Jj

Jimbo

31/12/2009 9:46 AM

Warped interior doors

My house still has some of the original 100 year old paneled, pine
doors. Unfortunately, they are all warped to some degree. Is there
any way to fix this?


This topic has 5 replies

Jj

Jimbo

in reply to Jimbo on 31/12/2009 9:46 AM

07/01/2010 2:06 PM

On Jan 1, 3:44=A0pm, whit3rd <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Dec 31 2009, 9:46=A0am, Jimbo <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > My house still has some of the original 100 year old paneled, pine
> > doors. =A0Unfortunately, they are all warped to some degree. =A0Is ther=
e
> > any way to fix this?
>
> One good treatment, three bad ones. =A0Check the door frames,
> maybe the doors are straight and the frames aren't. =A0You can
> remove the trim around the doorframes and re-shim 'em
> straight and square.
>
> Disassemble the doors (by loosening the glue joints) and
> reassemble with modern glue in fully-flat configuration (might
> take some judicious re-cutting of the mortises and
> a void-filling glue like Liquid Nails). =A0If it's just a few
> bad chunks of wood, you might make five good doors
> from six twisted ones by mixing parts.
>
> Run the doors, whole, through a drum-sander to flatten them, and
> refinish.
>
> Apply heat and moisture to reverse the warp, stabilizing the wood
> with PEG (polyethylene glycol). =A0Unless the doors were made with
> inferior (non-dry or non-straight-grain) lumber, this will be a last
> resort.
>
> Like I say, those last three options are ... bad. =A0 I'd hit a salvage
> yard for =A0used doors, first.

It is definitely the doors that are warped. In one case, the warp was
minor and I "negated" it by adjusting the position of the stop.

Disassembling them will be very difficult as they are a fairly complex
assembly with 4 rails each so a lot of large M&T joints.

ww

whit3rd

in reply to Jimbo on 31/12/2009 9:46 AM

01/01/2010 12:44 PM

On Dec 31 2009, 9:46=A0am, Jimbo <[email protected]> wrote:
> My house still has some of the original 100 year old paneled, pine
> doors. =A0Unfortunately, they are all warped to some degree. =A0Is there
> any way to fix this?

One good treatment, three bad ones. Check the door frames,
maybe the doors are straight and the frames aren't. You can
remove the trim around the doorframes and re-shim 'em
straight and square.

Disassemble the doors (by loosening the glue joints) and
reassemble with modern glue in fully-flat configuration (might
take some judicious re-cutting of the mortises and
a void-filling glue like Liquid Nails). If it's just a few
bad chunks of wood, you might make five good doors
from six twisted ones by mixing parts.

Run the doors, whole, through a drum-sander to flatten them, and
refinish.

Apply heat and moisture to reverse the warp, stabilizing the wood
with PEG (polyethylene glycol). Unless the doors were made with
inferior (non-dry or non-straight-grain) lumber, this will be a last
resort.

Like I say, those last three options are ... bad. I'd hit a salvage
yard for used doors, first.

MO

Mike O.

in reply to Jimbo on 31/12/2009 9:46 AM

31/12/2009 7:44 PM

On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:46:13 -0800 (PST), Jimbo <[email protected]>
wrote:

>My house still has some of the original 100 year old paneled, pine
>doors. Unfortunately, they are all warped to some degree. Is there
>any way to fix this?


I think it's doubtful.
If it took 100 years for them to get warped I don't think they are
going to straighten very easily. You could try to put a 2x4 under
each end and then with the high side up add weight until it's flat (or
even a little past) or until you hear things cracking. Let one sit
for a few days and see what happens. I'm afraid they will just return
to the warp.
There are few other things you could try.
If you have some doors of the same size and swing, move them around to
see if one fits better in a different jamb. It's possible in a 100
year old house that the walls have moved some and some of the openings
may be straighter than others.
You might also try to move the door stop around on the jamb to make
your warped doors close better. This doesn't fix anything but instead
of the top hanging out, the bottom might be moved in.

Mike O.

JG

"Jeff Gorman"

in reply to Jimbo on 31/12/2009 9:46 AM

01/01/2010 8:36 AM


"Jimbo" <[email protected]> wrote

> My house still has some of the original 100 year old paneled, pine
> doors. Unfortunately, they are all warped to some degree. Is there
> any way to fix this?

I doubt whether this is a realistic solution, but the tradesman's advice is
to find which rail/stiles are concave, cut narrow grooves across the rails
and insert wedges to straighten same.

Hardly, cosmetic and Jimbo might need to cut many grooves.

Jeff

--
Jeff Gorman, West Yorkshire, UK
email : Username is amgron
ISP is clara.co.uk
www.amgron.clara.net

Pn

Phisherman

in reply to Jimbo on 31/12/2009 9:46 AM

31/12/2009 10:44 PM

On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:46:13 -0800 (PST), Jimbo <[email protected]>
wrote:

>My house still has some of the original 100 year old paneled, pine
>doors. Unfortunately, they are all warped to some degree. Is there
>any way to fix this?

Place the door on the grass for a few hours on a sunny day. The side
against the grass will expand somwhat. Of course this doesn't always
work as expected, but it will correct some warp.


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