the bottom and cutting flush, using a chisel to cut the dowels flush with the bottom of the mortise.

Ron uses a self-centering drill bit to re-drill the holes, then switches to a longer bit to complete the pilot holes for the long security screws.

Moving a strike plate often leaves a gap in the wood. Ron fills this with polyester resin, often known by the brand name Bondo.

Apply and Set: Pack the resin into the gap; it typically sets in 5 to 10 minutes if you use enough catalyst.
Clean the Excess: Scrape away excess resin with a putty knife while it is still "rubbery," like hard rubber.
Final Polish: Use a cleaner like Soft Scrub to remove any resin from the brass plate before it gets really hard.

Humidity fluctuates in the home, which can affect the way your doors shut. You may already know which doors are problems throughout your home. However, there are ways to control it with a dehumidifier.

By following Ron’s methods—using carbon paper to find rubbing spots, lipstick to check latch alignment, and polyester resin for a professional finish—you can restore operation to your stuck doors. If you found this guide helpful, be sure to check out our other step-by-step tutorials at housecallsdiy.com.