Tightening Hinges Before You Do Anything Drastic
Alright, new module. Sticking and dragging doors, which is probably the number one reason people end up in a class like this.
Before we plane anything, before we touch the strike plate, before you even think about taking the door off its hinges, check the hinges themselves. This is the fix nobody thinks of because it's boring. But it's usually the first thing wrong.
Why this matters more than people think
A door hangs on two or three hinges. If the screws in those hinges are loose, the whole door drops slightly. Even a little drop changes everything. The bottom corner starts dragging on the carpet or the threshold. The latch stops lining up with the strike plate. Suddenly it looks like you need to plane the door down or rehang the whole thing, when really you just needed a screwdriver and ten minutes.
This is that diagnose-before-you-fix thing again. I know I keep coming back to it, but it's because it's true more often than not. People jump straight to "I need to replace this door" when the actual problem is a hinge screw spinning loose in a stripped hole.
How to check
Open the door about halfway so you can see the hinges clearly.
Grab the door by the knob and gently lift up and push it side to side. If you feel any wobble, or see the hinge leaf pull away from the frame even slightly, that's your answer.
Look at each screw. Loose ones usually stick out just a hair, or the screw head won't sit flush anymore. Sometimes you can see it spinning without gripping when you touch it.
Fixing loose hinge screws
Start simple. Try tightening the screw with your screwdriver. Sometimes that's genuinely all it needs.
If the screw just spins and won't bite, the hole's stripped out. Common problem, especially on older doors, and there's a trick for it that works better than people expect: take a wooden matchstick or a toothpick, dip it in a little wood glue, and jam a few into the hole along with some sawdust if you've got it. Let that dry for a bit, then drive the screw back in. The wood fills the gap and gives the screw something to grip again.
If you don't want to mess with glue and toothpicks, a slightly longer screw that bites into fresh wood past the stripped section works too. That's honestly what I do most of the time, it's just faster.
Working around the whole door
Do this for every hinge, top to bottom. Sometimes it's just one screw on one hinge. Sometimes the whole door's been loose for years and every hinge needs attention. Either way, work your way down methodically instead of jumping around.
Once you've tightened everything, do the lift-and-wobble test again. Door should feel solid. No play at all.
Then close it and see how it behaves. A lot of drag and stick problems just disappear at this point. If it's still catching somewhere, at least now you know it's not the hinges, and you can move on to looking at the door edge or the frame with a clear head.
A quick word on hinge pins
While you're in there, take a look at the hinge pins themselves. If they're rusty or the hinge feels gritty when the door swings, a drop of household oil on the pin does wonders. Wipe off the extra so it doesn't drip onto the floor. Small thing, but it's part of the same lap around the door, so you might as well do it while you've got the screwdriver out.
A story on this, sort of against my will
I brought sourdough to a ward party a while back, and at some point a kid slammed the screen door so hard the whole frame flexed and the closer arm bent sideways. I heard it from across the yard. I set my plate down, still in my church clothes, and went and fixed the closer right there before I even thought about it. My wife tells that one better than I do, mostly because I apparently didn't even hesitate. But that's the thing about learning this stuff. Once you know what a bent closer or a loose hinge looks like, you can't walk past it. It just bugs you until it's fixed.
A caution here
If you're working on a heavy door, especially an exterior one, don't remove more than one hinge at a time unless you've got someone holding the door or you've propped it. Doors are heavier than they look and a door coming off unexpectedly onto your foot or your hand is a bad afternoon. Take your time, work one hinge at a time, and you won't have a problem.
Before next time
Go check the hinges on whichever door in your house bugs you most. Just the lift-and-wobble test, no tools needed yet. See what you find, and bring it up next class if something surprised you.