Bedroom doors slowly slide shut

The doors to two of my bedrooms will not stay open. They don't have spring hinges and each door seems to be straight when I place a level on all sides. Coincidentally both bedroom doors are located exactly opposite to one another facing the street. To better explain myself, if I somehow folded the upstairs in half, the two bedrooms would fit on top of one another. Could it have something to do with the way the house settled? If so, what can I do about it?

thx.

-karl

 

This happened to my neighbor too. He became overly obsessive about fixing it. He put weights in the door, shaved the door, rehinged the door and nothing worked. He was really losing sleep about it. Finally he just removed the doors completely and hung a curtain. Good luck.

 

Doors will only swing shut when they are not plumb, (so the tops of your door jambs are likely both leaning out toward the hallway) so I would assume that your level is either too short to give you an accurate reading, or something. Try swinging the door all the way open, then place the level vertically on the latch side of the door itself (on the edge of the door by the door knob), and also sit the level on top of the door. Both readings should be perfectly on. If they aren't, gravity will take over.

The easiest fix is probably to remove one of the hinge pins and slightly crush (squeeze) one of the round barrels of the hinge ever-so-slightly. (a vise grips works best- put a cloth over the hinge to avoid scratching.) Adjust the visegrips until it seems really tight to lock, then lock it down. Release the vise grips and reinstall the hinge pin again. The idea is to crush it just enough to provide a bit of friction so that the door will stay open. The only drawback of this technique is that it "might" make the door squeek, so use your judgement.

If this doesn't work, you could try it on more than one hinge. But if it fails to correct the problem you would likely need to adjust the door jamb, which would probably involve removing the door trim, and adjusting the jambs in on top.

 

And if you really want to "fix" it, fix the sag in the floor between the two doors. The house has settled causing the hinge sides of the doors to drop. Close the doors and look at the space around the door. Is it the same, or is it greater at the top horizontal part? If so, the hinge side had settled.

 

OH I am so excited. I can answer this one.

We had the same problem and our animals would get locked in the rooms so we went to Dollarama (or a big box store) and bought magnetic door thingies... well ok so that does not ansewr your question becuase you have no Idea what I am talking about., You know those spring door stop things? Well you can by magnetic ones so that when you open your door it the magnet on the door attaches to the magnet on the wall and voila!! your door stays ope. It's a light magnet so easy to open and close. they are like 2 buchs each and look really nice too.

 

Loreyna: good idea with pets. I'm a nail driver, and I had the same problem, so I corrected the slight sag in the floor (full basement, unfinished, easy), but due to the fear factor in the other half, she required some sort of insurance against it, so I found door stops with actual catches that latch the door in the open position. Ahhh, necessity is the mother of invention.

 

In some instances there is an easy solution...

Shimming the door hinge(s)

Shimming can be done by simply placing a coin or similar object between the hinge and the doors frame. Loosen the hinge slightly. Insert a coin or shim and re-tighten the hinge screws. Note the results.

The diameter of the coin, thickness of the coin and location behind the hinge matters. As will the clearance between the doors face and top in the frame.

If a small clearance does exist, and the door is not very far off plumb, inserting a door hinge shim, penny, dime or quarter can be used, behind the hinge, in the correct location behind the hinge plate, will resolve the problem.

The shimming method is a trail and error system. All factors mentioned above need to be considered. Once the correct shim is in place, the door will remain opened or not self close or open.

 

Take it easy with the shims. They will reduce the margins on the other side of the door. Here's a simple fix I have used often. remove the hinge pins one at a time and lay them on a solid surface. strike the pin with a hammer putting a slight ben in the pin (emphasis on slight). When you reinstall the pins, the resulting tension in the hinge should prevent the door from freely swinging. Repeat if necessary to get a very snug fit. If this doesn't correct the problem, the doors are pretty far out of plumb and you will have to adjust the hinge. More than likely the door is leaning in on the top on the hinge side. You may have to remortise the top hinge towards the jamb a little or move the bottom hinge in the direction the door swings. Using this method, you will have to move the door stops, fight with the screw holes in the hinges and repaint. Try bangin' a pin first!