Crooked doors

[Morticia]

You got an old house, you got crooked doors. I've been annoyed by the crooked doors (and no way to straighten them, they were cut crooked) for years now. I know that light from the hallways was filtering into the rooms thru the gaps.
Well we fixed the problem. Hubs cut strips and affixed them to the top of the door frame so when the door is closed it butts up against the strip. I just painted them to match the trim (and did some touch up where the suitcases have been banging) and voila! no more light filtering in around the top of the door. (The new carpet has taken care of light along the bottom edge.)
I think will help a tad with sound migration as well.
One more item off the list.

 

[happyjacks]

What kind of strips? Wood trim or a rubber/foam type of thing?

 

[Morticia]

What kind of strips? Wood trim or a rubber/foam type of thing?.

Wood trim. About 1" wide and 1/2" thick, cut to fit the doorway. Given the way guests beat up our woodwork (I was repainting chipped bits way above my head!) I don't think we could go with foam.
I've thougth about putting strips of foam around the doors, but see above comment...

 

[gillumhouse]

Do you mean to say doors are not all crooked?

 

[Morticia]

Do you mean to say doors are not all crooked?.

Amazingly, NEW houses seem to have straight, plumb doors. It's like being in a reverse funhouse if you're used to old houses.

 

[swirt]

Often times it was not the door originally that was cut crooked. Usually it was caused by the house settling causing the door jambs to become crooked, but people fixed the problem by cutting the tops and bottoms of the door to keep them from hanging up on the ceiling or the floor. The house continued to settle until now crooked door no longer matches the even more crooked jamb.

 

[Morticia]

Often times it was not the door originally that was cut crooked. Usually it was caused by the house settling causing the door jambs to become crooked, but people fixed the problem by cutting the tops and bottoms of the door to keep them from hanging up on the ceiling or the floor. The house continued to settle until now crooked door no longer matches the even more crooked jamb. .

Seemingly unrelated story...we lived in 'temporary housing' when we bought the last house between the time of the closing and the time we moved in. There was a hedge that ran along the front deck. Hubs decided to trim the hedge one day. How best to get a straight line? Well, he decided to just hold the hedge trimmers exactly at his hip as he went along. Terrific idea only the lawn took a slight dip halfway along the hedge. And, thus, the hedge had that same slight dip...
We have one door that looks like it was planed using the same brilliant plan.

This solution of ours at least leaves us out of the planing/replaning/hedge-trimming biz! Altho the doors still look a bit lopsided from inside the rooms.

 

[gillumhouse]

The door on the "new" bathroom was the closet door before. Several guests have told me it does not close and I have had to tell them it is an old house and requires hip action to close it. We have tried looking at it several ways before trying to "fix" it and I do not think it can be done without really messing it up. Since it is on the ensuite bathroom, I am not a gonna worry about it. It is part of the "charm of an old house".
Ran out of half & half and the temp is finally in the 20s so went to go to the store tonight. . Whe nthe guy put the ramp & deck on at the kitchen he did not take freeze/thaw/sweat into account. The storm door will not open tonight - it is sticking on something at the bottom. Something else for Sheryl's fix-it list this Spring. She is coming out for a week to fix what needs fixed - and she can do it too! You should see what she did with her flat! Moved walls, built a deck.... The first floor flat that her friend bought was reno'ed and her second floor was fix'er- upper and she made it beautiful - mostly by herself. That's my girl!

 

[Samster]

Often times it was not the door originally that was cut crooked. Usually it was caused by the house settling causing the door jambs to become crooked, but people fixed the problem by cutting the tops and bottoms of the door to keep them from hanging up on the ceiling or the floor. The house continued to settle until now crooked door no longer matches the even more crooked jamb. .

The door frames settled or became crooked because they were not built with headers. So, you're right...instead of fixing the problem, people planed the doors. We found that when we de-constructed and re-constructed. We have a crooked door frame in our dining room to the butler's pantry. We re-hung the old door which is totally level. It's a little quirky but, oh well.....

 

[Morticia]

The door on the "new" bathroom was the closet door before. Several guests have told me it does not close and I have had to tell them it is an old house and requires hip action to close it. We have tried looking at it several ways before trying to "fix" it and I do not think it can be done without really messing it up. Since it is on the ensuite bathroom, I am not a gonna worry about it. It is part of the "charm of an old house".
Ran out of half & half and the temp is finally in the 20s so went to go to the store tonight. . Whe nthe guy put the ramp & deck on at the kitchen he did not take freeze/thaw/sweat into account. The storm door will not open tonight - it is sticking on something at the bottom. Something else for Sheryl's fix-it list this Spring. She is coming out for a week to fix what needs fixed - and she can do it too! You should see what she did with her flat! Moved walls, built a deck.... The first floor flat that her friend bought was reno'ed and her second floor was fix'er- upper and she made it beautiful - mostly by herself. That's my girl!.

Does your bathroom door require that you lift up on the doorknob to get it to close? If so, you may just be able to tighten the upper hinge- maybe it's come loose.
And that reminds me that the bathroom door where hubs has been doing the new floor doesn't close all the way.

 

[gillumhouse]

The door on the "new" bathroom was the closet door before. Several guests have told me it does not close and I have had to tell them it is an old house and requires hip action to close it. We have tried looking at it several ways before trying to "fix" it and I do not think it can be done without really messing it up. Since it is on the ensuite bathroom, I am not a gonna worry about it. It is part of the "charm of an old house".
Ran out of half & half and the temp is finally in the 20s so went to go to the store tonight. . Whe nthe guy put the ramp & deck on at the kitchen he did not take freeze/thaw/sweat into account. The storm door will not open tonight - it is sticking on something at the bottom. Something else for Sheryl's fix-it list this Spring. She is coming out for a week to fix what needs fixed - and she can do it too! You should see what she did with her flat! Moved walls, built a deck.... The first floor flat that her friend bought was reno'ed and her second floor was fix'er- upper and she made it beautiful - mostly by herself. That's my girl!.

Does your bathroom door require that you lift up on the doorknob to get it to close? If so, you may just be able to tighten the upper hinge- maybe it's come loose.
And that reminds me that the bathroom door where hubs has been doing the new floor doesn't close all the way.
.

I wish. It is a kattywhompus twisted sort of thing. DH tried a lot of things and the deconstructors were the last ones to hang that door - and they were supposed to be good. (Finish work I am not so sure....) It has many different problems that would probably only be resolved by a new door and I don't wanna do that. Messes with the character of the place. 97 year olds are supposed to be "personalities".

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

We have foam strip in the cottage (purely to keep cold air out or hot air out). The door SAGS.
One room upstairs has a bathroom door that just this month won't close as the ceiling has dropped a bit around the jam. We have to fix that one. DH said who cares and I have to remind him of those persons who must be confined with doors closed completely while using the loo.

 

[Morticia]

Putting in the new carpet has made some doors rub where they didn't rub on the old, worn down carpet. Today hubs decided to plane one of them. (Not using the hedge-trimming model.) He wanted me to hold the door once it was off the hinges.
He was going to do the planing in the guest room. I asked if he was using a manual plane? No. Electric plane. I thought it might be best not to get the dust all over the room after I just spent hours cleaning everything in each room. OK, he would bring the door into the dining room, which is still a bit of a mess.
I couldn't see what was happening (eyes closed, holding door). When I opened my eyes, I burst into tears. There were shavings and dust blown all over the check in desk. All of the brochure racks were covered, the cc machine was buried. Then he goes to plane the other side, intending now to blow all of this crap onto the tables and chairs.
They wonder why we glare and cry...