The previous owners of my 1991 house replaced the original interior doors with the 6-panel hollow core doors and they did a pretty shoddy job at installing the hinges on the door. They reused all the original (gold) hardware.

When I first moved in, some of the doors closed fine and a few were binding against the stop, though they still closed. I replaced all of the door hardware and now the doors are even worse; mostly just binding against the stop and one won't even close. Maybe the old hinges were sagging a bit when the new doors were installed?

I can probably fix some of the binding issues by working on the stop (sanding/planing), but I'm wondering if I should attempt to re-hang some of the doors...and if so, what is the best way to fill the holes so I can re-drill? I've read about drilling out the holes and gluing in a wood dowel.

Any advice?

 

If you are satisfied with the hollow core doors and the frames are in good shape, then you can adjust the hinges and strike to where they will work. To upgrade to a more solid door, I would pull the frame and all, and hang prehung doors in the holes.

Your hinges must be flush to the door frame and to the door. If any of the screws are loose, you can glue in a golf tee, break it off, let it dry and predrill a hole into it for a new screw to hold. On interior doors it is not always called for, but it helps to correct sag......place a 3" screw in the top hinge closest to the stop so that it bites into your framing. You say, "binding against the stop". Are you referring to the hinge side stop? If so the hinges are set too far inside. Can you post a picture of the hinges with the door open and from the inside? May help.http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html

 

Thanks for the response.

While I would love to tear everything out and start from scratch with pre-hung solid core doors, since I plan on replacing all the trim anyways, but I'd rather salvage what I have...spending ~$100/each for new doors (6 total) is a bit steep. Anyways, the doors and frames are in good shape, besides where they kind of butchered the doors to install the hinges.

Yes, the doors that are binding are binding against the hinge side stop, which means the hinges are set too far inside. They do close, albeit with extra effort...and they make a horrible creaking noise when they rub on the stop.

One door is hitting the jamb (top, opposite of hinge) which makes it almost impossible to close...this means the hinge is not recessed enough into the door/frame. This might be fixed with just recessing a bit more.

I snapped some pictures before I left this morning:

Top (binding door)



Bottom (binding door)





Top (hitting jamb)



Bottom (hitting jamb)



Hitting Jamb



Thanks again for the help!

 

Hi To Fix the screw holes I glue in 3/8 hardwood dowels.
The bind on the stop on the hinge stop I believe is caused by the hinge not bieng close enough to the front of the door. The door is 1 3/8 the front of the hinge should be 1 1/4 from the back of the door.Think of moving the door away fom the stop without moving the hinge on the jamb you would have to move the hinge on door closer to the front of the door.
If the door is binding on the latch side of the door and is about the same all the way down plane or sand the hinge side and reset the hinge depth. If you plane the latch side you will ruing the back set on the latch. That would open a whole new can of worms.
Good Luck Woodbutcher

 

Thanks, Woodbutcher. I understand what you are saying.

I plan to reset the hinge on the door and leave the hinge on the jamb the same. As far as the binding on the hinge side, luckily it is only toward the stop so it shouldn't take much effort to recess the upper hinge more.

Thanks again!

 

Thought I would give an update: I ended up just removing all the doors/jambs and buying prehung doors. I had already removed all the casing and trim everywhere, so I figured why not. In the end it might be a little more effort since I have to paint the jambs and doors, but it will be less frustrating then trying to fix the botched hinges.

 

I agree, prehung is nice for that very reason. The fact that you can focus on other details. I am not really a carpenter and trying to get things flush and nice is difficult for me. Which is why I glad you went with the prehungs and saved yourself the headache.