Maimai wrote:
Hi there, just joined today as found this site. Every year in summer my
front door warps a bit and gets a bit tighter to lock. It's a
masionette in an old house, west london so there is some subsidance as
is built on clay. I don't believe the lock is the problem. So may
need to shave a bit of the bottom and right of door in short term
However I've got a twin door ie, the house is two flats with two
identical wooden doors beside one another as individual entrances to
each flat (so can't jus tbuy a new door). I've noticed some cracking on
the porch just a few inches from the front door. This has happened and
been filled twice before in teh ten years I've lived here. In winter
there are huge gaps in the door so something has moved (frame/house?).
But my neighbours don't seem to have this problem. Any help gratefully
accepted as don't want to be ripped off.

Get an heavy blunt instrument and lean hard on the middle of the rebate
to see if there is any give in the frame. It sounds like the middle
screws are no longer holding the frame to the wall.

You might be able to refix it with the same holes using rawl-plugs
-unless it was nailed.

You may need to try and get the old holes cleared by redrilling but if
red or brown plugs will fit long wide screws will suffice.

If it is a nailed frame putting 4" nails alongside the old ones may
help. Oldish nails can rust through but tend to leave the wooden wedges
fairly intact.

A big problem will be if the packers (gaps spacing bits of wedgie
stuff) may have dropped or shrunk. If the frame is very loose it will
need repacking. Failure to do that will result in the gap between th
door and frame increasing when you send the nails or screws home.