For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong while hanging 
the door.  The bottom of the door hits the striker side first with about an 
1" gap at the top.  The hinge side is plumb.  The walls appear to be plumb 
and flat.  The door slab itself is not warped.

I've never installed a door before, so any advice would be appreciated. 

On Nov 12, 11:40=A0am, "Jack"  wrote:
> For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong while hangi=
ng
> the door. =A0The bottom of the door hits the striker side first with abou=
t an
> 1" gap at the top. =A0The hinge side is plumb. =A0The walls appear to be =
plumb
> and flat. =A0The door slab itself is not warped.
>
> I've never installed a door before, so any advice would be appreciated.

New construction or replacing an existing door?  Off hand I'd say the
walls are not square.  Run a string down the wall at the top and
bottom on both sides.

On Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:40:52 -0500, "Jack" <j...@jacknospam.com>
wrote:

>For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong while hanging 
>the door.  The bottom of the door hits the striker side first with about an 
>1" gap at the top.  The hinge side is plumb.  The walls appear to be plumb 
>and flat.  The door slab itself is not warped.
>
>I've never installed a door before, so any advice would be appreciated. 

Check that the jamb header is level...

Are you using shims to square the jamb frame in the opening?

On Nov 12, 11:40=A0am, "Jack"  wrote:
> For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong while hangi=
ng
> the door. =A0The bottom of the door hits the striker side first with abou=
t an
> 1" gap at the top. =A0The hinge side is plumb. =A0The walls appear to be =
plumb
> and flat. =A0The door slab itself is not warped.
>
> I've never installed a door before, so any advice would be appreciated.

Where's the gap - between the jamb and the edge of the door or the
jamb and the face of the door?

In other words, when you say that the bottom of the door hits the
striker side first, do you mean the bottom of the door is fully closed
inside the jamb but the top is still open, or do you mean the entire
door is full closed but there a gap between the door edge at the top
and the jamb?

If the top of the door is still open, then the door itself is leaning
forward or the jamb is leaning backward. The hinge side should be
checked for plumb in both directions, side to side and front to back.

If the door is closed and there's a gap between the door edge and the
jamb, then the jamb is not square.

BTW a 1" gap is huge. I'd like to think I'd be able to visually tell
if a door jamb was 1" out of square.

Jack wrote:
> For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong while 
> hanging the door.  The bottom of the door hits the striker side first 
> with about an 1" gap at the top.  The hinge side is plumb.  The walls 
> appear to be plumb and flat.  The door slab itself is not warped.
> 
> I've never installed a door before, so any advice would be appreciated.

If by the "bottom of the door hits the striker side fist with about an 
1" gap at the top" you actually mean that the bottom of the door hits 
the "doorstop" and the top is 1" away from the top of the doorstop then 
the jam (and probably also the wall) on the striker side is NOT plumb.

Don

On Nov 12, 3:03=A0pm, IGot2P  wrote:
> Jack wrote:
> > For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong while
> > hanging the door. =A0The bottom of the door hits the striker side first
> > with about an 1" gap at the top. =A0The hinge side is plumb. =A0The wal=
ls
> > appear to be plumb and flat. =A0The door slab itself is not warped.
>
> > I've never installed a door before, so any advice would be appreciated.
>
> If by the "bottom of the door hits the striker side fist with about an
> 1" gap at the top" you actually mean that the bottom of the door hits
> the "doorstop" and the top is 1" away from the top of the doorstop then
> the jam (and probably also the wall) on the striker side is NOT plumb.
>
> Don

How about a picture or two to explain things in less than a thousand
words?

There is a problem with the wall.

Unfortunately, I left out an important piece of info.  The door opening is 
near a corner.   The hinge side is on the corner.  I put a straightedge 
horizontally on the wall, and the corner side is high, causing a gap of 
about 3/4".   To describe it best, it looks like the wall is concave.  The 
corner bead is built up a bit which also appears to be a problem.  I need to 
redo the corner first before moving ahead.

This is what I think happened:  I installed the hinge side first.  I made 
sure the hinge side was plumb, and the casing was laying flat on the hinge 
side.  When I tried to "pull in" the doorstop side, it caused some frame 
twist because the doorstop side is not on the same plane as the hinge side. 
This put the top of the door about 1" away from the doorstop.

At any rate, I removed the door and will start over tonight.  As I 
mentioned, I've never put in a door before.  It's been a great learning 
experience, and I really appreciate all your advice.
Thank you.


"Jack" <j...@jacknospam.com> wrote in message 
news:%RWKm.11503$g...@newsfe19.iad...
> For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong while 
> hanging the door.  The bottom of the door hits the striker side first with 
> about an 1" gap at the top.  The hinge side is plumb.  The walls appear to 
> be plumb and flat.  The door slab itself is not warped.
>
> I've never installed a door before, so any advice would be appreciated. 

Jack wrote:
> There is a problem with the wall.
> 
> Unfortunately, I left out an important piece of info.  The door opening 
> is near a corner.   The hinge side is on the corner.  I put a 
> straightedge horizontally on the wall, and the corner side is high, 
> causing a gap of about 3/4".   To describe it best, it looks like the 
> wall is concave.  The corner bead is built up a bit which also appears 
> to be a problem.  I need to redo the corner first before moving ahead.
> 
> This is what I think happened:  I installed the hinge side first.  I 
> made sure the hinge side was plumb, and the casing was laying flat on 
> the hinge side.  When I tried to "pull in" the doorstop side, it caused 
> some frame twist because the doorstop side is not on the same plane as 
> the hinge side. This put the top of the door about 1" away from the 
> doorstop.
> 
> At any rate, I removed the door and will start over tonight.  As I 
> mentioned, I've never put in a door before.  It's been a great learning 
> experience, and I really appreciate all your advice.
> Thank you.
> 
> 
> "Jack" <j...@jacknospam.com> wrote in message 
> news:%RWKm.11503$g...@newsfe19.iad...
>> For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong while 
>> hanging the door.  The bottom of the door hits the striker side first 
>> with about an 1" gap at the top.  The hinge side is plumb.  The walls 
>> appear to be plumb and flat.  The door slab itself is not warped.
>>
>> I've never installed a door before, so any advice would be appreciated. 
> 

The first 2 or 3 are hard. After that you can do them in your sleep. As 
you have discovered, the RO has to be square, and the sides parallel. 
You have to use the level not just in the opening, but on the face of 
the finish wall. A 4' level makes a pretty good strait edge to gently 
slide up and down the wall on both sides of doorway opening, to make 
sure you have flat surfaces for the casing to land on.

Hey, we've all been there. Go slow, and don't drive the nails or screws 
home until the door swings right, and all the cracks look right.

--
aem sends...

On Nov 13, 2:08=A0pm, aemeijers  wrote:
> Jack wrote:
> > There is a problem with the wall.
>
> > Unfortunately, I left out an important piece of info. =A0The door openi=
ng
> > is near a corner. =A0 The hinge side is on the corner. =A0I put a
> > straightedge horizontally on the wall, and the corner side is high,
> > causing a gap of about 3/4". =A0 To describe it best, it looks like the
> > wall is concave. =A0The corner bead is built up a bit which also appear=
s
> > to be a problem. =A0I need to redo the corner first before moving ahead=
.
>
> > This is what I think happened: =A0I installed the hinge side first. =A0=
I
> > made sure the hinge side was plumb, and the casing was laying flat on
> > the hinge side. =A0When I tried to "pull in" the doorstop side, it caus=
ed
> > some frame twist because the doorstop side is not on the same plane as
> > the hinge side. This put the top of the door about 1" away from the
> > doorstop.
>
> > At any rate, I removed the door and will start over tonight. =A0As I
> > mentioned, I've never put in a door before. =A0It's been a great learni=
ng
> > experience, and I really appreciate all your advice.
> > Thank you.
>
> > "Jack"  wrote in message
> >news:%RWKm.11503$g...@newsfe19.iad...
> >> For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong while
> >> hanging the door. =A0The bottom of the door hits the striker side firs=
t
> >> with about an 1" gap at the top. =A0The hinge side is plumb. =A0The wa=
lls
> >> appear to be plumb and flat. =A0The door slab itself is not warped.
>
> >> I've never installed a door before, so any advice would be appreciated=
.
>
> The first 2 or 3 are hard. After that you can do them in your sleep. As
> you have discovered, the RO has to be square, and the sides parallel.
> You have to use the level not just in the opening, but on the face of
> the finish wall. A 4' level makes a pretty good strait edge to gently
> slide up and down the wall on both sides of doorway opening, to make
> sure you have flat surfaces for the casing to land on.
>
> Hey, we've all been there. Go slow, and don't drive the nails or screws
> home until the door swings right, and all the cracks look right.
>
> --
> aem sends...- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

re: "The first 2 or 3 are hard. After that you can do them in your
sleep"

I'm about to order my first entry door. I've hung interior doors, one
slider, and a bunch of windows.

I was going to pay one of the 'door stores' to supply and install my
front door and rationalize it based on the tax credit and the
warranty.

However, when my window supplier (the local Norandex outlet) quoted me
30% off list, which puts it at basically half of what the "material
and installation" quotes came in at, I decided to do it myself.

In fact, his list price was less than the "materials only" quote I got
from one of the 'door stores', so at 30% off, it's a deal I just can't
pass up.