front door problem

[glencross]

my front door keeps closing on me by itself...guess the house has shifted somewhat over the years...anybody know a quick cure for remedying this problem?

it's very annoying!

[crokett]

Something like this?
http://www.yuprocks.com/index.shtml

Doesn't even have to be that fancy...

[scmhogg]

A cardboard shim behind one of the jam side hinge leaves may solve your problem. Mine only needed a cereal box thickness shim.

Steve

[offthemark]

If doors won't stay where I put them I always take one hinge out and bend it slightly. Then they stay where you put them.

[tfischer]

If doors won't stay where I put them I always take one hinge out and bend it slightly. Then they stay where you put them.

Yeah, similar to that, I've always heard to remove one hinge pin, lay it on concrete, give it a firm wrap with a hammer (just enough to bow it slightly, then pound it back in place. I've tried it once and it worked for me...

-Tim

[scorrpio]

Let me see if I understand the problem - your front doorjamb has shifted slightly out of plumb, so gravity causes door to close rather than stay in open position.

The simplest solution is to rig up some door retaining mechanism. For example, a magnetic catch. Or a rubber wedge fixed to the floor.

If you don't mind a bit of extra work, you could try returning the door to plumb:
Seeing how jamb is flashed to the siding and all that, resetting it to plumb would be extremely tough. It could also be a warp in the door itself, check for that.

You could try moving the hinges slightly (the parts attached to the jamb). Determine how much out of plumb is your door. With door closed, place a level on its face from the side towards which it opens, next to hinges. Now, start placing shims between top end of level and door, until level shows plumb. Now, X = (H * S) / L, where H is distance between hinges, S is the total shim thickness, and L is your level length. X is how much your hinges are out of plumb.

You'll want to move top hinge out by half that amount, and move bottom hinge in. If X is small (1/8" or so), this should not produce any visible misalignment. You could get away with just moving the top hinge, but that would likely misalign the locks from their strike plates.
This is not easy - you'd have to completely fill existing screw holes, and then make new ones offset by a very small amount, overlapping the old ones. Another option is to file the screw holes in hinges to elongate them slightly.

[Pappy]

I have used the shim method but, instead of cardboard, I used plastic cut from the side of a milk carton.

[just4funsies]

Turn the house around 90 degrees... CAUTION! DO NOT turn the house 180 degrees, or the door will OPEN by itself!