About 3 years ago, we replaced our exterior doors on our house, both front and back. Still, with the more recent civil unrest, especially since it has gotten extremely close to my home, I have decided to add more security. Since the doors were new, the only real beefing up I did on the doors was add longer screws and installed the Door Armor strike plate set and defender security reinforcement locks. My issue is on the front door; there has been a gap created on the door jam's strike plate side upon replacing the hardware. Obviously, it is from the longer screws pulling the wood in, but I have not yet figured out a way to fix it. Could I remove the screws, and trim, put shims in there and redo it, or would that not be enough? I appreciate any guidance on this and being so close to a lot of the civil unrest, I can tell you all, be safe and be prepared. Never in a thousand years thought this would have come to my area. Thanks for any advice on this.

 

First thing I would do is slightly back off the torque a half turn at a time and see if that allows the jam to fall back in place!

 

You should remove the screws. Remove the trim on the hinge side. Place shims in the rough opening (between the jamb and stud) at every hinge, so that your screws do not suck the jamb over. Then put the screws back in, just tighten them until they are snug. Then put the trim back on.

When shimming, cedar shims are best. You place one one way and one the opposite way, then slide them back and forth a little to change the thickness. Or add another set as needed.