The Door That Rubs and the Instruction to Plane It

The symptom is on the latch side, but the defect is almost certainly on the hinge side.

• Hinge jamb plumb is the controlling dimension. With only a top hinge shim and a stud that is 3/8 in. out of plumb at the top, the hinge jamb is leaning into the room at the head. The top of the door swings toward the strike jamb as it closes - exactly the rub described.
• The head gap confirms it. A 3/16 in. gap on the latch side and 1/16 in. on the hinge side means the head and the hinge jamb are not square to each other. Planing the door edge does not change the reveal; it only widens the latch-side gap and shortens the door's life.
• Check before cutting: set a level on the hinge jamb (it should be plumb within about 1/16 in.), check the head for level (reported level - verify it), and check the rough opening width. A 32 in. door in a unit with 3/4 in. jambs is roughly 33-1/2 in. wide, so a 34-1/2 in. rough opening leaves about 1/2 in. of shim space per side - workable but tight, and the hinge side needs that space for shims.
• The floor matters too. The floor is out of level 5/8 in. across the opening; the unit must sit on the high side and the jambs are cut to fit, or the door will hang low on one side of the swing.

Sequence - plumb, level, then swing:

1. Set the unit on the high side of the floor and shim the hinge jamb at the top, middle, and bottom hinges until it is plumb in both directions (within about 1/16 in.). Shim directly behind each hinge.
2. Level and shim the head, checking that the head is square to the plumb hinge jamb.
3. Plumb and shim the strike jamb, keeping reveals even. Set reveals to about 1/8 in. and keep them consistent top to bottom.
4. Check that the door swings free through its full arc and latches without force; confirm the undercut clears the finished floor and any future threshold.
5. Fasten through the shims, not beside them, and trim shims flush after the unit is set.
6. Cut the jamb bottoms to match the out-of-level floor only after the unit is plumb - do not cut first.

When planing is acceptable: only after the jamb is plumb and the reveals are even, and only if the door still rubs. Then pull the door, plane the latch edge (or the top) in small passes, reseal the top and bottom edges of a hollow-core door, and re-hang. Planing a hollow-core door is limited to the solid stile width - you cannot take 1/8 in. off a hollow-core edge casually.

Do not plane to compensate for an out-of-plumb jamb.

Hold the trim and the paint on that opening until the door is right.

• Trim hides the joint, not the swing. Casing covers the jamb-to-wall gap; it does nothing about a door that binds. Once the casing is on and painted, the fix becomes trim removal, wall repair, and a repaint - not a shim adjustment.
• Sequence: shim and set the door, verify the swing, then case it, then paint. The painter should not be working around a door that is still being adjusted.
• Cost argument: 20 minutes of shimming now versus a punch-list item that comes back after the owner moves in. Water-based paint over a wet-caulked casing, or casing installed before the unit is secured, is a callback.
• Document the correction. Note the out-of-plumb stud and the out-of-level floor in the job record - the next door in that hallway will have the same conditions, and the crew should plan for them.