How can I fix a twisted door?

[Just4Fun]

I have an old door that is on the inside of a small entry "air lock" style arrangement. There is an exterior door, a small unheated cubicle, then this door giving access to a hallway. This door has 4 wooden panels in the bottom half and the top is glazed (single glazed). My problem is that the door is twisted.

The door fits well along the hinge edge and at the bottom (where there is a threshold strip). On the handle side the lower half fits well alongside the wooden panels but from there to the top it has moved away from the door jamb so that at the top corner the gap is about 10mm. Obviously the top touches the jamb at the hinge edge and is 10mm away on the handle side.

Can this be fixed? If so, how should I tackle it?

The door is painted and I assume it is made of pine or some similar local softwood.

I guess the alternative is to make a complete new door. I might be tempted to do that but it would take me a while.

A bonus question on the same subject is how I can prevent the same thing happening again?

 

[screwpainting]

Take off the jam and refix it to match the twist?

 

[MikeG.]

You can waste a lot of time trying to untwist a door. Dampening it down, twisting it as far the other way as it is twisted this way, holding it in countertwist for a couple of weeks..........it won't work. Your best answer (other than a new door) is to take the stop off at the top and the free edge of the door, and replace in such a position as suits the door (as screwpainting said).

 

[Just4Fun]

Unfortunately it is not possible to move the door jamb but I maybe I could extend it. Let me explain.
There is no separate door jamb. What I am calling the door jamb on the vertical edge is a weather strip on the face of the adjacent 1/2 screen door. At the top the door closes into a rebate in the door frame. Hence no movable door jamb. Even if there were a door jamb I could not just move it on the vertical edge because the door fits OK in the lower half and only the top half is twisted.

Your suggestion has made me think that I should make tapered inserts to plant on the back of the weather strip and the top part of the door frame, to extend into the gap rather than moving into the gap, if that makes sense. This would not require a lot of work and would require less making good to the paintwork. How does that sound?

 

[MikeG.]

It sounds like a photo would help. But planting on elongated wedges is another standard way of approaching this problem. Please don't do this over the existing paintwork!! Don't laugh..........I've seen that more than once.

 

[sunnybob]

Just make up a wedge on the frame.
I was born and grew up in an early victorian terrace house (think coronation street). The dividing wall between next door and us had dropped (a lot) so my dad cut a wedged slice off the bottom of the front door and reversed it and fixed it to top. The whole front passage was also at the same floor angle despite the walls still being vertical
Over the width of the door it must have been at least 1 1/2". It made our door stand out so much I never got confused which house was mine when coming home late at night. :shock:
Its called "character" =D> =D>

 

[RobinBHM]

If you have room, plant a stop over the existing one (which is not a stop, but formed as a result of the door rebate).

The stops could be 12mm x 25mm, or even thinner with a groove for aquamac 21 or similar.

We do it quite often for external doors with that problem. Its only a problem if the lock of handle get in the way.

 

[Just4Fun]

Here is a photo of the top corner of the door where it is twisted away from where it should be

 

[Mike Jordan]

If I have understood correctly you are saying that the stile on the lock side of the door is bent putting a twist in the top of the door. It should be possible to use a rebate plane to ease about 5mm or so out of the rebate and allow the latch ( after adjustment )to hold the door to a decent fit in the frame.

 

[screwpainting]

Looks like an old exterior door frame that's been butchered, does it have a threshold?

It all looks a bit Heath Robinson to me,(not that I know much) .
Could you not (hack off) remove the existing jams and fit new ones with a proper head this time?
It looks as if you have little to lose, and whats already there looks craap.

Actually, looking at that picture, the whole lock side frame seems to have moved. Are you 'sure' the door is warped or could it be that vigorous door closing has knackered the whole (badly designed, altered ? ) construction out of kilter?
Interesting...

 

[Just4Fun]

If I have understood correctly you are saying that the stile on the lock side of the door is bent putting a twist in the top of the door.

Exactly right.

It should be possible to use a rebate plane to ease about 5mm or so out of the rebate and allow the latch ( after adjustment )to hold the door to a decent fit in the frame.

Unfortunately the gap at the top (13mm - I just measured it) is greater than the thickness of the stop/jamb at the bottom (12mm) so that approach won't work. Thanks anyway.

 

[Mike Jordan]

There will be no need to take any material from the bottom of the frame. If you take about 5mm from the centre of the frame in the area of the lock. Adjusting the lock striker plate should enable you to pull the door into the frame at the top.

 

[Just4Fun]

Looks like an old exterior door frame that's been butchered, does it have a threshold?

As far as I know it is not a re-purposed exterior door, but who knows for sure?
Yes, it does have a threshold.

It all looks a bit Heath Robinson to me,(not that I know much) .
Could you not (hack off) remove the existing jams and fit new ones with a proper head this time?
It looks as if you have little to lose, and whats already there looks craap.

I believe that this is "original" and would have been considered good quality construction when new, but I agree that now it is far from good enough. However to correct the problem by taking off or cutting back what is already there would mean cutting into the threshold strip and removing the door jamb at the bottom, which are the parts which are in their correct positions. Butchering them would look like a real bodge job.

Actually, looking at that picture, the whole lock side frame seems to have moved. Are you 'sure' the door is warped or could it be that vigorous door closing has knackered the whole (badly designed, altered ? ) construction out of kilter?
Interesting...

Yes, I am sure it is the door that has moved. The top of the frame and the threshold strip are straight and the 1/2 screen doors to either side of this door close against them correctly.

By "interesting" I think you must mean interesting in the sense of "may you live in interesting times". To be honest it is interest I could do without, especially as I have another similar problem with an identical door in a second such entryway.

 

[Trevanion]

I would say, 9 out of 10 times if a door has twisted over time it's down to the timber used. I can almost guarantee you it isn't straight-grained and probably has some short grain somewhere. That's what tends to be the case with "paint quality" doors of the past, they used up the dodgier pieces of timber because they could hide it with paint.

Usually these days you'd prevent this by using straight grained timber (of course). But you could also use a 3-point locking system like the Tornado system Westward sell, this way when the door is locked it secures in three different places and holds the door straight exactly the same as the hinge side does. You could retrospectively fit one of these systems which would help, but your door is so far gone it may not be possible to do.

I've managed to pull them back in the past by taking a couple of deep, evenly spaced rip cuts with a circular saw halfway (to the lock) down the door stile to weaken the twist and glued a couple of straight-grained hardwood splices in the saw kerfs while holding the door straight with a couple of thick straight pieces of timber. It's a bit of bodge work but it did work, if it saves you a couple of hundred quid and gets a few more years out of the door is it really a bodge job though?

Trade tip: If you do get a new painted door made (this goes for anyone) make sure you either inspect the timber used to make the door before they paint it or get them to make it so that you paint it yourself, there's quite a lot of people still doing "paint quality" doors on the sly, myself included sometimes.

 

[Just4Fun]

Thanks for an interesting post Trevanion. The saw kerf approach sounds like it might work. Worth a try anyway - I might even buy a circular saw. Would I also need to put a kerf or two in the top rail?
I have no clue what timber is underneath all the paint. You may be right that it is poor quality but I would be surprised. The house owner originally owned a sawmill, now defunct, located next door. I would assume he had the pick of the best timber, but maybe it was like the cobbbler's shoes.

 

[Trevanion]

It should be enough to just do it on the stile, try to work to either side of the tenon if you can figure out where it is.

 

[sawdust1]

What about a pair of patio doors where the opening door is 12mm out at the top where they meet.
I ask this as i have a customer who has asked me to sort this out on a recently fitted pair of Oak doors
fitted by another carpenter who refuses to come back .
Theirs nothing like exposed Oak doors to move, thats why i have first made and fitted a canopy over them before i do any remedial work.

 

[Trevanion]

What about a pair of patio doors where the opening door is 12mm out at the top where they meet.
I ask this as i have a customer who has asked me to sort this out on a recently fitted pair of Oak doors
fitted by another carpenter who refuses to come back .
Theirs nothing like exposed Oak doors to move, thats why i have first made and fitted a canopy over them before i do any remedial work.

That's why I won't use Oak for quality exterior joinery unless it is the highest prime grade material, It really isn't worth the hassle if you're using the lower grades. The quality of "Joinery" grade timber at the moment is absolutely abysmal, I had a delivery today and when I went through the pack I found a board which seemed great one one surface but once I turned it over:

Giant 1/2" nail (or spike?) hole right slap bang in the middle of the board, It was at least 50mm deep on a 75mm board! There's no point complaining because they just shrug their shoulders and go "it is what it is".

In regard to the French doors, has it just been fitted badly or has the door genuinely twisted? I've seen people do an absolute hash of housing the hinges which is enough to kick the door out of plane with the other door. Could also be that the frame is twisted or out of plumb. If it is the door it may be a little tricky to solve without making an absolute bodge of it. Best solution possibly would be some kind of shute bolt on the inside of the door the help hold it against the frame, but it would be a lot of strain to try to pull the door and shut the bolt at the same time.

 

[ColeyS1]

Giant 1/2" nail (or spike?) hole right slap bang in the middle of the board, It was at least 50mm deep on a 75mm board! There's no point complaining because they just shrug their shoulders and go "it is what it is".

Then you should look elsewhere to get your timber !! If you've asked for a piece of timber a particular size and they send you a piece that's got an obvious massive rusty nail embedded, don't accept it.



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[Trevanion]

Then you should look elsewhere to get your timber !! If you've asked for a piece of timber a particular size and they send you a piece that's got an obvious massive rusty nail embedded, don't accept it.

It's hard when the firm that you buy your timber off supplies all the other timber firms too! It's all one big circle. I've had Lathams deliveries with "International" sprayed on the side and vice versa!