door does not meet weather stripping

I finally got a chance to investigate the draft coming from the front door and need help trying to solve it. The door is steel, the frame is wood, and the house is stucco over block. The door opens and closes correctly and has the same size gap all around, so it looks square in the frame. However it does not close all the way on the bottom half. When I close the door all the way, it is tight on top and seems to latch correctly, but on the closing edge near the bottom (not the bottom itself, the side near the bottom) I can see light coming through the gap between the door and weatherstripping.

What sounds like the best way to fix this? I would need a good half inch of weather stripping to make it meet the door and that would cause problems closing. Do I need to move the hinges or the frame, or is there an easier solution?

 

Open the door 1 1/2", until the door just starts to clear the jamb opening. According to what you have explained, if you watch the top and open the door until it just starts to clear, you will probably have a much larger gap on the bottom.

What that means is your door is racked, with the sides not being plumb with one another. This is probably because your wall is not plumb. To solve this, the entire door frame would probably have to be taken loose, and the jamb would need to be adjusted so as to make the door hit on the weatherstripping evenly.

This problem has the same solution as what is described in the following thread: http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=246733

 

I would take off the strike plate and close the door. Push on the door, at the handle, a reasonable amount and see if the light is still comeing through. If its not coming through then all you have to do is adjust the strike plate. If you can still see light then I would call the door manufacturer and ask for a beefier weatherstrip, you should only require one piece (the strike side). If you put a thicker one on the hinged side you will run the risk of the door binding.

Rest assured, you do not have a crooked wall. Walls don’t ‘all of a sudden’ go out of being plum. What has happened to your door is that the door itself has warped. Contrairy to popular belief even a medal door can warp because the core of the door is wooden. You see this kind of door movement with doors that are on the south side of a house due to excessive sun exposure. I would only use the “pull the door and start over” method as a last resort method. Good Luck

 

This may be simpler than you think, and all the responses are right on. You will have to determine which one is the best solution.
Place a short (6" or so) piece of 2x4 with the grain lateral to the brick mold at the bottom of the door latch side on the outside. Tap on the 2x4 with a hammer and see if there is any movement. If so, you may only have a shifted door threshold/sill. Considering the movement, countersink a #8 hole in the brick mold about 8" up from the bottom on the latch side and install a 3" screw into it, allowing it to pull the brick mold and subsequently the threshold inward enough to close the gap you mention.
Repost with what you decide to do and the results. Very interesting.

 

Peladu is correct in stating that a warped door could be another possibility. However it was not stated how old the door is, whether this condition happened all of a sudden, if it has gotten progressively worse over time, or if your door was recently replaced and you have noticed this "draft". If the door is not secured well, it might have just come loose on one or more corners (no longer plumb), leading to the gaps.

What I did not state in my earlier post, but is included in the other thread, is to check both sides of the door with a 6ft level- they should both read the same. I believe the other thread also mentions the possibility of a warped slab.

 

Thanks for the advice, I think it will help. I'll have to try on the weekend when I'm home while the sun is shining but moving the strike plate may help. I can pull the door closed farther than the latch closes it and from the outside in the dark it certainly looks better. Looking closer I noticed the jamb was mortised for a strike plate with rounded corners but the one there has sharp corners. Maybe it's only a matter of cutting out those corners to move the strike plate enough.

Your comment on the door warping in the heat is spot on although I do not see any warping. I am also having a problem with the storm door, but it looks like the two issues may help explain each other. Maybe the greenhouse effect of the storm door helped the primary door to warp while the increased air leakage from the primary door in the winter built up humidity that caused the storm door to not close.

I do not know the age of the door or the problem. We've been in the house alittle over a year and it's been like this. With the cold and the current price of natural gas, this is finally bubbling up to the top of my list.

 

For those of you interested... I have another fix for a door that isn't plumb. Usually (9 out of 10 times) the gap is at the top, don't ask me why, it just is. So what I do is i remove screws that fasten the hinge to the door slab from the top hinge. I then reinstall the screws into the slab 1/4" or so further to the inside. The right size dowel rod will fill a screw hole nicely. Moving the hinge to the inside of the slab forces the door outside to contact your weatherstripping more. If your real fussy, you can move the middle hinge half the distance you moved the top hinge. This is assuming it is only a standard height door(3 Hinges) and not an 8' door(4 hinges). It will not work in severe cases, but sometimes you only need 1/8" " or so. Spacial relations help to picture this fix. If your gap is at the bottom, do this to the bottom hinge. It has worked for me many times in the past. I hope it works for you too.