prehung door issues

Last night I installed a new prehung fiberglass door. The door is a right hand door, and at first the top of the knob side would overhang the frame. I was able to adjust the shims to allow that to fit. Everything was square and level, but now the bottom of the knob side has a fairly large gap between teh door and frame. Everything works properly, but this gap is fairly large, enought that light is visible. Any ideas what to do about this? Thanks for the help.

 

I've about had it with prehung exterior doors lately. The ones I've been getting have been consistantly too wide, creating a larger gap on the latch side of the frame than what is necessary. And to make matters worse, the frames are often 1/8" wider on bottom than on top. Perhaps you've got a similar door. But enough of my ranting.

One thing you can check is the reveal along the hinge side of the door. There should be a consistant 1/8 - 3/16" gap between the door and the frame. Theoretically, the gap around the door should be equal all the way around the perimeter of the door, so if you have a larger than normal gap between the door and the frame on the KNOB side of the door at the bottom, you should have NO gap between the door and the knob on bottom. To me, that would indicate the the bottom of the door on the hinge side would need to be moved closer to the trimmer, which will increase the gap on top of the door on the closing side, making it look like the door is sagging. Often, a 3" long screw installed through the top hinge will correct this by pulling the door up tight. In cases where the door is not level, it would indicate that a shim needs to be stuck under the hinge side of the threshold which will raise the door back up, making it straight on top.

Unless you use an accurate 6' level to install the door, I would guess that you don't have the hinges plumb and all 3 inline with one another, even though your readings seem to indicate it is. That's practically impossible to do with a 4' level unless you are also using some sort of long straightedge.

Edit: upon re-reading your post, I'm wondering if you are talking about the gap AROUND the door (visible from the inside, and larger on the bottom knob side) or if you are talking about the door being racked... not contacting the weatherstrip on the bottom knob side (visible from the exterior, allowing light to pass around the door there)?

 

X - Thanks for the reply.

The gap is visible from the inside looking out, and only in the bottom knob side. The gap seems fine everywhere else, just gradually increases on the knob side. It is almost as you discribed exactly with the wider bottom. I did not use a 6' level, only the 4'. I will have to grab the 6'er and give it a shot with that. How were you able to resolve the issue?

 

If you are referring to the gap between the door and the side jamb, push the jamb toward the door with shims driven between the jamb and the house framing.

 

Like Wirepuller said jam some shims at the bottom until you get desired gap, sometimes the threshold causes the problem because it's improperly installed at the factory. BTW I rarely use a level on prehung doors so don't worry too much about that.

 

Would inserting more shims to the bottom throw the rest of the door frame out of place? Thanks for the help.