door frame moving, jamming door

[STim]

Hi

Would appreciate your views. I have a engineered wood door set which is fitted between aluminium structural glazing and the wall. The frame on the side of the glazing has swollen and split so the door no longer closes. Door company claim that they are not liable for this as it was fitted against the glazing (not supplied by them) which would not have allowed tolerance for the wood to move, but I’m not sure if that could account for a 2mm crack in the frame..?

Would appreciate your views!

 

[JohnD]

some photographs may help.

 

[STim]

Hope you can see these ok - difficult to take good photos when it’s so bright outside.

 

[JohnD]

I can't see the crack. Can you point it out? Inside and outside pics please. And pic of the jamb with the door open please.

look especially around the lock fitting where there will have been slotting or chiselling.

 

[STim]

Thanks. Hopefully this shows it more clearly. The split is straight down the frame on both the inside and outside. The scoring on the edge of the door is from opening it as it was wedged.

 

[JohnD]

well that's odd.

it looks to me like the frame was constructed by gluing together strips of wood, and one of the joints has come apart.

this is called "engineered timber" by people in the door trade.

I can imagine it might possibly be due to shrinkage or something, or lack of glue during manufacturing.

I don't see how a glazed panel would cause it.

How about more pics?

"Inside and outside pics please. And pic of the jamb with the door open please.

look especially around the lock fitting where there will have been slotting or chiselling."

 

[STim]

And the rest..

 

[Alec_t]

Deleted

 

[STim]

Thanks for your insights. Hopefully this makes it clearer.

 

[JohnD]

in the later pics it looks like the doorframe has been fixed to an infill (the same-colour paint made me think it was one unit) and there has been some shrinkage, probably due to the hot dry weather. It is not a crack. It is a shrinkage gap. If you look closely at a panelled wooden door in hot dry weather, you will see shrinkage.

In which case I would be inclined to scrape it out and use an elastic filler, probably silicone rubber. Black or grey might look acceptable

There are now some paintable silicone sealants available. Use a thin coat of paint which flexes better than a thick one.

it will be hard to paint it to match, it might look better if you grooved it so it looks deliberate. These things can disappear if the paint and the rubber are both white. If you groove it you could perhaps insert a rubber T-strip.

As it is so much in show, and close to visitors, covering the join with a bead or strip of half-round or something would not look elegant enough. But if you do, paint the frames and the strip, matching, before assembly so there is no bare wood showing next time it shrinks.

Do not try to use thick paint to fill it, this will crack.

I have some timber framing round windows where I covered the inevitable gap with a matching strip, but it is well away from observers' eyes so not noticeable.

 

[STim]

Thanks. The main issue is that the door doesn’t open/close at the moment. Is there any solution for that that doesn’t involve replacing the frame/door set in your view?

 

[JohnD]

this is normally dealt with by planing the door edge. In some cases you can adjust the hinges, or set them deeper into recesses. A skilled carpenter does this sort of work better than any DIYer or general builder.

try to run a coin all round the door to see how big the gap is. Does 10p fit? 50p? 5p?

A properly fitted door will have a deliberately even gap all round, though with wood, it will vary by the weather.

I have a very fine hardwood door, and I am sorry to say it rubs in spring, but not winter or summer.

p.s.
if the frame is actually moving away from the infill, rather than just shrinking, it might be warping, or there is some problem I can't recognise.

I wanted to look at the door edge in case it had hooks pulling the door and frame together, but I don't see any in your pics.

 

[STim]

Thanks. Good to know it’s not beyond a solution.

At the moment you wouldn’t get any coin in the gap on the jamb side, about a £1 on the hinge side, and 5p at the top, so not even by any means!

 

[JohnD]

probably adjust on the hinges, but I am not a skilled door fitter.

Open the door and photograph the hinges, check they are flat, have not moved and the screw heads do not protrude. Some modern high-quality hinges are made of very thick metal and have a large gap between the leaves when parallel, so need to be recessed more than you'd expect.

 

[STim]

Thanks!