Five doors that bind, a wet garage, and a walkthrough on Thursday
You have hung five solid-wood doors, 800 mm x 2100 mm x 40 mm, in a newly plastered house. The doors were delivered on Friday, still wrapped in plastic, and the site stored them flat on the concrete garage floor with no spacers, where they stayed until Tuesday. The bathroom and kitchen tiling is not finished, and the finished floor level will rise about 25 mm. After hanging, all five doors close but bind near the top on the strike side, and the latch will not fully engage on two of them. A 6 mm gap has opened at the bottom of the hinge jamb, and the head gap varies from 2 mm at the hinge side to 7 mm at the strike side. Relative humidity on site has been around 85 per cent and the house has no ventilation running. The architect arrives on Thursday for a walkthrough and the client wants the job signed off then.
1. Diagnose the likely causes of the binding. What do you check before adjusting anything?
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The pattern points to more than one cause, so measure before you plane:
- Moisture movement. Solid wood was stored flat, unwrapped, on a damp slab in 85 per cent humidity. One face and the bottom edge take up moisture while the plastic trapped some of it elsewhere, so the door swells across the grain and can cup or twist. On an 800 mm door, a few millimetres of movement is normal and enough to cause binding.
- The frame. Check the jambs for plumb and the frame for twist, and compare both diagonals of each opening. A twisted frame produces exactly this symptom - tight at the top strike side, a gap opening up elsewhere.
- The door itself. Measure the diagonals of each leaf; if they differ, the door is out of square, not just swollen.
- Hinges. Confirm the hinges are correctly set, seated, and screwing into solid material, and that the screws are the right gauge and length.
The 6 mm gap at the bottom of the hinge jamb and the varying head gap suggest the frame or the door geometry, or both, rather than a simple need to plane the edge. Note also that the final floor is not laid, so the undercut cannot be set - the doors cannot be finished until the finished floor level is known. That alone makes Thursday premature.
2. Set out the corrective sequence, including what should have happened before the doors were hung.
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Before hanging, the doors should have been unwrapped, stood or stacked flat on spacers in a dry, ventilated room in the house for at least several days so they could reach equilibrium with the site conditions, and then sealed on all six faces - including the top and bottom edges - before hanging. Hanging timber in a wet house and sealing it later is how doors end up binding.
Now:
- Take down the affected doors, remove the hardware, and let them equilibrate in the room with ventilation running. Record moisture readings of door and frame if a meter is available.
- Correct the openings: pack and adjust jambs to plumb, brace out any twist, and fix the frame properly before refitting.
- Re-check each door for square and flat; plane only after the timber has stabilised, and take equal amounts off each edge where possible so the margins stay even.
- Refit with correct hinge positions (three hinges on a 2100 mm solid door), set the latch and strike so the door pulls in evenly, and keep 2-3 mm at the head and jambs.
- Seal all faces, then leave the bottom trimming until the finished floor is laid - typically 8-10 mm above the finished floor, more over carpet.
Sequence matters: planing before the frame is corrected wastes the door, and sealing before the timber has stabilised traps the problem in.
3. The client and architect want a sign-off on Thursday. What do you do, and what goes on paper?
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Do not sign a completion document for work that is not complete. Explain briefly and without drama that the doors have not reached their final condition because the site is still wet and the finished floor level is not set; a signature now would transfer the risk of a latent defect to you.
Instead, present a punch list on paper with each item, its cause, the action, who is responsible, and a target date:
- Doors removed, acclimatised, refitted, sealed - carpentry, your responsibility.
- Frame adjustment - carpentry, before refitting.
- Final bottom trim - cannot be done until the finished floor is laid by others; that is a dependency, not a defect, and it is recorded as such.
- Ventilation and dehumidification running - a site condition the client controls.
Walk the architect through the list, take photographs, and record the discussion in the site diary the same day. If a partial sign-off is wanted, sign only for the items that are genuinely complete and note the exceptions and conditions on the document itself.
The professional point: honest bad news on Thursday costs a conversation. A signature that hides an open item costs a return visit, a replacement door, and your reputation.