Don Vandervort, Head Homeboy, has written more than 30 DIY home improvement books, been a segment host on HGTV, served as MSN.com's home improvement expert and written countless magazine articles.
Time and age cause doors to bind and stick. As your house settles, doors sag in their frames; in addition, repeated painting and dirt create buildup. Or, a door may have been misaligned from the start.
Often, to fix a door that binds, all that is required is a simple adjustment to the hinges or sanding or planing the door edges.
Many doors bind against the upper corner of the jamb or drag across the carpet. Close the door, and check how it fits in the jamb. Look for tight spots, and make sure the top edge of the door is level. If it appears to be more than 1/4 inch out of level, the cause is probably settling or sagging.
You can usually solve this by replacing the center screw of the upper hinge with a longer, 2 1/2-inch screw, angled slightly toward the jamb's center. First, clean off any dirt, and repair or replace any bent hinges.
Drive the screw in snugly, and tighten the other screws that secure the hinge. If they can't be tightened, repair the screw holes by packing them with short pieces of a glue-coated dowel. Then replace the screws.
Another culprit in a door that binds is humidity, which can cause a door to swell and stick, or a buildup of dirt and paint on the door edges or jambs. Identify the spots that bind by inserting a thin strip of cardboard or wood between the door and jambs to see where the door pinches. Then mark the areas where the door is binding with a pencil.
Remove the door, and sand or plane off the high spots. If you use a jack plane, cut in line with the wood grain to avoid gouging the wood. Plane the top or bottom rail or hinge stile if that's where the door binds; avoid planing the lock stile so that you don't have to reposition the lockset.
Last but not least, don't take too much off—remember, the door will shrink back up when the air is drier. Finish by coating the door edges and jambs with paraffin.
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