refinished doors don't fit

Messages
24
Location
San Diego, CA
As part of a remodel, I removed two glass French doors and used paint stripper to remove the old paint. I then sanded to raw wood and applied an undercoat and two layers of finish paint. I installed new satin nickel 4” hinges. The hinges didn’t line up perfectly and had to loosen the screws in the jamb bracket to get the doors reinstalled. Now the doors don’t close properly. The doors rub against each other. I’ve rechecked the proper installation of the hinges. The upper and lower jamb locks on the inactive door don’t slide into their mortises. What has happened to these doors? Is it possible that the new hinges are just slightly wider, thereby causing the doors to rub. How do I fix the doors?
Should I rip a small amount of the door so they close. If so which door and do I rip the hinge side or the side where the doors rub?
Suggestions appreciated.

Bob
San Diego
 
Bob, some pics would help :)

Is this in your home or a customer's home?

can you make the mortises in the door and frame a bit deeper?

Is it possible that the new finish is just the much thicker compared to the old finish, that could have been rubbed off over the years?

How much are they out?

Is it possible that you have the door on the wrong sides, maybe the one on the left came from the right side?

You can certainly make them fit, but the easiest and or best way could be a combination of things.

I'm sure someone else will chime in too.

Cheers! :wave:
 
Agree some pics would help. As the hinges were changed, a lot could change based on their installation. Are the pivot point and offset the same now as the previous hinges? If so then we focus on correcting whatever happened to the door, more likely we probably want to focus on whether adjusting the hinge position would be easier than modifying the door.
 
My best guess is that the hinges are standing proud of the doors and door jam.
If the hinges are not flush they will move the door to the left/right respectively. So lets say they stand proud by 1/32 . Ok that's 1/32 on the door and 1/32 on the jam there's 1/16 do that again for the other door and you have 1/8 inch. If the doors only had an 1/8 inch gap to start than you have used it up and they will rub.
Note some french door hinges have a depth adjustment built into them just for moving the doors left and right.
 
Last edited:
Finding the problem is first priority, but don't overlook the general rule that doors are normally trimmed on the hinge side, not where you might mess up latching mechanisms.
 
I think I have narrowed the problem down to the new hinges. The new satin nickel hinges are 1/32" in thickness wider (fully closed) than the old hinges. This makes a difference of 1/16" with both doors.
I need to re-mortise the hinges. Question...do I re-mortise the jamb side or the door? Do I use a router or a sharp chisel. I prefer the router to maintain consistent depth. How do you re-mortise in a jamb with the stop trim on. i don't really want to remove since it is a fully painted. I need to make some sort of jig. Any suggestions?

Bob
San Diego
 
You will need to do both the jamb and the door. I can't help you with the router Out of the thousands of doors I have done I've never used any thing other than a chisel.:thumb:
 
Well, guys, I have trouble repeating the same cut to exactly the same depth for hinge mortises, so important to have doors hang properly. AND each hinge requires TWO mortises.

So years ago I got a trim router dedicated to hinge mortising. I can make a hinge pattern jig in less time that it takes to hand chisel one mortise. Cutting them all is a piece of cake.

In fact, cutting hinge mortises and hanging a bathroom and bedroom door is on the agenda for today.

No pics. Camera hasn't arrived yet. But I did get an email yesterday saying it had been shipped! WooHoo!
 
sounds to me like you need to sharpen your chisels and practicee up on your morticing techniques. a combination of hinge mortices both the jam and door as well as mortices in the latchplate. both doors and jams are most likely the problem.

Whenever you make changes and it doesn't fit... go back to the changes, trimming may "fix" the problem but it would be better to approach the source.
 
Unlike Chuck, I haven't done thousands of doors in my lifetime. Mebbe a dozen or so. But, the chisel advice is sound. Not really hard to do, a sharp chisel is easily controllable and proper depth is not hard to achieve or repeat.
 
Well, guys, I have trouble repeating the same cut to exactly the same depth for hinge mortises, so important to have doors hang properly. AND each hinge requires TWO mortises.

So years ago I got a trim router dedicated to hinge mortising. I can make a hinge pattern jig in less time that it takes to hand chisel one mortise. Cutting them all is a piece of cake.

In fact, cutting hinge mortises and hanging a bathroom and bedroom door is on the agenda for today.

No pics. Camera hasn't arrived yet. But I did get an email yesterday saying it had been shipped! WooHoo!

Yep, a router works great, but mine are probably a little different.

For small hinges:

Small Router Plane.jpg

and for large hinges:

Large Router Plane.jpg

Still need a chisel to "define" the edges.
 
Well, guys, I have trouble repeating the same cut to exactly the same depth for hinge mortises, so important to have doors hang properly. AND each hinge requires TWO mortises.

QUOTE]

Sharp chisel and slow cuts and double checking depth repeatedly is the secret Remember that the hinge needs to be flush with the door edge so if you slither off slivers till a flush fit then "All the same depth" is not too difficult to achieve. Problem comes when you "Chunk" out the mortices.
 
Well, guys, I have trouble repeating the same cut to exactly the same depth for hinge mortises, so important to have doors hang properly. AND each hinge requires TWO mortises.

So years ago I got a trim router dedicated to hinge mortising. I can make a hinge pattern jig in less time that it takes to hand chisel one mortise. Cutting them all is a piece of cake.

In fact, cutting hinge mortises and hanging a bathroom and bedroom door is on the agenda for today.

No pics. Camera hasn't arrived yet. But I did get an email yesterday saying it had been shipped! WooHoo!

No pics No doors hung:thumb::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Well, I got one door with the mortises cut. Then decided I needed new hinges. The old ones had paint on then and radiused corners that were bigger than my router bit. Easier to get new ones than do a lot of mickey mousing to get the old ones to work. I got square cornered hinges so all I have to do tomorrow is square the jam mortises.

Tomorrow that door will get hung and I will mortise and hang the other door.

This was the last project for the day. I got home tired and hungry. Tomorrow is another day, and if I don't see another sunrise someone else can worry about hanging the doors! :)

No camera yet. So no pics. But bathroom privacy again tomorrow! Not a problem for me but guests get squeamish with no bathroom door. Go figure! :huh: :dunno:
 
Well, I got one door with the mortises cut. Then decided I needed new hinges. The old ones had paint on then and radiused corners that were bigger than my router bit. Easier to get new ones than do a lot of mickey mousing to get the old ones to work. I got square cornered hinges so all I have to do tomorrow is square the jam mortises.
Thats never a problem with my chisels...:D:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Top