Adjust sagging bedroom door

[gotoPzero]

I have a bedroom door that wont latch. If you look along the top of the door there is about a 20mm gap at one end to the top of the frame and no gap at the other end.

So over time the door has basically sagged down - which means the bolt misses the keeper by about 20mm.

Looking online a lot of guides show the best way to fix this is to bend the hinges out at the bottom and in at the top till the door sits straight. Thats great if you can access the hinges.

On the door I have the hinge is shrouded by the frame, which means you cant easily get purchase on it. Also it looks like the hinge pins are captive - as best as I can see.

The doors are old, very old, and they have been painted many times, so if I go trying to remove the hinges its going to make a right mess through how many layers of paint I dont know. At the moment they look fairly tidy.

Any one got any other ideas? I cant get mole grips on them either - just not enough of the hinge is exposed.

[Belle427]

Probably easier to move the keeper, not ideal but maybe the frame has moved.

[wolfracesonic]

I don’t think bending the hinges (even if you could) will help anything, if you have a 20mm gap top left say, eliminating that by bending the hinge will just leave you a 20mm gap bottom right. The door either needs to be taken off and squared up with some dowels through the tenons, or if it isn’t a M+T door, the top edge trimmed to lift the whole door up 20mm, this would involve altering the hinge recess.

[Cow Corner]

Has it only recently become an issue or is it a seasonal thing?

Would seem unusual for an old door to suddenly sag, unless the atmosphere has suddenly changed. Are you sure the frame hasn’t moved - any cracking to the wall above?

[gotoPzero]

Cow Corner said:

Has it only recently become an issue or is it a seasonal thing?

Would seem unusual for an old door to suddenly sag, unless the atmosphere has suddenly changed. Are you sure the frame hasn’t moved - any cracking to the wall above?

We only moved in 6 months ago. Looking at the wear on the keeper I would say its been like that for years probably slowly getting worse and now totally misses and does not latch.

Door is c.100 years old so I think its just moved over time.

[Whoozit]

Move the keeper is a good suggestion, so long as the bolt is still long enough to be a good fit.

Are the hinges properly screwed in?

A bodge I've used before is to unscrew the bottom hinge and put a couple of washers behind one of the screws to lift the door up.

Or all three in combination!

[gotoPzero]

Little update, I have replaced all the screws. The old ones were quite short. In the process I packed out the bottom hinge with some cardboard (might not be a long term solution - washers a good idea).

The door looked a lot better.

Then took a craft knife to the strike plate and carefully cut round the paint and managed to get it off without too much damage. There is quite hole behind... so the door now latches (into the wood only) fine.

So my job tomorrow is to clean all the paint off the strike plate and file perhaps 7-10mm off the bottom edge of the hole to allow the latch to sit in.

Think we will be good then - thanks all.