Hoping to get some advice. I have a basement walkout door that has four adjustment screws for the threshhold, three of them turn pretty easy with a flathead screwdriver, the other one won't budge. The house is only 3 yrs old, so it's not rusted or anything. The slot in the screw is a little stripped, so I can't get a good grip on the thing to turn it (at least not with a normal flathead screwdriver). I have a very small air space between the bottom of the door and the portion of the threshold where this screw is located. Not a big deal, but large enough that I've got some little bugs getting through. I was going to look for a large head flat screwdriver (like 1/2" wide or so) to see if that will allow me to grip the adjustment screw better. Any other suggestions on how to get this thing loose? Thanks, Nuzy

Here's the situation: My wife wanted to replace the front door (typical steel cheapo door) with a nice solid mahogany door. The door was just a little to tall for the door frame, and lacking a table saw, I wasn't about to make the cut myself. My wife was anxious to get it installed, so she hired the son of a friend of ours to install it. Now, the kid has been in framing for the last 7 years, and he's sitting for his contractor's license. I couldn't get any of my contractor clients to get to it soon enough, so I went along with it, figuring that he would do all right. I was wrong. He secured the hinges to the jamb and the door with half-inch screws. Apparently, he hadn't heard about this little thing called "gravity," and was quite unconcerned that the hinge was separating from the jamb because the half inch screw couldn't counter the weight of the door. Consequently, the door wouldn't close because the side opposite of the hinges would hit the jamb. So rather than using a longer screw to secure the hinges to the jamb, he decided that cutting the door was the best alternative to fix the issue. And cut he did--at a angle--with a framing saw. When I got home, I saw the separating hinge and promptly replaced the half-inch screws with three-inch screws. The hinge sucked up to the jamb nice and tight. Now, though, there is a 3/4-inch gap on the opposite side (you can even see outside through the narrow gap between the door and weatherstripping), and the door is a solid half-inch narrower at the top than it is at the bottom. There is also a noticeable "dog-leg" on the side of the door. The kid botched the job, plain and simple. Unfortunately, the kid can't comprehend what he did wrong, and he thinks he was doing us a favor by installing the door (even though he got paid, and even though we gave him the first shot at a bid on an addition). Being a lawyer who does construction litigation from time to time, I know precisely what I can require--and get--from him. He has said he can shim the door hinge to even out the gap, but that really isn't acceptable to my wife. But, he's the son of a friend, and it's not worth the money to me to cause problems there. My reasoning is that if he doesn't understand what he did wrong (I don't think his youthful and apparently fragile ego will allow it), he will simply spin it to family as us being unreasonable and fussy. I don't need that sort of hassle (or karma) in my life. The door is not a complete loss. The original cut was pretty narrow, and I figure that an arbor saw could straighten out the cut and remove the dog-leg. But then, of course, there's the jamb. I'm thinking that I could remove the interior and exterior door casing, rebuild the jamb with slightly wider stock, and replace the old casing with wider casing to camoflauge the fact that one side of the jamb has been moved in. I estimate that the jamb will move in about half an inch. But then again, sometimes I complicate things. Does anyone have suggestions on a simpler way to remedy the problem? Of course, replacing the door is an option, but I'd prefer to avoid that expense if possible.