How to keep a door from swinging open?

[jharvey963]

One of the bathroom doors in my house won't stay closed unless it is closed all the way. If you just flip it "kinda" closed as you enter, within 20 - 30 seconds it will have swung all of the way open again.

The door itself seems to be plumb (is that the right word?) in the jamb: that is, when the door is closed, the gap between the door and jamb seems to be about equal everywhere. I haven't taken a level to it to see if it is out of vertical.

Why does the door swing open?

Is there any simple thing I can do to prevent this from happening? I've thought of unhanging the door and trying to remove as much lubrication as I can from the hinges and pins, but I don't know how effective that would be.

Thanks,
J.

[Szlater]

Fit a doorcloser

[gotpasswords]

A quicky thing you can try is to pull out one of the hinge pins, lay it on a flat rock or concrete floor, and give the middle of the pin a light tap or two with a hammer. Just enough to put a very slight (invisibly small, actually) bend in it, and that should be enough to keep it from flopping open, but not so much that the door takes a struggle to open or close.

[KneadToKnow]

Originally Posted by jharvey963

Why does the door swing open?

Looks or not, the door is probably swinging open because it is not plumb in one direction or another. The old-school quick fix for this is to take out one of the hinge pins, bend it ever so slightly, and re-insert it.

Linky with pic

[Joey P]

Originally Posted by Szlater

Fit a doorcloser

I don't think the OP want's it to close, I think he just wants it to stay where he leaves it. I'll leave that to the carpenters though. I've never been good with that kind of stuff.

[beowulff]

"Plumb" doesn't mean parallel to the jamb. Plumb means perpendicular to the earth. So, your house has probably settled, and the wall is out-of-plumb. You need to shim a hinge, or do one of the fixes above.

[control-z]

That's cool, I actually have two doors in my house that have this problem. I'll have to give it a try.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Originally Posted by beowulff

You need to shim a hinge...

This is probably kinder than bending the pins. "Shimming the hinge" here means putting a thin shim, like the kind of cardboard you get from a cereal box, under the leaf of the hinge that's on the jamb side. I think for a door that swings open, you do the bottom hinge. You may need to experiment to find the right hinge and the right thickness of shim. Don't go too thick, or you'll wrench the hinge.

[panache45]

Originally Posted by beowulff

"Plumb" doesn't mean parallel to the jamb. Plumb means perpendicular to the earth. So, your house has probably settled, and the wall is out-of-plumb. You need to shim a hinge, or do one of the fixes above.

That's what I've been thinking. The door may be in alignment with the jamb, but not with true vertical. Gravity is opening the door. And if your door hinged on the other side, it would always be closing. Anyway, unless the misalignment is major, the hinge-bending method should work. Just be careful not to overdo it, or the door won't move at all.

[Leaffan]

I've heard that applying some candle wax to the hinge pins could also provide the required friction to keep the door in place.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Article in the New York Times says the following: "If a door swings open by itself when not latched, make a [cardboard] shim only half as wide as a hinge leaf. Loosen the jamb leaf of the upper hinge and install the shim behind the part of the leaf closest to the hinge pin. Retighten the leaf. If a door swings shut by itself, install a half-size shim behind the jamb leaf of the lower hinge instead."

Or in other words, the direct opposite of what I said earlier.

[jharvey963]

Originally Posted by Sal Ammoniac

Article in the New York Times says the following: "If a door swings open by itself when not latched, make a [cardboard] shim only half as wide as a hinge leaf. Loosen the jamb leaf of the upper hinge and install the shim behind the part of the leaf closest to the hinge pin. Retighten the leaf. If a door swings shut by itself, install a half-size shim behind the jamb leaf of the lower hinge instead."

Or in other words, the direct opposite of what I said earlier.

Well, I finally got around to working on this door and wanted to let you know the results.

I initially tried the "bend the hinge pin" solution first on the top hinge pin, then on the bottom hinge pin also. This seemed to help marginally.

I then followed the advice above. The first two pieces of cardboard (actually, from a 24-can case of Coke) didn't seem to change the behavior much. I then got a third, thicker piece of cardboard and inserted it with the other two under the hinge. That did the job! The door now doesn't swing back open when you flip it closed. If you put the door half way between open and closed, it stays there and doesn't swing open.

Thanks for everyone's help,
J.

[control-z]

The hinge pin bend fixed one of my doors and helped the other one. I'm happy.