Boy, did I learn my lesson... I decided instead of buying new doors (to save money), just to repaint the old sturdy wood doors I currently have. Of course, I took them off of the hinges so I could replace the hinges and doorknobs with new satin nickel hardware. Sounded easy enough for this newbie, but you can imagine the kind of trouble I've caused...

Only 2 out of 6 doors actually close (luckily, the bathroom is one that closes). Where do I begin to re-align them?

Also, when I replaced the doorknob, it appears that the hole isn't deep enough..the latch mechanism sits right up against the back of the hole and in some cases the latch sticks out so it catches on the strike plate. Is there a cheap tool I could use to shave the hole to make it a little deeper? Or is this not the way I want to go?

Thanks for the help!

 

First, what is preventing them from closing?

Are they too wide or too tall for the opening in the jambs? (If so, plane 1/8" off of the latch side or the top, repaint, then rehang them.)

Or are the hinges out of alignment so that they won't swing?

..."it appears that the hole isn't deep enough"... I'm assuming that you are talking about the hole in the jamb, behind the strike plate. Remove the strike plate and use a 1" paddle bit to make it deeper. Replace the strike plate after the door latches properly.

 

Did you take all the doors off at once? And, did they close before?

If so, (yes to both questions) - you possibly got the doors mixed up going back up. When installed, the doors/frames were matched up to each other... and over the years have "settled" together. Make sure you got the same doors back into the same frames.....