Warped 100 years + old toilet door

[PhilipClarke]

I've got a bit of a problem putting pictures of this door up at the moment, so I've put them in a hidden page on the website.

http://www.bodgedhouse.com/content/warped-toilet-door

The door is tongued and grooved planks with a frame on the front to keep it flat and two very large/ thick planks along the rear. 100 years ago this would have been the outside toilet door but was moved inside during an extension and turned.

The last plank on the handle side is warped so that the top bending towards the door stop, so when closed the hinge side is flush but the handle side is at least a centimetre forwards, more if you try and close the door. Now how would this be fixed, I have sash clamps large enough for the width of the door and various other things. If I take the front frame off and then re-nail it will it hold ? I could just make an angled door stop. The bottom of the appears straight, it's just the top third of the end plank that appears to have moved forwards over the years. A thing I've just noticed, the front frame is typical door construction in that the vertical go from floor to top and the top horizontal is in between. If I were to take off the front frame and change it so that the top horizontal extended all the way from corner to corner that would probably exert more pressure as the end of the warped plank is almost parallel to the vertical on the frame and so currently would not be getting much leverage from the front to hold it flat.

Thank you in advance.

 

[big-all]

your choices are

live with it
try and over compensate and let it spring back
replace warped timber
dismantle and adjust timbers to minimise twisting/warping /cupping effects

has the conditions changed recently like a refit lots off plastering building work
new radiator drying washing indoors new shower
basically anything to alter the humidity in the house or is this old movement??

 

[PhilipClarke]

This is probably old movement, I'd prefer to keep as much of the wood as possible although it would almost certainly be cheaper to buy another door, plus it's a bit odd having an exterior outhouse door in the the house with garden T hinges on it. In an ideal world I'd like to strip it to bare wood. I do like to experiment, I was thinking "steam" but more specifically taking it apart getting the warped plank and then wetting the side bending upwards, "in theory" that would make the fibres expand and straighten it and then using a paint/ heat gun, blast it dry quickly as opposed to natural evaporation. Probably wouldn't work but then if I put a new plank in then it will look very odd compared to the rest of the door, possibly not, though as the front frame would cover a lot of it.

What I like about old houses is that things were built for economy, the oak doors in the rest of the house all have panels and beading, so every section should be replaceable by knocking out a bit, what I really don't like is those moulded doors with panel indentations that serve no purpose, I figure "moulded door fine" but make it so that it's a door (hollow, wavey/ rippled, indented patterns or something, built into jigsaw like structure for component replacement) not a copy of a two hundred year old engineering theory, err sorry end of rant.

Probably I shall apply the old theory and buy a straight plank, mis-matched to start with but maybe it's better to illustrate the point.

 

[big-all]

salvage yard may have a plank to match or at least be aged enough to not look odd

wetting is an option over bending around 10% the other way and clamping until dry this can take several day but may not work