Hello guys. I would appreciate your insight on this issue. This doorway on the pictures got damaged on the inside of the room. It is currently impossible to close the door because the gap at the bottom is reduced because of the cracks. The exact reason is unknown, but it may result from repeated door slamming from my 4 year old, does it sound plausible? I hope it's not a worse issue, like house structure giving up, however, everything else seems ok on ceiling, walls, floor, and on the top half of the doorway. All doors on same floor are normal. I'm not that handy, so I'd like to know what kind of intervention or additional inspection the community recommends.

Feel free to ask any questions.
Thanks in advance.

 

Well, first thing you should do is carefully remove the broken piece of casing on the hinge side of the door. Try not to damage it any further... save all the pieces if you hope to glue it back together.

Gorilla polyurethane glue (the kind that you activate by spraying with water on one side... and glue on the other) and a lot of clamps would be a good start. Pull nails through the back of the casing with a pliers... don't drive them out the front. Remove any nails left in the jamb.

Once you get the casing off, I would assume you would need to reshim the hinge side of the door (use cedar shims) and put some 2 1/2" finish screws through the jamb and shims, driving the screws into the studs.

This was probably a good example of the Katz "production trim carpentry" techniques... no shims, and use the casing like a nail fin and slap in in. Which explains why it did what it did.

 

Thank you very much for your answer, Xsleeper.

I have no congrats for Mr. Katz this morning, because I assume that the contractor who used this shortcut technique must have done it on every single door in my house and that the problem may pop elsewhere. But it's the first mishap in 15 years, and in a way, I'm happy that no house structure issue is involved .

Do you have recommendations as to how to remove the broken casing section? Do I need to remove the door and hinges first? I don't have much access from the right side due to the presence of a wall at 90 degrees very close to the casing edge, so I guess I'll have to work from the left side, cut out paint accumulation and leverage with a putty knife in there? But by doing so, the hinges may hinder the process, that's why I wonder if I should remove them first.

 

Go to the store and buy a stick of casing. Yours looks like a standard profile. Hold it up to yours to confirm that it is a match. Then just rip the broken casing off and replace. Of course, while the casing is off verify that the door is properly attached to the framing with sims & screws as XSleeper mentioned.

 

I was assuming he's not going to find the casing. I've never seen that profile in stores around here.

But yes, pop the hinge pins out And remove the door. Carefully score the casing where UT meets the jamb, using a utility knife. Drive a thin putty knife in with a hammer and gently pry. Once you open a gap up you can then use a small wonder bar or glazing bar.

 

Thanks gentlemen. I may have some leftover casing dating back to house construction. If not, I will attempt removal following instructions and if I'm unlucky and wreck it, I'll look for the profile in stores. The worst case will consist of changing the three sections of casing to get a match if I can't find it.

I appreciate the help. I may have one more question or two when I get to the shimming part.

Have a great day.

 

Is it possible the door isn't meeting the door stop when the hinges can't rotate any further when closing? I think this could cause such a crack. The solution would be to reset the door stop after repairing the damage.

 

I managed to remove the broken part and am in the process of gluing it back together with gorilla glue.

You were absolutely right.

Instead of wood screws, some finishing nails have been used by the contractor to "secure" the door frame to the studs, approximately twelve of them, some hanging by the teeth, which lead to the rupture. Confirmed: the frame and studs are fully intact. The bottom of the frame moves if I rock it because it is not adequately attached to the stud.

On the picture, you can see the gap at the top and at the bottom.

So now the door is still removed. I have bought 2.5'' wood screws and I have a pack of cedar shims.

Can you give a few more details about how to proceed into leveling, shimming and securing the frame? I'm in learning mode, but so far, so good.

Beelzebob: The door stop seems ok but I'll double check when I reassemble the door.

Thanks again all.

 

It's not unusual for doors to be held with finish nails, but if there were no shims... that's the Katz technique. And any nails that are in the drywall aren't holding anything. They need to be in the stud if the installer expected them to hold.

Measure the space the door sits in... the width of the opening at the top... from jamb to jamb. Should be something like 30" at every point up and down the jamb. The sides just need to be parallel. Put at least 4 sets of shims in the rough opening. (The space between the jamb and the 2x4 framing) One set of shims at the very top, then one set of shims behind each hinge.

The way you do that is to put one shim one way and one shim the opposite way. (Or 2 shims one way and 2 shims the opposite way, if one pair isn't thick enough to fill the space.)

When you slide the shims, one on the other, they become thicker. So you just need to find the right size for the shim by doing that. Or you might find that it's easiest to stick the fat end of 2 shims into the opening... then stick the skinny end of 2 shims in next.

Or you might need to cut a shim in half... and lay it on top of a full shim. To give you enough room for the skinny end of 2 full shims. I'm sure you will figure out a method that works best for you.

So you will stick a set of shims in at the top, double check your measurement (such as 30") then put a screw through the jamb and through (or next to) the shims. Then repeat at each hinge location.

Then hang the door and see if it swings okay. If it doesn't, you may have shimmed it too tight. You might have to back your 4 screws out and adjust the shims in or out. You can also tweak the reveals a little bit by removing one of the short hinge screws (one that is closest to the door stop) and replace it with a similar sized 2 1/2" screw). The screw will pull the jamb over a little more which will open the gap along the latch side. If the gap along the latch side of the door is too large, you would need to shove the shims in farther.

If the door is rubbing on the top at all, let us know. We are going with the assumption that the door was square to begin with.

Another easy way to set your reveals is to close the door and insert the skinny end of your shims between the door and the jamb. You'd put 2 or 3 on the hinge side, 1 on top above the door knob, then 2 or 3 along the latch side. This will create a nice 1/8" reveal around the door.

Problem is, if you open the door all those shims will fall out. So you'd need to crawl out a window and go around to the other side of the door to put your screws in (behind the door stop).

And where you repaired the casing you will want to scrape off any gorilla glue that squeezed out, (front and back) and clean it up with some sandpaper. After you put the casing back on, touch up the nail holes and then caulk and paint.

 

Wow, I can't believe how detailed and complete this description is, kudos for that.

I will perform these steps and come back somewhere tomorrow to let you know how it went.

 

Your instructions ruled! Perfect walkthrough.

So I put in four shims, each time double-checking the side jamb to mullion measurement. In one spot where the gap was huge, I opted to use a layer of thin MDF board as 'filler', plus two cedar shims, instead of using a 4 shim thick arrangement. Seemed to respond well when used together with the cedar shims.

For each shim, I did put in one 2.5'' screw through the jamb / shim and into the stud, I opted to buy a countersink to allow installation of conical wood screw heads without risking cracking the door frame. All I'll have to do is a quick putty / paint job, I also pre-drilled 7/64'' before putting in the screws.

I reinstalled the door, it opens and closes very well. There is a very small gap discrepancy at the top vs the bottom, but it's only aesthetic.

Next step will be to sand down the gorilla glue from the glued together casing strip and reinstall it.

Question before I reinstall the casing: The shims I put in are long enough to reach both sides of the jamb door stop, I already installed a screw on the 'inside' for each shim, shall I add one screw on the 'outside' of the door stop as well to further consolidate the other end of the shims or not (see pictures)?


Screw on "inside" of jamb. Add one to outside too?

Top shims.

Bottom shims.

Top gap

Bottom gap

Shims going all the way through the jamb, add screw on "outside" of jamb too?

 

Don't bother, the casing will hold it. The hinge side is where the stress occurs.