3

I moved into a renovated house 2 years ago. The crawl space door looked custom. A frame of boards and a "face" of parallel boards.

Unfortunately the door has warped and let critters in!

The frame still looks good to me. I'm a novice so I could be wrong.

If I were to replace this door with something from scratch, how do I stop it warping?

front view of door

bottom of door when fully closed - notice the gap that a chipmunk expanded

JohnFilleau
  • 133
  • 3

1 Answers1

2

You could improve the existing door by making a few inexpensive changes.

  1. Add 1"x2" wood door stops around the frame in the place where the door will close to when it is flush on the outside of the frame.
  2. The stop will prevent any part of the door passing into the frame farther than it should even if the door is warped.
  3. The stop will also help close the crack between the frame and door edge.
  4. Add an additional latch near the bottom of the door to permit pushing the warped door against the stop and holding it in place.
  5. If the door should ever start to warp the other way you can add a latch near the top.

Note that if the door has existing cross pieces that hold the vertical boards together it may be necessary to either:

  1. Notch the stops so that the cross pieces let the stop fit against the whole edges of the door. .or. .
  2. Cut the ends off the cross pieces the thickness of the stops plus a little more for clearance.
Michael Karas
  • 67,833
  • 7
  • 68
  • 153