On Jan 25, 1:08 pm, Mike wrote:
On Jan 25, 1:02 pm, wrote:
Thanks Jeff. Tell me....how does one check for settlement? Of the 5
other doors on the second level of our home, 4 work fine and one other
door closes loosely, so I'm probably looking at moving that strike
plate closer to the door stop. On the main floor, I have 2 doors that
seem to close fine, but they don't latch.

The main thing is just measuring the square, level and plumb of the
door jamb. You can do that with just a basic square and level. If
it's out, then it's probably settlement, unless the jamb was installed
incorrectly in the first place. Nothing to freak out about if it's
out, but at least you'll know what's happening. I'd still probably
just move the plate, but at least if it continues to get worse you
will know it's really the house's movement that's the problem. (This
is normal, but it might force you to re-install the jamb eventually.)

Measure level and plumb on all sides, too. In my house, a couple of
the jambs have actually started "walking" a little bit over the last
85 years, so they're out of plumb a little bit not on the side the
door is on but on the plane of the wall. That means the top of the
door hits the jamb and I have to tug the door to close it.

As for the doors that don't latch, probably just worn out springs.
You can just get new springs for the lockset if that's the case. Or
if these are those cheap hollow core doors, they probably came with
cheap locksets too and maybe you just want to replace the whole
thing. Not very difficult or expensive, unless you decide to upgrade
at the same time.