Help! Broken Door Questions

[cchapman84]

So, this is a really weird problem that we are just completely stumped on.

This morning, DH brought in our Christmas tree from outside through the front door. He had been in and out the door a number of times this morning prior to this and the door worked fine. So, after he got the Christmas tree in, he went to shut the front door and it wouldn't close. He tried to force it and could hear the wood of the door rubbing on the wooden door frame.

The thing just absolutely wouldn't close. So my thought was, okay, a branch from the tree must be lodged in somewhere. We checked all around the door, in the hinges, etc. and there's absolutely nothing there. I even went so far as to rip down some of the weather stripping that looked like it might have been interfering, but still no luck.

So, we finally managed to get it to close, and we left for a bit to go to our local hardware store (customer appreciation day - 20% off storewide!). We came home and the door handle wouldn't turn at first (it's one of those lever-type that sticks out to the side). I pushed it a little harder and it finally turned, but the door still wouldn't budge. We finally figured out that the door handle was actually broken. I'm thinking it must be from the pressure of keeping the door closed when it's not fitting right, or something like that.

I really don't understand how our door got so out of whack, so quickly. So, we've got to go back out to the hardware store and buy a new door handle, but I still don't know why my door won't close tightly.

We've lived in this house for over four years now and have never had a problem with the front door. It was working fine earlier this morning, and then suddenly didn't work at all, which doesn't make sense. I would think that it had swollen, but could it do that that quickly? We just got a humidifier last weekend, so there is more humidity inside, but could it make it swell that quickly? Literally in a matter of less than five minutes? And this door is original to the house from what I can tell (100+ years old), so it seems odd that after so long it would be suddenly swelling. And we never have issues during the summer with the door swelling or anything.

If anyone has any ideas I'd really appreciate them. This is the coldest day we've had so far this year (it's around 10 degrees F), so it's not particularly when I want to have door problems (we do have a storm door, but still).

I know that we could shave the door, but then if we figure out what the actual problem is, it might make it so the door doesn't fit right at all anymore, and I'd rather not replace it (again, it's original to the house, around 100 years old).

Thanks in advance for any ideas and suggestions!

[silentcrow]

Are any of the hinges bent? I've had a couple doors that suddenly wouldn't close because a hinge or 2 got bent just enough to knock things out of alignment.

ETA* Make sure a screw didn't come loose on a hinge, too. Sometimes a few screws come loose and the hinge pulls away from the wall or door.

[cchapman84]

We checked all the hinges.

We think we figured it out: it looks like the top board on the door frame somehow became warped (or came out of alignment somehow), and was pushing down on the top of the door. DH took a rubber mallet to it and it looks like it's working okay now. We also ended up just having to replace the door lock mechanism instead or the whole door knob ($12 instead of $50+ for a high quality lever-type door knob).

I'll let y'all know if it happens again!

[Nel frattempo]

We had ONE tiny screw do that one time. One little screw was sticking out just a tiny bit but it was enough to mess up the door. I let the kids mess around with it (they called it "analyzing it" ) and they finally figured out the screw was sticking out. Hope yours is fixed.