Warning sign
Doors and windows that stick or will not latch
A door frame is a rectangle. When the floor under one side of it drops, the rectangle leans, and the door that used to fit starts to rub or swing by itself.
How a racked frame behaves
- The door scrapes the frame at the top corner on the latch side, or drags on the floor at the bottom.
- The gap above the closed door is a wedge: tight at one end and open at the other.
- The latch bolt no longer meets the hole in the strike plate, so the door will not stay shut.
- A door left ajar drifts open or closed without being touched.
- Window sashes bind halfway or the locks stop lining up.
One door doing this is a carpentry matter until shown otherwise. Three doors along the same outside wall, all leaning the same way, tell a different story.
Humidity does this too
Wooden doors take up moisture in a Gulf Coast summer and swell across their width. A door that binds along its whole edge in August and frees up when the heating comes on in winter is most likely just damp.
Loose hinge screws let a door sag toward the latch side. Many coats of paint narrow the clearance. A strike plate can work loose. Check these first: tighten the top hinge and see whether the gap evens out.
What humidity does not do is tilt the frame. Hold a level against the hinge side of the jamb and across the head. A frame that is out of plumb, with a crack in the drywall above its corner, is worth a call.
Notes that help on the phone
- Which doors and windows, and which wall of the house they are on.
- Where each one rubs: top, bottom, hinge side or latch side.
- Whether it is worse after a dry spell or after weeks of rain.
- Any cracks above the frames or in the brick outside the same rooms.
- Whether a door was planed or re-hung before, and when.
Hold off on the planer
Trimming a door to make it close treats the symptom. If the slab is later raised, the frame comes back toward square and the trimmed door is left with a gap. Tell the company about any doors you have already adjusted.
If the movement is confirmed, the fix is to the foundation and is covered under house leveling. Doors are re-hung at the end.
Questions about doors
My doors only stick in late summer. Is that the slab?
It can be either. Late summer is humid, which swells wood, and it is also when the clay around the edge of a slab is at its driest and has shrunk the most. Look at the gap above the door: an even, tight gap points to swelling, a wedge-shaped one points to the frame leaning.
The front door is fine but the bedroom doors are not. Does that rule out the foundation?
No. A slab seldom moves as one piece. One corner or one side can drop while the remainder stays put, so the doors in that part of the house are the only ones affected.
When you are ready
Describe the problem and book an inspection
One call puts you in touch with an independent foundation repair company that works in Sugar Land. Have the address, the age of the house and a short list of what has changed.
Talk to a local foundation company
Say what you are seeing and where in the house. The company you reach is independent and gives you its own findings and its own price.
Call (832) 307-1056Read the referral disclosure and the privacy policy.