Bob M wrote in
:

Smitty Two wrote:

In article ,
Bob M wrote:

Gentlemen;

About a year ago I had a contractor install a new steel, prehung
exterior door. Although I don't know the brand, this door was most
likely obtained
at Home Depot. There appears to be nothing wrong with the quality
of the door and its surround.

I am trying to sell this home and 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
door closed just fine. Apparently the potential purchaser has a
different idea!

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).

Then find out EXACTLY what the problem is from the PURCHASER. Figure out
a solution. Propose it to the purchaser. Do nothing until you BOTH AGREE
on a solution. If purchaser is feeding on the buyers market aspect he may
decline anything you do until he gets a new door. Of course, don't let a
single few $C item hold up a sale. Any halfwit realtor (if involved)
wouldn't let it get to that.

I will look for
hinge shims and bring a big hammer. Unfortunately the house is 300
miles away.

Bob