storm door doesn't close in winter

I have a storm door that doesn't close in the winter only, that I could use help figuring out. The door is an Aluminum Pella, the frame for the regular door is wood and the house is stucco over block. During the summer the storm door closes perfectly. In winter it will not close, and seems too wide for the opening. In both cases, it fits the same over the entire edge as well as the top and bottom, so doesn't seem to be crooked or have a non-square frame. Any ideas/advice on how to fix this?

What should the structure look like behind the frame anyway? Can I expect there to be some wooden structure or something? Otherwise, how does an aluminum door in a concrete wall change size so much in winter?

 

Aluminum will shrink a bit in the winter (cold) and expand a bit in the summer (heat), but that's not the problem. It's the wood door jamb that is swelling in the winture (moisture) and shrinking in the summer (dry).

Is it possible to mortise the hinges in the jamb 1/16" deeper? Sand the latch side of the jamb so that it's 1/16" wider and REPAINT IT. (Probably want to wait until summer for that, so that it's shrunk.)

 

So the door rubs on the latch side and won't go all the way shut?

Not sure where you live and what the temperatures are like, but in the winter, we have less humidity here than in the summer, so the only way this could be a humidity issue is if you are having so much air leakage (warm air leaving the home and hitting the cold air outside) that it is creating condensation on the hinge side of the door, which then pushes the hinge side of your storm door against the latch side, or vise versa.

The solution would simply be to take the screws out of the latch side z-bar... (On Pellas there is usually a vinyl snap-on cap over the screws) see if the z-bar will move away from the door at all so that it is more loose, then screw it back down in the new position, using new screw holes that you will drill. It only makes sense to position it where it will work year-round.

If the z-bar won't move away any further, then you'll just have to chisel or plane 1/16" to 1/8" of wood out so that you make some room. It might help you get the spacing right if you tape a couple pieces of cardboard to the storm door, then close it on the z-bar.

 

Ok, I posted two seperate questions for two seperate doors ... in the same doorway. I thought they had different problems, but you guys pointed out the relationship. The primary door is not meeting the weather stripping so there is an air leak. That would account for a humidity issue swelling the jamb and making the storm door not close in the winter. Of course the primary door may be warped partly because of the extra heat from the greenhouse effect of the storm door. Thank you all very much.

Yes, I should have pointed out I am outside Boston, so it's pretty cold and of course the air is much dryer than during the summer. You guys gave good pointers but I guess I really have to wait for summer so I can repaint after planing down the jamb.

 

You'll actually be shaving a bit of wood off the side of the face trim, not off the jamb. The z-bar of the storm door is either mounted to a brickmould that is 1 1/8" thick, or a piece of 5/4 trim. In either case, whatever you shave off will be completely covered when you reinstall the z-bar. If you wanted to, you could prime the wood with a fast drying primer, like Kilz spray (its what I use in a pinch when I'm in a hurry to prime and get it to dry) then put the z-bar on. If you get around to painting it later, great.