We have an interior door with two strap hinges. When the door is unlatched, it wants to swing open. I want it to stay in position–or at least tend towards closed.
After experimenting with shims under different parts of the hinges, I concede that I do not understand the physics of door hanging! Before I resort to drilling new sets of holes, can somebody explain how to get a door to stay put?
Janet
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Replies
The physics of plumb
...might be a better way to consider it. Plumb is exact vertical. If you weight a string and let it hang until it stops moving, this is exactly 'plumb'. Gravity is pulling it directly downward... Now, the problem you're encountering is the hinges where they bolt to the door frame are not plumb. Do you have a level and know how to use it properly? If so, use it to check your hinges by holding it against the two hinges and reading the bubble. If your level isn't long enough to make the distance, use a straight piece of wood to hold against the hinges and place your level against this straight edge. You'll find the bubble leans to one side or the other. In all likelyhood, the wall itself could be out of plumb causing your whole problem. Check the wall with your level too running it vertical against the wall face to tell you if this is the case.
To see how much out of plumb your hinges are, use a tape to measure the gap between the level and the door frame or hinge while holding it so the bubble is exactly in the middle of the level's lines. If you have a 2 foot level and the dimension is 1/8", multiply the 1/8" by how many lengths of the level it would take to cover the distance between the two hinges. For most doors, the distance would be roughly 5 feet between two hinges. You would end up with 5/16's distance between the edge of the level to the hinge if your level were this long. That would translate to moving one hinge in or out 5/16's to bring it to plumb with the other hinge. You'd have to fill the existing screw holes with glue and toothpicks jambed into the holes and allowed to dry. Snap them off, set your hinge plate at the new location, mark the holes, predrill the holes, then screw the hinge plate into the new location. This should solve part of the problem. The other problem will be how the door meets against the door stop trim. To fix that, you'd have to remove the trim and set it against the door with the door closed and reattach at the new line created by the door's new position. I hope this all makes sense. If not, question away and I or someone else here can help clarify anything you might not understand. Good luck.
The other poster made good points. Put simply, though if the door is swinging to the open position, the top hinge is out of plumb ... 'inward' ... toward the inside where the door swings (here I thought it would be a piece of cake to describe this, now I'm thinking its not as easy). Imagine a wall where the top begins to tilt inward (i.e. toward the swing side) ... as it becomes horizontal, the door will have a tendency to fall open. If the opposite was true, it would tend to fall closed.
So to shim the hinge, you'd have to move the bottom hinge inward on the jamb. Remember, though, you may have some additional issues ... e.g. the door stop, which, by all rights, should be adjusted, too. This will also change your latch just a bit ... you are moving the whole half of the door, not just the hinge side.
It's complicated describing door geometry w/ words. Hope this makes some sense.
A little odd that you have strap hinges on an interior door like that.
>>>It's complicated
>>>It's complicated describing door geometry w/ words. Hope this makes some sense.
Totally true. This is a YouTube vid waiting to happen.
Homewright...youda man!
Look at door from pin side
If it swings toward you, move top away, bottom nearer.
Obverse is true.
More experimenting
By the way, there is no frame or jamb to speak of. This is rustic construction built to partition off the unfinished part of the basement. The entire wall is made of vertical tongue-and-groove lumber, held together with 2-by-4s on the back. To make the door, they just cut a rectangular piece out of the wall, reinforced it with a Z like on a garden gate, then added hinges and a latch.
I was surprised to find that the wall and hinges are true vertical. The door, however, was a different matter. There was the expected sagging, but the door has also warped out of plane. I was able to correct the cupping but not the bowing. When the door is closed, the top corner opposite the hinge lifts away from the rest of the wall (just a little). Guess I have to find the new center of gravity?
Janet
If all you are after is to get the door to not swing open a simple solution may be to tweak one of the hinges so it doesnt swing so freely... with normal butt hinges this can be done by removing the pin, bending it & putting it back. This causes enough friction so the door doesnt freeswing as easily.
With strap hinges you may be able to remove a hinge, squeeze the barrel portion of the hinge in a vise to put pressure on the pin. I dont have a strap hinge in front of me so I cant say this will work for sure. It wont work if the pin free floats. If you could buy a simular hinge you could experiment different ways to damage it just enough to inhibit it from swinging freely.
This may sound a bit unconventional, but it should work
To try to fix the bow in the door ( you could permanently fasten a turnbuckle on the back side of a door, running diagaonal...just like a garden gate door...but, they look ugly.) , remove the door, slightly dampen the back side of the door, and then place it outside with the damp side up toward the sun. The sun will dry the door and should cause this side to bow back. Check it form time to time. After it has bowed back and seems pretty straight, install a sheet of plywoood. Glue and screw this to the back side of the door frame. You can use 1/4 inch luan, or any size thickness of plywood not to exceed 1/2 inch....which is plenty thick.
The plywood acts as a torsion box and should keep the door from trying to re-warp. Now hang your door. If the door is still swinging outward, shim the bottom hinge where the strap is screwed to the jamb. Try an 1/8 inch shim and see what that does. You can use plastic coated playing cards (deck of cards)...trim to size, and place behind strap. This should work.
Davo