Bob M wrote:
Smitty Two wrote:

In article ,
Bob M wrote:
....
...the inspector states the door is in need
of adjustment but was not specific. I looked and looked and the only
issue I could find was that compared to other doors in the house it
appears to be
set more deeply into the opening as seen from the inside. This means
that when closing the lock bolt hits the 1-1.5" of trim edge before it
reaches the strike plate.

This has never been a problem for me as I relatively effortlessly pull
....

The clue here is "relatively"...that certainly indicates something is amiss.

As I am not a carpenter I am hoping that some of you readers who may be
familiar with installing/repairing similar doors might have an idea as to
what I am describing and even more hopefully how it can be repaired? I
am hesitant to call even a contractor because I don't even know how to
best describe it.

Does the door need to be reinstalled? If so, in what way? I can't
imaging the door could be incorrectly sizes as it looks just fine.

Any ideas, suggestions, recommendations, help GREATLY appreciated. As
one can imagine, in this housing mess and economy I am already taking a
real bath on this house.

Thanks - Bob
Since the potential purchaser is apparently the one squawking, why not
offer him $200 and let him fix whatever he and the inspector believe to
be wrong?

One thing you could check is whether the hinges have metal spacers
behind them, if so, removing one or more of them might help. We recently
tore down a wall containing a double steel door, in order to bring in a
large machine, and rebuilt the wall and door thereafter. Getting the
doors to work flawlessly wasn't difficult, but it was damn
time-consuming and fiddly, involving multiple iterations of "try it and
see."

Another possible issue is that the hinges could be in the wrong place,
so that the hinge side of the door contacts the stop before the latch
side of the door does, which puts torque on the hinges every time you
pull the door closed. We just ran into that yesterday on another door
whose hinge bolts had broken loose from the concrete block wall behind
the jamb.

Thanks for the input Smitty Two. The purchaser is being unreasonable and
won't settle for a cash allowance (lazy I guess). I will look for hinge
shims and bring a big hammer. Unfortunately the house is 300 miles away.
....

Pictures would certainly help...

I'd keep the hammer in the toolbox until last resort, though...

_What_ specifically is hitting what, again?

If it is only the latch itself hitting the frame before the strike
plate, there are deep strike plates available or could fashion one from
some plate.

If the door itself or the whole latch is dragging, then you may need to
adjust hinges.

I'd first get input from the buyer as to what their idea of a
satisfactory resolution actually is (not saying I'd do _just_anything_,
but at least try to get some idea as to what will be satisfactory).

If you're not comfortable w/ this kind of work and it's imperative to
get it resolved satisfactorily to close the sale and particularly if an
inspection when you get there and a couple of simple ideas don't seem to
pan out, I'd suggest a door and window outfit.

As for the complete rehanging, that's where need to be able to see
what's going on to have an input...

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