Door has slowly gotten tighter and tighter! Help!

The door connecting our house to our garage is a wooden, non-solid door. When we first bought the house, the door opened and closed just fine, but then over the past 8-9 months, it's steadily gotten tighter and tighter. It's to the point now that it's nearly impossible to close completely. I've examined the hinges and doorjame, and everything else I could think of to see if something was pushing inward, with no luck. Does anyone have any other ideas? They'd be greatly appreciated!

 

Any door connecting a garage and house must be a metal fire rated door, but that is not your question. Often, the hinge screws are only into the jamb and easily work loose. Replace the two inside screws in each hinge with long(2 1/2"+). That will pull the door in at the top corner. Take care not to tighten too much as that creates other problems. Another possibility, top and bottom of the door is not sealed and swelling due to more humid time of year. Another possibility, look for cracks in the drywall around the door, signs of settlement that may need correcting.

 

Wooden doors and windows can be affected by humidity, causing them to swell. Slowly swing the door toward the closed position and stop just as soon as you feel it touch somewhere, then find that point of contact. Maybe the door and jamb do not match up perfectly and the door is hitting in one of the top corners, or maybe somewhere along the top or side.

In one situation, I took care of a sticky metal door by tightening the wooden jamb back to the framing. But, your door might need a little planing or sanding along the top or edge to reduce its overall size.

 

Others advise is good. I always say check the screws and replace with longer ones if needed.

Just a note on the type of door. In the last 2 area's I've lived, a steel fire rated door was not "required", but recommended.
The wording of the building codes in those 2 areas, was a solid door, no less than 1 1/4" thick. Which kinda eliminated wood paneled doors. Both there and here, we had flat solid core wood 1 3/4" between the house and garage. Maybe something has changed. Might be worth checking with your codes office, though I'm surprised it wasn't noticed during home inspection.

 

Thanks for all the responses folks! When we bought it, the home inspector pointed out that we should upgrade it to a metal solid door, but added it wasn't technically required in our area. I considered the humidity causing swelling, but I decided it probably wasn't it, since it started late last summer and continuously got tight throughout the winter and into the present. I'll definitely try the screw idea and see what happens!!