New interior doors warping

[crobinson]

Hi

I've had some solid wood interior doors ( they were firedoors but not the heaviest we could get) fitted by a professional carpenter and when they were put in they fitted beautifully - now tonight my girlfriend has noticed that one of the doors seems to have warped inwards by about 10mm in the top corner on the opposite side to the hinge - its so bad that from inside the room the corner of the door sticking out from the door frame.

Is there anything we can do about this? - or is there something we did wrong when the doors were fitted? - we left them a couple of weeks before we stained them with Dulux all in one woodsheen - we stained all surfaces except the bottom of the door. Im worried now that all of the doors are going to go the same way - they werent cheap.

thanks in advance

Colin

 

[JohnD]

The door that has warped - is it by any chance on a high-humidy room like a bathroom, or next to a radiator?

 

[crobinson]

No the door that has warped is a bedroom door and not near any rads - I've had a closer look at the others now and the bathroom door is going slightly in the same place - I can best describe it as curling inwards on the top left - but the bathroom one is only say 3mm whereas this bedroom door is about 10mm.

 

[JohnD]

Ummmm. and how long ago were they fitted? I'm thinking in terms of a change in humidity since they went on. I expecyt your house is very dry at the moment, withh the heating running most of the time,

For info, are the stops on the frame, that the door closes against, machined out of the frame, or screwed/nailed into place?

 

[crobinson]

thanks for the replies by the way

the doors have been in about 3 months now - and you're right that the heating is on most of the time at the moment.
The door stops are part of the frame - theyre 1930s design so the door sits flush with the frame on the inside (room side) and from the outside (hall side) they sit recessed in the frame. The problem is that this bedroom door now sticks out in the top corner on the inside and you can get your finger between the door and the stop on the outside. - Im struggling to describe this - I hope that make sense.

Is there anything I can do or am I just going to have to sit and watch the corners of all my doors curl up!

 

[JohnD]

I'm not a joiner but two things I've come across:

1) if you leave them till the winter's over they may warp back, and over time will warp less and less

2) I've only done this with a 50-year old mortice and tenon door - you may get an alternative view from one of the pro's on here - but I was shown how, if you put your foot against the bottom of the opening edge of the door, grab hold of the top edge and pull it, hard, towards you, you can wrench the door in the opposite direction of its twist. It will make a creaking or cracking noise, and tend to fix itself into a new shape. You have to twist it a bit further than the "straight" position as it will bounce back a bit. My doors had loose old wedges in the tenons, and were made with scotch glue that had doubtless hardened and cracked - it may be different with a new, modern door that will presumably be tighter in the joints.

If you call back the man who fitted them he may well be able to fix them, but remember that if they're hung to fit well in winter, they may shift again come summer.

edited to say, I'm assuming they're panelled doors, not flush? And they haven't got a chipboard core? they're probably made of pine or hemlock, not an oak or mahogany kind of hardwood?

 

[big-all]

dont know about dulux wood stain [wether it seals the wood or not] but you realy need to seal the doors to stabalise the moisture content but not on the warped doors yet

i wouldnt hold your breath about the door flattening you may be lucky you may not be time will tell
if it does flatten get it sealed up fully including top and bottom
you need to unscrew the hinges from the door

most modern doors dont have proper mortice and tennons they just have glue over the area off contact between the styles and rails[increased by the molding area]and somtimes the addition off dowels to each joint