Bedroom Door Keeps Opening

Bedroom Door Keeps Opening

1. Hello,

   Just after some advice, I've just got a carpenter to hang some internal panel doors. Pleased with the job and the price, apart from one small snag. One of the doors swings wide open on it's own accord when it is opened and I am thickening about getting the guy back to have a look at it. The thing is, the door frame (original) is totally out of square and plumb.
   Will he be able to do anything about this (without replacing the door frame)????.

   Or, is this due to the frame being out, if that's the case, I'll just live with it and stop whinging.

2. heeelllooo geordie yacker

   if the door is strait [not bowed] the only way the chippie is NOT responsible is if the wall is leaning over or the hinge side is leaning back badly at the top !!!!!

   are the hinges in line !!!!
   with the door closed hold up a strait edge between the hinges leaning on the knuckles of the hinge facing the opposite wall then to the side off the nuckle the hindges should be dead in line if either hinge deviates from this line it can throw the door to the point off least spring

   try loosening every screw a half turn to see if it stops this doesnt cure the problem just reduces the tension
   you need to pack move the hinges untill they are paralell and in line

   big all

3. Out of interest do all the other doors swing shut?
   Did you change way this one opens?
   Have you got rising butt hinges?

   Just wondered...

   Z

4. Hi GY.

   Does the door swing very freely when you give it a gentle push, or does it feel as though it has some kind of springy resistance acting on it when you close it?

   If it is the former, it's probably opening under its own weight - it's likely that the door is not completely plumb and is leaning out at the top towards the opening side. The door tries to 'fall' this way and ends up opening!

   If, however, the door has a 'springiness' to it - when you try and close it it feels as though you are pushing against a rubbery spring (use your imagination...), then it's likely to be as described above by Big All; the hinges are out off line (so the door is pulled into a slight curve against its will when closed, and springs straight when given the chance), or the hinges have been set to different depths, or the door has a bow in it that the hinges are keeping straight when it's closed, but the bow tries to take over when it opens.

   It's all perfectly fixable by your chippy. If the frame is out of plumb, the door can still be installed completely upright by repositioning the hinges and refitting the doorstop in the new position (did he remove the doorstops during the job?).

5. DA,

   The problem is that the door is opening on it's own weight. It's not the hinges (I think that situation is known as 'hingebound'???) no 'springy action.

   The thing is, the door frame does not actually have doorstops, instead the frame is rebated and the door 'stops' against the edge of the rebate, which is the same piece of wood as the door frame.

   I suppose the way round it is to somehow plane or chisel the edge of this rebate so it is level, then re-hang the door.

6. Just like to add, that the door has been fitted hard up against this 'door stop'. If you look at the closed door from the non-hinged side, you do not see and uneven gap between the door and the frame.

7. Hi GY.

   Ah, so the whole frame would need to be straightened!!!

   I guess, as you clearly know, the options would be to either trim the rebate (a good chippy with a sharp chisel could probably do it pretty quickly, or possible using a router - I would probably score it with a craft knife and straight edge before chiselling 'cos otherwise I'd mess it up...), or could you live with it if the door was reset with an increasingly visible gap between the door and the rebate at the bottom?

   Have you tried a level against the frame to see just how bad it is?

8. IF the frame is out of square, but the door fits nice and evenly against it's stops, it's probably not fair to blame the chippy. The answer is probably what some one else has suggested, which is Rising Butt hinges, which will encourage (but not force) the door to close on it's own. The alternative is a conceled door closer such as a Perko.
   I would however say that the chippy is probably not obliged to fit them as it can entail a fair it more work, and wasn't part of his original breif, but I'm sure that speaking nicely to him you can reach a very amicable compromise.

   Woody

9. Hi ukwoody.

   I don't think anyone is suggesting the chippy was at fault in any way with the original work.

   Your solutions are also certainly more straight-forward than mine!

10. If it is just a sort of ghostly creeping slow opening when uncatched, it may be possible to stop it by packing behind the bottom hinge at the frame, if the squareness and shape of the door in the frame allows the little adjustment without binding.

    Favourite is 2 thicknesses of squashed cardboard.

    When you are retightening the screws, just hold the door and hinge a tad away from the rebated doorstop as well, it all helps.

    As I say, if it a gentle creep, this might be enough to do it.

    Mr. Handyandy - really

11. Oh, and we've been here before, and I know that this direction of packing is not the direction of packing needed for the problem, but for a slight creep, it will(might) work.

    Dirtydeeds, Sid, take note.

    Mr. Handyandy - really

12. it isnt the chippies fault........... thats sort of correct BUT the chippie should know how to sort it out.

    if the frame/lining is out of vertical. ie the top hinge and bottom hinge are not verticaly above each other [put you back to the strike plate jamb and face the hinge jamb] the door will open (or close) itself.

    andy take note, packing WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM it causes MORE problems.

    to solve the problem for ever bring the lining/frame leg vertical and rehang the door.

    more usual solution. hang the door so it LOOKS out of vertical with the frame/lining but the hinges are vertically one above the other then alter everything else to suit

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Bedroom Door Keeps Opening

Source: https://community.screwfix.com/threads/door-opens-by-itself-but-its-not-magic.17449/