Entry door Sagging

Lynda in FL


For 2 years I have been trying to find a contractor to help me get my front entry door adjusted on my 1913 cottage. I have had some tell me to buy a new door, others said to jack up the house, others said add another hinge, another said to cut off the bottom on one side and add to the top. What’s the right answer? I really want to keep the door! Here's a picture.

This is a great example of the fact that there’s always more than one solution to most home improvement problems. However, whoever told you to cut off one side of the door and add a piece to another side needs to consider a different career. I also tend to disagree with the “just buy a new door” theory. The problem isn’t your door, it’s the opening. After 98 years, you can bet on some settling of the house and, possibly, a foundation pier has sunk or crumbled. Let’s look at some geometry for this one. Your door opening, when it was first created back in 1913 was, hopefully, a rectangle. In other words, the opposite sides were parallel and the corners were all 90-degree angles. Over time, your rectangle has become a parallelogram! The opposite sides are still parallel, but there are no more 90-degree angles! Fix the opening and your door will be fine. The bad news is that to do this right, you need to remove the door, the casing, jamb, frame…everything down to the studs. A good carpenter who knows how to use a 4-foot level and a framing square is the right man or woman for the job. The uprights or sides will be easy to repair. It may take a little extra ingenuity to make right the header or the threshold. Once you have your rectangle back (sides plumb and head/threshold level), you can replace the original door. Just a quick word about jacking up the house. If you have a fallen or damaged pier, then you definitely need to take care of that and, jacking up this area may, indeed, help with the door.