Articles

Maintaining Your Doors

PRINT

Yearly Maintenance

It is recommended that homeowners inspect and maintain their exterior doors regularly to assure long-lasting looks and service. Here are a few dos and don’ts in the way of yearly upkeep of your doors.

 

DO

  • Inspect Your Door
    • Look for any dirt or grime, and use a mild soap and water solution to clean the exterior and interior of the door. You can also reapply paint or a topcoat to any spots that have worn on the finish of the door. Inspect the weather stripping around all sides of your door to make sure that it hasn’t worn out.

 

  • Secure the Locks
    • Check the security of your door’s hardware. Tighten screws as needed to prevent any looseness, and make sure your locks are strong enough to protect your home. You may want to consider a multi-point locking system for additional peace of mind and security.

 

DON’T

  • Leave Things Unfinished
    • Doors must be finished with either stain or paint. When finishing your door, don’t use lacquer-based paint, and don’t paint over a stained wood grain door without applying the appropriate primer first.

 

  • Clean Incorrectly
    • Don’t use harsh chemicals to clean your door. Never use a pressure washer on door exteriors to clean them, as this may chip off the paint on your door. Don’t clean the bricks around the door with Muriatic acid, as it will tarnish the finish if it gets on the door.

 

Sticking doors

Sticking doors are fun for no one. The sticking doors in your house are definitely a nuisance, but thankfully they are easy to fix. If you can spare thirty minutes to DIY it, or five to call a professional, you’re in luck.

 

Before we get into a fix, let’s talk about the causes. The weather is a huge culprit in sticky doors, especially those that are wooden. Increases in humidity cause the door to expand and cause you to go through a full body workout to open it. This means your door is much more likely to be sticky on summer days than winter days when the humidity is lower. Thankfully, these solutions cover both seasons.

 

  • Tighten the Hinges
    • Sagging hinges can be at the root of a sticky door. Most likely, the screws have come out of the wood causing the hinges to become loose. The quick fix is to replace those screws with slightly bigger ones to fill in the gaps.

 

  • Trim the Door
    • If the door is still getting stuck, the next move is to remove a thin layer from the bottom edge so that it can- hopefully- swing smoothly. Just remove the door from the frame with the hinges still intact, and shave the bottom part of the door. You can use a trimming plane or electric hand planer to do this quickly. Make sure that you only remove the minimum required for the door to close. When the panel shrinks back in the winter, you don’t want there to be a big gap between the door and the jam. The cheaper but more time consuming solution is to sand the bottom of the door with sandpaper. If you’re unsure about this process, your best bet is to call a professional. The task is DIY-able, but you need a steady hand to make your cuts even and straight along the bottom of the door.

 

  • Mind the Gap
    • The gap between the floor and the door should be no more than 1/8-inch. Mistakes happen, and if you shave off a little too much you can purchase a door sweep to close that gap.

 

Samantha Cavasin

Home & Yard Magazine