New house door problems

garyh3

Hi All

Been in the new house for about 6 months now... But I now have a problem with the ****ty internal doors... Most of them are warped and are really hard to close (there 6 panel pine knotty doors). Also the door fromes are coming away from the walls some as much as 5 mill... Is there a way to fix the doors or do I still have any comeback on the builder to fix the doors.... I presume the central heating has caused the drying and warping.... ALSO the builder must know that these kind of doors warp....

Garyh3

kadman

garyh3 wrote:

Hi All

Been in the new house for about 6 months now... But I now have a problem with the ****ty internal doors... Most of them are warped and are really hard to close (there 6 panel pine knotty doors). Also the door fromes are coming away from the walls some as much as 5 mill... Is there a way to fix the doors or do I still have any comeback on the builder to fix the doors.... I presume the central heating has caused the drying and warping.... ALSO the builder must know that these kind of doors warp....

Garyh3

Did you follow the instructions , regarding bringing up the central heating over a 6 week period to peak. Going into a new home and banging on the heating full blast is definitely a no no. Have the doors warped or shrank.

kadman:)

garyh3

The heating was on when we moved in... I just played around with the timer.

The doors have just warped over the last month some have gone really hard to close and you can see at the top they still stick out when the the door is closed.

regards

Garyh3

kadman

What was the heating set at a month ago, and what did you turn it up to.
Were the doors warped at the time you moved in,

kadman:)

kadman

If the door is sticking out at the top when the door is closed, you could try the following.

Measure the amount the door is sticking out at the top, and cut a small wooden block 1/4" longer. Tack this block on the frame at the bottom of the door, now pull the door towards the frame until you over pull the twist out of it. If the door is unable to close, place a couple of cable ties around the handle, and attach to a screw in the frame. Leave it like this for a week or two, and then check to see if it has been successful. measure it before and after, to see any improvement.

Do the reverse for the door sticking out at the bottom. place the little block at the top of the frame. The object is to pull the door back to normal, and 1/4" beyond for a period of time.

This may give you a reasonable out come, although there are more drastic measures

kadman:)

delly

kadman wrote:

Did you follow the instructions , regarding bringing up the central heating over a 6 week period to peak. Going into a new home and banging on the heating full blast is definitely a no no. Have the doors warped or shrank.

kadman:)

Never heard of doing that kadman. You learn something new every day.

garyh3

Thanks for the info but we use the doors every day so I would be unable to keep them shut until the night.

Any Ideas about the door frames coming away from the wall.... Do I just use afiller or liquid nails to cover the gap... I would prefer not to hammer any nails into the frames.

Garyh3

Lex Luthor

any chance you could wait till the summer before making any drastic action as they might be still some movement in them when you take the heating off.

I have a drawer in a cabinet that is stick in the winter but opens & closes no problem in summer time.

I also have the solid doors inside....there are one or 2 that were put in when I bought the house and others I put in afterwards. The ones I put in were of a better quality and haven't warped but teh original ones have warped a bit.

mad m

Seen it happen to a lot of people who bought new houses,they put on heating and the house obviously dries out plus leading to shrinking and the house has to settle also.The skirtings seem to lift from floors and gap gets bigger from floor.Frames crack,cracks appear in walls.The thing also I have seen are people complaining to builder and they in turn get onto manufacturers about replacing the doors that have warped or split open.

I have on occassion when I worked on a certain site go back into a number of houses and refill cracked frames and repainted them.

kadman

garyh3 wrote:

Thanks for the info but we use the doors every day so I would be unable to keep them shut until the night.

Any Ideas about the door frames coming away from the wall.... Do I just use afiller or liquid nails to cover the gap... I would prefer not to hammer any nails into the frames.

Garyh3

You dont have to keep them shut them the whole time. The exercise is when you do close them, that they are closed in a fashion that forces them beyond their original stable state. A week or two of this may bring them back to a more reasonable look.

Trust me it does work, timber is flexible . Its definitely worth trying . Pick one door and try it. Then come back to me in 2 weeks and say, " Well done Kadman "

kadman

mad m

kadman wrote:

" Well done Kadman "

kadman

Ah sure why wait two weeks,well done Kadman...:rolleyes:

kadman

mad m wrote:

Ah sure why wait two weeks,well done Kadman...:rolleyes:

As always Madm, your comments are priceless.:D

But back on topic, try it, what have you got to lose.


kadman:)

rooferPete

Hi gary h,

I wouldn't dare to even attempt adding to such knowlegeable posts from Kadman and mad m.

What I don't understand is the frames moving, does the architrave not cover the joint between the wall and frame ? or are you working on the gap between the finished paint on the wall and the architrave ?

One question do your doors have two hinges or three ?

.

garyh3

Hi all

Thanks for the comments and ideas

These are 2 hinge pine doors.

The gap on the frame is between the painted wall and the frame.

Pics attched. As you can see the doors frame has come away from the wall.


Garyh3

kadman

The gap you are describing, is between the back of the architrave and the wall. It has probably been like that since they were installed, If it was painted you could seal the gap with painters mate or similar caulk.
You will have to mask the wall around the architrave, and then seal in behind the architrave with an appropriate coloured filler in a mastic gun.
peel off the masking tape and hey presto , job done.

There may be a better tape than masking tape, as this may peel off some paint on the wall, so give Madm a shout, as he's a c*^$£fty feccer, er..
knowledgeable sort and he should give you the answers you seek.:D

Well done kadman:D

kadman;)