One of my interior doors has the top hinge with all the screws more or less
"floating in space". It has caused the door to sag a little. This seems
odd to me, since the other 2 hinges are solid as rocks, and yet there is
enough flex in a door somehow to bend or sag just "enough" to not close
perfectly.

Odd.

In *any* case, I am in need of understanding the *right* way a door should
have been hung: All the parts, what they're supposed to be screwed to, are
the hinge screws supposed to extend into the studs, what parts of the door
frame/jamb/whatever are connected to what.

No one I know is "sure", and I would like to know what /your/ opinion of a
good website or other source is.

I'm checking the other doors in the house, and am (I must be thick) now
wondering if this might worsen or outright /cause/ the strike-plate
repositioning I'm always going through.

--
Sometimes life just sucks, and then you live.

"Thomas G. Marshall" . com
wrote in message news:1xCOf.601$eJ1.498@trndny05...

One of my interior doors has the top hinge with all the screws more or
less "floating in space". It has caused the door to sag a little. This
seems odd to me, since the other 2 hinges are solid as rocks, and yet
there is enough flex in a door somehow to bend or sag just "enough" to not
close perfectly.

Odd.


Not really odd at all. A door can hang as little as 1/16" out of alignment
and cause hang up problems. Most likely the door was never hung correctly
in the first place if this is new construction. You mention that the door
has 3 hinges, is that a heavy solid core door? Typically interior doors are
hollow core these days unless you have an uppper end custom built home.


In *any* case, I am in need of understanding the *right* way a door should
have been hung: All the parts, what they're supposed to be screwed to, are
the hinge screws supposed to extend into the studs, what parts of the door
frame/jamb/whatever are connected to what.

No, the hinge screw are not suppose to be screwed into studs. typically
they are about 3/4" long. During constructiona 2x4 constructed rough
opening is made in a wall to accept a door/door jamb assembly. The door is
typically already hung in the door jamb and the installer only has to insure
that the sides of the jamb are plumb and that the top of the jamb is level.
He uses longer screws to attach the jamb to 2x4 door opening. He uses
wedged shims between the door jamb and 2x4 to allow for a tight fit in the
opening. Typically the 2x4 door opening can be as much as 1" wider than the
total width of the door jamb. If the jamb is not plumb, the door can sag
and not close or open properly. The door jamb is rarely attached directly
to the surround support studs. these studs are rarely perfectly plumb. The
wedged shims seperate the jamb from those support stud. The use of wedged
shims enable the installer to insure that the jamb is plumb and square
inside a the door opening.

The normal correct solution is to remove the trim from the side of the door
that was added by the installer so that you can see the shims and gaps
between the door jamb and the support studs. The removable trim is usually
on the side opposite from the side that the door swings. After removing the
trim locate where the screws or nails are located, check the vertical parts
of the jamb to insure that they are plumb and check othe top of the jamb to
insure that it is level. Reposition or add shims as needed and rescrew or
nail taking care to not over tighten and pull the jamb back out of square or
plumb. Replace the trim.






No one I know is "sure", and I would like to know what /your/ opinion of a
good website or other source is.

I'm checking the other doors in the house, and am (I must be thick) now
wondering if this might worsen or outright /cause/ the strike-plate
repositioning I'm always going through.

--
Sometimes life just sucks, and then you live.

I set many doors each year and can offer some suggestions. Interior doors
are generally not screwed into the jack studs. They are usually held in
place with finish nails placed in the area of the hinges and through the
areas that have been shimmed. I fasten doors to the jack studs with finish
nails on either side of the jamb at 5 places on each side of the door. Top,
bottom, and just under the 3 hinges are shimmed and nailed (or the
corresponding area across from the hinges). I do not fasten the top jamb to
the header, rather just rely on casing to hold it firm.
Hinge screws only extend into the jamb, however, hinge to jamb and hinge
to door screws often come stripped from the factory. The installer may have
stripped them too, but usually the installer doesn't mess with the hinge
screws on a pre hung door unless they are loose. In either case, adding
longer screws of a similiar finish (2" to 2 1/2" screws are usually long
enough) through the hinge and into the jack stud will hold the door where
you want it.
Most problems you can have with a door can be fixed with just placing a
screw in the right hinge. Don't bother with adjusting the strike unless
absolutely necessary, it's gonna need adjusting again if the problem is not
fixed. --dave









"Thomas G. Marshall" . com
wrote in message news:1xCOf.601$eJ1.498@trndny05...

One of my interior doors has the top hinge with all the screws more or
less "floating in space". It has caused the door to sag a little. This
seems odd to me, since the other 2 hinges are solid as rocks, and yet
there is enough flex in a door somehow to bend or sag just "enough" to not
close perfectly.

Odd.

In *any* case, I am in need of understanding the *right* way a door should
have been hung: All the parts, what they're supposed to be screwed to, are
the hinge screws supposed to extend into the studs, what parts of the door
frame/jamb/whatever are connected to what.

No one I know is "sure", and I would like to know what /your/ opinion of a
good website or other source is.

I'm checking the other doors in the house, and am (I must be thick) now
wondering if this might worsen or outright /cause/ the strike-plate
repositioning I'm always going through.

--
Sometimes life just sucks, and then you live.

Thomas G. Marshall wrote:
One of my interior doors has the top hinge with all the screws more or less
"floating in space". It has caused the door to sag a little. This seems
odd to me, since the other 2 hinges are solid as rocks, and yet there is
enough flex in a door somehow to bend or sag just "enough" to not close
perfectly.

Odd.

In *any* case, I am in need of understanding the *right* way a door should
have been hung: All the parts, what they're supposed to be screwed to, are
the hinge screws supposed to extend into the studs, what parts of the door
frame/jamb/whatever are connected to what.

From your description it sounds to me like the screws have stripped out
of the wood jamb. Very simple fix. Remove the offending screws, dip
some toothpicks in glue and jam them into the oversize screw holes.
Cut off the toothpicks flush with the mortised jamb (called a hinge
gain) and reattach the hinge leaf with the old screws (assuming the
heads aren't stripped as well).

There's no need for the screws to extend into the jamb unless it's a
security door.

R

I recommend 1/4 or 3/8" dowels glued into holes centered on the
stripped screw holes. Trim flush and reinstall the screws. Much more
secure than the toothpicks or matchsticks that are commonly used, and
it takes not much more time.
Bugs

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 14:25:01 GMT, "Thomas G. Marshall"
. com wrote:


One of my interior doors has the top hinge with all the screws more or less
"floating in space". It has caused the door to sag a little. This seems
odd to me, since the other 2 hinges are solid as rocks, and yet there is
enough flex in a door somehow to bend or sag just "enough" to not close
perfectly.

[the rest snipped, to eliminate the necessity of top posting, which
indexplicably drives some people nuts]

I recently had difficulty with a couple of pre-hungs I got at the
borg. Since I had also been hanging a couple of slabs in my own
jambsets I had been mortising my own hinges with screws I bought from
the same borg.

I noticed that the screws I bought separately were about ½ longer than
the prehung screws. I just popped a few of the separates in in place
of the prehung screws and everything pulled back in nicely.

The hinge screws--(they're #9--you can't find them with all the other
screws) are in bags of 20 or thereabouts near the butts.

--
LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

http://www.woodbutcher.net

Proud participant of rec.woodworking since February, 1997

email addy de-spam-ified due to 1,000 spams per month.
If you can't figure out how to use it, I probably wouldn't
care to correspond with you anyway.