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Fix a sticking door: hinges, locksets, and sweeps

A door that will not stay locked, will not swing, or drags on the threshold is usually a hinge problem with a lock problem behind it; the guide works through the diagnosis in order, from the episodes.

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8 min read

A sticking door is a diagnosis before it is a purchase. The door that will not stay locked, the door that is hard to swing, and the door that drags on the threshold are usually the same failure in three places: the hinges have dropped, the strike has moved with them, and the sweep has worn down to the floor. This guide works through the diagnosis in order — find where it sticks, try the cheap fix, rebuild what is stripped, rehang what is worn, and only then replace the door itself — from three episodes that each show one part of the job.

Find where it sticks

Close the door slowly and watch where it catches: the top corner, the latch side, or the threshold. Read the gap around the door — a gap that runs through the door and opens at the top means the hinges have dropped, not that the door has grown. Check the strike too: if the latch will not catch, the strike is out of line. And check the sweep: a worn sweep dragging on the threshold sticks every time the door moves.

The Season 25 front door is the full case at once. In an 1890 house, the door would not stay locked — the homeowner's daughter kicked it open after a weekend away. A locksmith found the strike out of line, dug the opening, and said the hinges were the larger problem. The door was hard to swing, the handles fell off, and it was sometimes hard to open from inside. The hinges should have had ball bearings; the knuckles had dropped, the gap runs through the door, and there is a large gap at the top. That gap is the diagnosis: the door is hanging from hinges that have given up, and everything downstream — the strike, the lock, the sweep — is compensating for it.

The cheap fix first: a long screw into the stud

Before the door comes off, replace one short screw in each hinge leaf — the one nearest the jamb — with a #9 x 3-inch screw that bites the stud behind the jamb. Drive it slowly and watch the gap close. On a door that has only just started to sag, this is often the whole fix, and it costs less than the hinges.

The short screws that hold a hinge leaf to the jamb only bite the jamb. A long #9 x 3-inch screw (opens in a new tab) in each leaf reaches the stud behind it, which is what actually holds the door's weight. Replace one screw per leaf first — the one nearest the jamb — and check the gap before replacing the rest. If the gap closes and the latch catches, stop: the door was sagging, not worn out.

Stripped holes: dowels and epoxy

Where a screw spins in a stripped hole, open the hole with a 1/4-inch bit, glue in an oak dowel pin cut long enough to trim later, and wait until the plugs have cured before chiselling them flush. The species does not matter for filling — hardwood or softwood, you are filling a hole. Drill the new pilot into the plug, not into the old hole beside it.

The fill is a 1/4-inch fluted dowel pin (opens in a new tab) in each stripped hole, glued with two-part epoxy (opens in a new tab). The episode is specific about the size — a 1/4-inch bit opens each screw hole to one size — and relaxed about the species: "Hardwood or softwood, you are filling a hole." Cut the dowel long enough to trim later, wait until the plugs have cured, and chisel them flush. The episode page gives no cure time, and neither does this guide: wait until the epoxy is hard, not until a clock says so.

Nathan had done the same repair before, in Season 23, Episode 21 — filling stripped screw holes with dowels and epoxy, then longer slotted screws. The Season 25 door is the larger version of the same idea: the same fill, the same longer screws, but a whole door rehung on top of it. The full account of the earlier repair is in Season 23, Episode 21.

Rehang it on ball-bearing hinges

Jack the door until the gap closes, then swap the hinges one leaf at a time. The new leaf is usually thicker than the old mortise, so deepen the jamb side and make the door side shallower. Start each pilot with a self-centring bit so the screw lands in the middle of the hinge hole, dip the screw tip in wood-screw lubricant, and drive with almost no speed at the start — the solid brass screws strip easily. Drive the pins back in from the top, and swap the finials last: they are decorative.

The hinge in the Season 25 episode is a Baldwin 4-by-4 solid brass square-corner ball-bearing mortise hinge (opens in a new tab): solid brass, 4 inches by 4 inches, pin down the centre, ball bearings in the knuckles, with the low-profile finial swapped for a ball. The ball bearings are the point — plain knuckles drop under a heavy door, and dropped knuckles are what opened the gap at the top. For an ordinary interior door, the trade-standard equivalent is a Stanley FBB179 or FBB191 ball-bearing butt hinge (opens in a new tab): same five-knuckle ball-bearing idea, in steel or brass, without the Baldwin price.

Two details from the install are easy to get wrong. First, the new leaf is thicker than the old mortise, so deepen the jamb side and make the door side shallower — do not force the leaf into a mortise it does not fit. Second, the kit's solid brass screws strip easily: start each pilot with a self-centring drill bit (opens in a new tab), dip the screw tip in wood-screw lubricant — the episode page names a beeswax-based lubricant — and drive with almost no speed at the start. The door is jacked with a construction jack until the gap closes; rent or borrow the jack, do not buy one for a single door. The segment grades rehanging a sagging door on ball-bearing hinges 6 out of 10.

Make the lock latch again

Take the lock apart by hand — no power tools on removal, because the hardware is not going back. Free the cylinder set screw, turn the key about two thirds, and let your hand finish backing the cylinder out. Fit the new lock body into the same mortise and the same screw holes, assemble it loose, plumb the faceplates, then tighten. Turn the cylinder clockwise until it stops and do not overtighten. If the strike still will not catch, mortise a dust box into the jamb and fit a security strike with larger screws in the back and smaller screws in the front.

The lock in the Season 25 episode is a Baldwin Baltimore entrance mortise handleset (opens in a new tab) in non-lacquered brass, with a Baldwin residential entrance mortise lock (opens in a new tab). The new lock body fits the same mortise and the same screw holes — that is what makes this a swap rather than a rebuild. The removal is by hand on purpose: the decorative faceplate — the armour plate, or scalp plate — comes off without power tools because the hardware is not going back, and the knobs thread off once the cylinder is out. The threads were worn from years of the homeowner tightening handles that kept falling off; the new knobs solve that by being new, not by being tighter.

The strike is a separate piece of the same job. The old strike plate does not latch, so it gets the kit's: a dust box mortised into the jamb (opens in a new tab) and a security strike, with larger screws in the back and smaller screws in the front and machine screws holding the strike plate. The episode grades the lock body, dust box, and security strike as a second job — "a carpenter's house call" — not part of the 6-out-of-10 rehang.

The sweep: kiss the threshold

A new sweep wants to kiss the top of the threshold, not hang so low that a taller rug would catch it, with even pressure behind it. Vinyl seals an exterior door against weather; a brush sweep is the pick for an uneven threshold or an interior door, where a vinyl blade would drag. Set the height, close the door, and check the contact along the whole width before tightening.

The Season 25 sweep was worn from rubbing and replaced. For an exterior door, the pick is a heavy-duty vinyl door sweep (opens in a new tab): vinyl blade in an aluminium carrier, set so the blade seals the threshold without dragging. For an uneven threshold or an interior door, the brush door sweep (opens in a new tab) is the better option — bristles conform where a vinyl blade catches. The bronze V-shaped weatherstripping in the same episode was in good shape and left alone; a sweep is not a reason to replace weatherstripping that still seals.

When the door itself is the problem: a new slab

A hollow-core door that has had enough is replaced with a solid-core slab the same size, not a prehung unit — prehung means pulling casing off both sides and shimming a new jamb. Stack the old door on the new slab, line up the stiles, and transfer the hinge and lockset marks. Cut the hinge mortises with a jig, and bore the lockset hole from one side until the pilot bit pokes out, then finish from the other so the face does not blow out. Prime the raw cuts and give them two coats of finish paint. A solid-core slab is heavy: get a second set of hands, and if the jamb is out of square the job gets harder.

The Season 24 swap is a hollow-core six-panel door, three-hinge setup, replaced with a solid-core slab the same size — 2-6 by 6-8, about 29 3/4 by 80 inches, 1 3/8 inches thick. A slab, not a prehung unit: prehung would mean pulling casing off both sides, disposing of a good jamb, shimming a new one, and repainting trim. The slab trades that for careful measurement transfer — stack the old door on the new slab, line up the stiles, transfer the hinge and lockset marks.

The hinge mortises are cut with a commercial jig. The Porter-Cable single-hinge template (opens in a new tab) is the affordable kit for one door: it adjusts to hinge sizes from 2-1/2 to 6 inches and comes with a router bit. The machined alternative is the Milescraft HingeMate 300 (opens in a new tab). A shop-made door buck holds the slab at working height. The self-centring bit shows up here too — the recap calls it "a $10 lifesaver" for hinge screws, "a small tool that eliminates a ton of frustration" — and the same self-centring bit set (opens in a new tab) from the rehang does the job. The door closed clean on the first test: reveals even, latch slides home, and the solid thunk is the point. The slab itself is bought at a lumber yard or home centre, not online — there is no product link for it. The segment grades the swap Intermediate, and notes the one thing that makes it harder: if the jamb is out of square, Nathan's cameo did not face that challenge, and neither may you.

DIY confidence — and when to call a pro

Put the grades together and the pattern is plain. A long screw into the stud is the first thing to try on any sagging door. Rebuilding stripped holes with dowels is approachable. Rehanging a sagging door on ball-bearing hinges is 6 out of 10 — a real job, but a DIY one with a jack and a self-centring bit. The lock body, dust box, and security strike are a second job, "a carpenter's house call." Hanging a new solid-core slab is Intermediate, and heavy: existing hinges and the jamb can take the weight, but hanging one alone is a test of forearm stamina, so get a second set of hands.

Season 47, Episode 20 is the stop sign. The homeowners' chosen mortise lockset would not line up with the old mortise in the original Needham door, and rather than swap the door, Tom patched both faces in Southern yellow pine, cut the new mortise into the door edge, and Mauro stained it so the patch disappears. Charlie's install — seating the mortise body into the edge, threading the lockset through into the collar inside the case, the one-piece interior plate with its four corner screws and built-in thumb-bolt, the spindle and the set screws tightened with an Allen wrench — is not the hard part. The patching and re-mortising is. The episode grades the day 3 out of 10 overall and says it plainly: "Not DIY: fitting a mortise lockset when the door needs patching and re-mortising to match the new case." If the new case does not match the old mortise, that is the line.

No episode in this guide cites a code section for doors, and this guide adds none. A sticking interior door is a repair; the one exception to check is a fire door, whose hardware has to match its rating — check the local code before changing it.

Why these picks

The links above go to the specific products we picked for each job, not to an Amazon search — and where a tool comes in different types for different jobs, we set out the options by use instead of a single pick. Each one is a mid-range, reputable-brand pick for a DIYer — not the cheapest option, and not a pro-only tool. Prices change, so none are quoted here; the link is the current listing.

Hinges: which hinge

The long screw

  • Power Pro #9 x 3-inch wood screws, 50-pack (opens in a new tab) one long screw per hinge leaf, into the stud: the cheapest fix in the whole guide, and the one that stops a door sagging again. The GRK R4 #9 x 3-1/8-inch is the equivalent if you already have it; no separate listing was verified for it, so it has no link here.

Filling stripped holes

Starting the pilot straight

The sweep: vinyl or brush

Cutting mortises in a new slab

  • Porter-Cable 59370 single-hinge template (opens in a new tab) the affordable jig for cutting hinge mortises in a new slab: one door, three mortises, no freehand chisel work. It adjusts from 2-1/2 to 6-inch hinges and the bit is included — but the included high-speed-steel bit dulls after a few mortises, so plan on a carbide replacement, and the plastic template can flex along the backset side.
  • Milescraft HingeMate 300 (opens in a new tab) — the machined alternative, the best-rated single-hinge jig in Fine Homebuilding's comparison. It links to a search, not a product: the last listing crawl showed no featured offers, so there was no live product to link to.

The lockset

No product

There is nothing to link to for the door slab or the construction jack. A solid-core slab is bought at a lumber yard or home centre, sized to the opening, and a jack is rented or borrowed for one door.

Where this was shown

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