External double door shrinkage, Fix?

[mindthatwhatouch]

Hi,
On the long list of jobs is sorting the gap in my double doors.
Made by me, been up for just over four years, treated softwood and external ply, each door 1300mm wide.

The gap between the doors has increased to about 9mm which is causing catch and lock to only just engage, also it’s a bit rattle and drafts, so it needs sorting.
If I pack the hinges to take it up then the hinge will be right on the edge of the rebate, and being forced into using plastic packers as the stainless ones I can only seem to source in packs of 50.

So should I
1) pack the hinges, 1mm on each hinge will halve the gap, but of course increases the gap on the hinge side.
2) Cut off edge on one door, fix some lipping and recut the hinges ( or do this on the catch side of the secondary door)
Or 3) fix an aluminium plate to the catch side of the secondary door (say 5mm) and
refit the latch plates.

If 2 or 3 how much gap do I leave? Gap didn’t seem to close up much during the last winter, I don’t mind the extra work involved in these solutions but don’t want to have to be continually faffing with it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Doug71]

You could just pack the hinges for now and see how it goes.

You don't need to pack the full width of the hinge, you could just use a thin strip down the knuckle edge so the hinge is still full depth in it's mortise at the back but shifted over the 1mm at the front if that makes sense.

Looks neater and the butt hinges (if that is what you have used) are still getting some support from the mortises.

 

[MikeG.]

Nine mm is a massive gap. Gaining 1mm back from each hinge reduces that to 7mm, still too big. Even 2mm a side, if that were possible, leaves a 5mm gap, which is just about starting to be OKish, maybe. But 2mm is a lot, and leaves big gaps around the outside of the doors (which are huge, BTW........1300 for single leaf is bigger than most church doors!). I reckon you should consider taking the doors off and adding a strip to the hinge edge of each.

 

[Doug71]

Where are the doors, I was presuming a garage/workshop type setting going by the size of them?

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Rather than pack the hinges consider adding something like a 6 - 12 mm thick strip of wood, somewhat wider than the doors' thickness to each doors' leading edge. Then refit the doors, which of course means planing the new strips flush to the door faces, and to the right dimension to create an appropriate gap of, say, 2 -3 mm: and then messing about with the door hardware, e.g., locks, keeps, handles (including cover plates?), key hole, and maybe top and bottom bolts in the one door, and finally refinishing, but this might be the best option. Slainte.

 

[wsb1207]

Are the doors rebated on the meeting edge?

 

[MikeG.]

........ messing about with the door hardware, e.g., locks, keeps, handles (including cover plates?), key hole, and maybe top and bottom bolts in the one door, and finally refinishing, but this might be the best option. Slainte.

There's such a lot of messing about in doing that, compared with what goes on at the hinge edge.....which is why I suggested the latter.

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

Where are the doors, I was presuming a garage/workshop type setting going by the size of them?

Yes

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

Nine mm is a massive gap. Gaining 1mm back from each hinge reduces that to 7mm, still too big. Even 2mm a side, if that were possible, leaves a 5mm gap, which is just about starting to be OKish, maybe. But 2mm is a lot, and leaves big gaps around the outside of the doors (which are huge, BTW........1300 for single leaf is bigger than most church doors!). I reckon you should consider taking the doors off and adding a strip to the hinge edge of each.

Yes I was thinking 1mm Packer each side of hinges on both doors, reduces it to 5mm.

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

Are the doors rebated on the meeting edge?

No. Square edged. There is a strip of wood over the gap, fixed to the first opening door.

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

Doors here. Hung on four 100mm fire door butt hinges.
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/yep-it-s-another-workshop-design-questions-t84326-75.html#p1005159

 

[wsb1207]

Are the doors rebated on the meeting edge?

No. Square edged. There is a strip of wood over the gap, fixed to the first opening door.

Glue and pin a piece on the keep edge, re -house the keep, probably easier than taking the door off

 

[Inspector]

Just curious if you think the doors might "grow back" to their original width if they get a lot of rain hitting them?

Pete

 

[Sgian Dubh]

........ messing about with the door hardware, e.g., locks, keeps, handles (including cover plates?), key hole, and maybe top and bottom bolts in the one door, and finally refinishing, but this might be the best option. Slainte.

There's such a lot of messing about in doing that, compared with what goes on at the hinge edge.....which is why I suggested the latter.

Yes, you're correct. That is probably a better option. And I wonder how it is I missed you'd said that in your earlier post? Sorry, must not have been concentrating properly, and when I think about it, at the time I posted I was actually purposely distracting myself from a techy drawing issue that was bugging me. You know ... there's a difficulty ... go away ... do something else ... hope the solution pops into your head whilsy you're not really thinking about the problem, ha, ha. Slainte.

 

[Doug71]

Looking at the doors if the gap is not already too big down the sides I would still consider packing the hinges, on doors that size I would have no problem with a 5mm or more gap around them. The other suggestion of gluing a lath on the slave door is the other option I would go with, I'm just lazy though and would avoid taking those big doors off if possible :roll:

The other option is to treat them more like gates and use ironmongery designed for bigger gaps and where there can be movement, these locks are great and will always be long enough to bridge the gap.

https://www.marchesironmongery.co.uk/ga ... black.html

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

Just curious if you think the doors might "grow back" to their original width if they get a lot of rain hitting them?

Pete

The gap last winter was smaller than it is now, but still a good 5mm.

Think I’m going to cut back and put a strip of hardwood on the second door keep side. Then I’ve got the option of planing it down if I need to.

Don’t really want to increase the gap on the hinge side. It’s already 4 or 5 mm.

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

Sorted (hopefully) for good.

Cut off a strip using the festool and replaced with up cycled oak flooring.