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Two closet doors in my house won't close all the way. When they are about 85% closed, it stops because the top of the door is rubbing up against the frames. It looks like I need to move the door down about 3-6 inches a half inch. The doors are hollow except for about a foot on the top and bottom.

I want to avoid having to take the door and hinges off and redoing the hinges. Is there anyway I can avoid that? A step by step would be very helpful, even if there is no way to do it without moving the hinges.

Mike Sherov
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5 Answers5

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If you're having the same problem I had, and it's a case of rubbing but the door could be forced closed (so it's just slightly off), I just made a note of where it was rubbing with a bit of crayon (wipes off easily), then took a small hand plane to shave down that area slightly.

Unfortunately, I also made the mistake of passing off the plane to my house mate, who wasn't familiar with its use, and he ended up taking a chunk off of his bedroom door. I have no idea how he managed to do it. So, for using a plane -- you want long strokes, and try to shave the door off -- if it gets caught and starts splitting the grain, stop, move back further, and then lightly shave down past where you had the problem.

Joe
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I can't believe 3-6 inches is correct. Maybe 3/16 of an inch? (even that is pushing it).

The easiest way to fix this is to take the door down and trim a bit off the top of the door. I'll usually just run the door through my table saw to trim it down, but a power planer would probably work better if you have one. Otherwise a hand planer will work too, but could take a while.

Be careful how much you trim off though. You say the door is hollow except for about a foot at the top and bottom, but if it's like most hollow core doors these days, it's probably more like an inch at the top and bottom.

Eric Petroelje
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This might be a matter of tightening/loosening screws. Check out this post - http://www.prettyhandygirl.com/fixing-common-door-problems/:

The easiest adjustments you can make on a door is to tighten or loosen the hinge screws. On my closet door (shown above) I loosened the top hinge screws to increase the gap and tightened the bottom hinge screws to reduce the gap.

enter image description here

Nikita R.
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Since you say Closet doors, it may be that the hinges are adjustable

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If you see hinges like that, then the large screw at the end of the hinge is adjustable, clockwise to go out, anti-clockwise to go in.

Your doors may be chipboard and would not take kindly to plaining.

Hightower
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I would just trim. Then the hinges won't have to be moved. Don't try to trim just one side, but take an even amount off. After cutting, I usually use a belt sander to smooth the edge and knock the edge of the cuts. Tip - If the door is painted nice, or varnished, put some masking take on it for the saw to slide on.

BrianK
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