Ask Mr. Fixit
January 13, 2006
Dear Mr. Fixit:
Five years ago, my wife and I
bought a condo, which we were told was built in 1986. Over the past five years
we’ve noticed the three oak doors to our master bedroom and master bathroom
have been increasingly “sticking.” The doors to the master bath are worse than
the door that just serves the bedroom, but they go through periods where they
stick, which is worse in the humidity of summer. Last August it got to the
point where we stopped using the door between the bedroom and bathroom because
if we opened it, we couldn’t get it closed again!
I’ve seen people trim down
their doors or sand them, but it always looks horrible. And I’d rather avoid
having to re-stain the visible edges. Is there a better way to fix this problem
or prevent it from happening?
Please help,
Sticking in N. Berwick
Dear Sticking:
This is a typical problem, which as you pointed out is due to humidity. It’s not surprising that your bathroom doors are more affected because they are picking up the humidity from the bathroom (steam from the shower, etc) as well as the humidity in the atmosphere. Fortunately, there is an easy way to fix this problem as well as an easy way to help prevent it. They say an ounce for prevention is worth a pound of cure so we’ll start there.
To keep humidity from getting into your doors and jambs, let it out of the house before the wood has a chance to soak it up. Open the bathroom window from the top when you take a shower. If there is a storm window, slide it down from the top as well. Opening the window three to four inches during your shower and keeping it open for a few minutes afterward will help tremendously.
If your bathroom has an exhaust fan, keep it running during your shower and for five to ten minutes afterward. Check in the attic to make sure your exhaust fan is really venting out of your bathroom, and not blocked up with insulation or storage.
Keep your bathroom doors open slightly during your shower whenever possible. This will allow air from the house into the bathroom to be drawn out by the open window and/or the exhaust vent.
Hang wet towels in a room other than the bathroom, preferably near the wood stove or heating register.
You can also help reduce humidity levels in your home by leaving a skylight or kitchen window open a bit when boiling water for any length of time. These humidity reduction techniques will also help extend the life of your interior and exterior paint. The average home vents the equivalent of two to four gallons of water per day. If you don’t let this water out the window or exhaust vents, it works its way through the walls, which reduced the life of your last paintjob. Imagine how much you’ll save if you only have to paint every ten years instead of every five?
Okay, so there’s some prevention, now to the cure: How do you fix a door that sticks despite all the foregoing precautions? You are right about sanding and trimming. These are viable options and can look good if you have the right tools and knowledge and take the time to do it right. And yes, if you sand or trim the visible edge then you will need to stain or paint it again. This, however, is rarely necessary. After all, the doors closed fine when your condo was built, right? So what’s the deal?
As your doorjamb absorbed moisture over the years, it pulled itself away from house framing where it was originally installed. The wood swelled, pulled on the finish nails, and the whole doorframe became misaligned enough to cause sticking. To fix this, open the door and close it very slowly, watching for the exact point where it sticks. This is very often the bottom of latch side, but it can happen anywhere. Make a mental note of the suspect spot or mark it lightly with a pencil. Hammer in an 8-penny finish nail inside the jamb where the door is sticking. Close the door again, watching carefully. If the same spot is sticking, add another nail 6” above or below. Repeat this procedure until you have eliminated all sticking points. Usually 1-4 nails does the trick. For a door that is only slightly sticky, you may not need to nail at all. Just bang in the jamb by placing a wood black against it and hammering the block to avoid denting or damaging the finish work.
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