Our front door has a breezy gap opposite the hinges that’s narrowest at the top, widest in the middle, and marginal at the bottom. Given the gap’s unevenness, I don’t see how shimming the hinges would help.
I took the moulding off the front of the jam (the moulding parallel with the door face), and it’s wiggly-stapled together (sorry for the technical jargon) so shimming the jam at the strike plate won’t work.
Here is a close-up of the gap and one of the wiggly-staples. I took this after taking off the decorative moulding on the front. Here is a broader image of the door in case the side windowmajig or other detail makes a difference.
Other possibly relevant details: after breakage (the door was shut with the deadbolt open), the door was changed. Not the full door/casing combination—the new door was simply put on the old door’s hinges. The deadbolt still reaches comfortably, but the latch just barely (1/8–1/4 inch?) makes it into its striky-hole (again, sorry for the technical language).
I looked for wider weatherstripping, but couldn’t find anything to help. Can I get house-Bondo and build up the trim on the inside of the jam? Can I use this as [del]a reason[/del] excuse to buy a planer to send furring strips through? Actually, can I simply take a ¼" or so strip that’s a little longer than the gap, sand down/taper the top and bottom to not cause opening issues, nail it to the inside of the jam and reattach the weatherstripping?
The casing definitely needs to either be replaced or built out to meet the door. Weather stripping is for tiny air gaps not chasms like you have. If you use a furring strip make sure you resecure the strike plate (which covers the strikey hole) with longer screws so it’s totally secure.
There are weatherstripping products out there that will seal a larger gap, but you probably should have somebody take a look at it to tell you which one, as there are tons of them.
A big door like that suffers from having the sidelights just ganged to the door jambs and the whole unit put in a large rough opening–the studs are on the far sides of both sidelights and not against the door jambs. Much less stiff. Sometimes the side casing will help, but since there’s just the double one-by minus the reveals, there’s not much the really narrow casing can do as it’s all too flexible.
If the stud was immediately on the other side of the hinge jam, you would shim between the flexible jamb and the rigid stud to try to straighten the jamb. In the configuration you have, you’d have to cut those corrugated fasteners with a sawzall or a multitool first to separate the jambs. Fill in the gap with shims (most in the middle, less at the extremities) and see if that snugs up the door jamb to the door. Then lots of trim screws through the door jamb and shim into the sidelight jamb. Clamp before screwing so it has a chance to really be more rigid when you take the clamp off, and make sure the shims fill up the space between fully at each point. Probably 3 to 5 separate shimming points.
It might work, or it might just bend the sidelight jamb away. It also might look good at first, then revert with vigorous movement of the door. If you’ve got the tools and materials I would try it.
In looking at the close up of the gap, am I seeing outside daylight there? If so, there appears to be no “door stop” molding. Look at other doors in your home because all should have this molding.
The easiest temporary fix is to install the stop molding and weatherstrip it to close the gap.
I’m sure there’s stop molding. It’s a front door. I think the gap is just so wide that you can see daylight coming in around the molding.
We have the same problem except that our front door fits tightly at the top and loosely at the bottom. Weirdly, the old weather stripping sealed it up perfectly, but we had the house repainted recently and the painters removed it and tossed it out. I’ve tried various new types of stripping and none of them work. I currently have super-thick stuff in there but it makes it nearly impossible to close the door.
I just don’t want to pay somebody to re-hang the door when it worked fine, but I guess I’m out of options.
I am a carpenter and have quite a bit of experience with doors.
The goal in not to fill the gap that you can see from the inside. This gap allows the door to open and close freely. You want to check the weather stripping at the exterior stop (what the door closes up against). That weather stripping could be worn or lost its “smoosh”. (hows that for technical jargon ?!!)
You could decrease the gap between the latch and the strike plate by shimming behind the strike plate. If possible also move the strike plate closer to the ext. stop to make the door close tighter against the ext. weather stripping. This is a difficult adjustment as the strike plate screw holes will be right next to the old ones. A better option is install an adjustable strike.
Shimming the strike plate and/or shimming behind the hinges will close the gap at the strike and will allow the secondary latch to engage. This closes the door tighter for a better seal. (Technically, this isn’t the real purpose of the secondary latch)
I think your replacement door is just a little small for the opening, so shimming behind each hinge might be the best option.
I took the moulding off the front of the jam (the moulding parallel with the door face), and it’s wiggly-stapled together (sorry for the technical jargon) so shimming the jam at the strike plate won’t work.
[QUOTE]
Executive summary: instead of filling between door and jam; fill between jam and rest of wall.
If the existing piece of door jam is badly cracked, you might buy a new piece of it. You can hope the same profile is available…
The fitting of the foam or thin wood to the outside of the door jam doesn’t work so well.
Ordinarily the door jam attaches to a frame made from stud and top plate. But you have a window to support that door jam…The window is in a wooden panel, which has its own frame … To avoid confusion, that part of the window panel where your wiggly staple attaches, I’ll call casing.
remove striker side door jam from window panel casing
1b. remove a bit of top door jam… eg with a jigsaw. Or chisel. Or something.
You can fill any overcutting later.
Shim INSIDE to bring door jam to correct alignment. Basically, glue or nail bits of wood at numerous places from top to bottom.
Re-fit door jam, perhaps using numerous ( counter sunk) screws … into door face of jam, or however it attaches firmly. (no more wiggly stitches, they are not a permanent fix. )
Refit decorative cover, and fill any gaps, paint. or paint first then put decorative cover/alcatrave on.
So this is a door with a sidelight, and the sidelight is on the side of the door with the latch? The door jamb and the sidelight frame are fastened together with corrugated fasteners.
I have seen a lot of entry doors with this configuration and bad, uneven gaps at the strike. I think what happens is the sidelight gets pulled away from the door during transport, giving the frame a lantern shape where it is wider at the middle. The doors are thrown in very quickly by the framing crew, who do not have the time or skill to fix it. These doors are either installed with a nailing fin (in which case it ain’t going to move) or with brick mould. If yours has brick mould it is probably fastened with a few three inch screws through the jamb. These are usually hidden underneath the weather stripping. If the gap hasnt been filled with foam and/or caulking, you may be able to pull the screws and pry/shim the whole door frame over, eliminating extra width in the middle. This is a very big if and probably not a real option.
How big is the gap? It looks like a steel door, but most steel (and plastic/fiberglass) doors still have a wood frame that is 1/8 - 3/16" proud of the steel at the edge. You can plane this down at top and bottom to better match the bow in the jamb, and then pack out the hinges. This is the first thing I would try.
Another solution would be to cut or remove the corrugated fasteners and shim between the jamb and mullion to even the gap, then pack out the hinges with cardstock or veneer to tighten up the gap. Corrugated fasteners hold really well and do not come out easily, but you could cut them with a MultiMaster and a very fine blade. Work slowly and cut at a acute angle to reduce grabbing. You would have to re fasten the jamb with screws after.