Door Pops Open On it's Own! Or My door is binding! WHY?

There are a couple binding issues doors can encounter in both new and old doors or new doors in old frames...lets take a look why this may be happening......




New doors in New Frames


You have installed your new door, shimmed everything perfectly, or so you think, you close the door and it pops open just before it closes all the way. What causes this and what can you do to eliminate it?

This is a typical door installation problem. You are experiencing what is called hinge binding. This happens when the hinge side of the jamb has a slight bend in towards the door. The hinges or the edge of the door are making contact with the jamb prior to the door completely being closed. In other words the jamb is not at a perfect 90 degree angle to the door and the door hits the jamb not allowing it to completely close. This is caused by over shimming the door jamb opposite the hinge side. If you have used shims you may need to cut them out and start over.


New doors in Old Frames


Nice new doors to be installed in old frames can also be tricky as your house has settled and we aren't sure what has been done to the old doors over the years, shaved here and there... So when installing new doors in old frames might take some patience and time. Matching the hinges and measuring the heights and widths before going ahead and making any cuts is necessary. 


Measure twice cut once! Then once your height and width is to the best size possible you still might have to plane and shave off pieces of the door here and there to make it fit.


Old Doors in Old Frames


With Older doors there are numerous things that can happen I will name a few:

1. Old doors can rub at top, bottom or even edges of the latch side of frame or floor= house is settling and moving Solution: You might need to shave off some height of the door by plaining or using a saw to take off the proper amount necessary.

2. The door is rubbing on the latch side Solution: Take a look if your door is pulling away from the hinge side, maybe your screws are pulling out of the jamb. If this is the case you need to make "slivers/ wood nails" of wood slightly larger than the holes and hammer the slivers into the holes. After filling up the holes you should be able to re-screw and hang the hinge.

-dayna