mm wrote:
How much can a wooden door swell? Do I have to wait until it shrinks
again? It's never been anywhere near this bad before in the last 15
or more years.

A friend has a wood front door, a panel door I think it is called,
with six approximately 7x10" inch, whatever the standard size is,
panes of glass in the top half, and I think decorative wood in the
bottom, with the strong parts of the door being the two sides, top,
bottom, and the middle horizontal part.

Last week she saw water coming from the top of the door frame. The
water has stopped, and the top of the door doesn't feel wet, but the
door now rubs at the top and something is also keeping it from
shutting, the last 3/8ths of an inch.

She's tempted to have me plane the top of the door, esp. near the
hinges, but though it scrapes there, it bothers me more that the side
away from the hinges won't shut all the way, stops dead 3/8" away,
even when I push hard on it.

If it has swollen, how long will it take to shrink again with 50%
humidity these days in Baltimore?

The roof is only 3 years old and looks fine from the outside. It's a
40 or so year old house. The eaves are about 16", with aluminimum
soffits with periodic groups of holes for attic air ventilation. I
myself can't get up in the attic. I'm fat but it's my rib cage that
won't get through the small hole, and it's barely any fatter than it
ever was. (At most one inch thicker from front to back than if I were
thin. I still have plenty of room to get up my own attic hole.)

Any helpful advice is much appreciated.

It may be time for a new door, after the leak is corrected. It sounds
like the door is warped, which is quite different than just "swelled".
A normal amount of expansion can take place with temp and humdity
change, but that would not seem to cause the door to fail to shut 3/8"
away from frames. Planing would not help WARP. Floating panels are
easy ways for water to get into the rails and stiles, which are slotted
to hold the panel and would not have finish. Sounds like an interior
door? Wood can be unwarped, but it is tricky and I can't imagine trying
to do so on a paneled door.