Front door sticking and dragging the floor

hotrod53 · Tue Sep 15, 2015 4:27 pm

I have some super duty piers that run across my 54' mobile in about 8 or so places, it's solid as a rock. My front door drags the floor horribly, so bad that my wife will probably break the door eventually.

The home is a camp, so I'm not there often. It's level but the screen door is visibly racked by about 1", the main door has to be out of square too. Is there a rule of thumb as far as adding another pier to resolve this? In other words, where should I start, the outer side of the frame that is low, or the hinge side of the frame if I need to rack or raise the doorframe up on the non hinged side?

At this point we have pulled up on the knob so hard that it is now loose in the door. The rubber wipe on the door has pulled the carpet loose in front of the door. I'm reading about adjustable door hinges, is this something that can help? Is this merely a matter of that part of the home needing a pier? I'm open for suggestions, this is really a pain in the neck. Oh, one other thing, there is a porch and skirting in the way under the doorframe.

Greg · Tue Sep 15, 2015 7:53 pm

There are a few possibilities here.
First you say it is level. How was it checked? the only 100% accurate way to check it is with a water level.
You say the door is racked, WHY? That could be related.
Is the floor warped? Floor problems in front of doors is very common.

Greg

hotrod53 · Wed Sep 16, 2015 5:47 pm

Greg, I paid a local who does this to do it, he dug holes under the home, blocked up piers, and being that he is also a logger, put 12x12 wood ties from pier to pier under the frame. He either used a red laser or a water level, I wasn't there that day.i was able to adjust the interior doors to close properly at the jamb when he was done and it is very solid.

I have had floor problems in the past, I sometimes get 3' of snow piled up against the back, but this is the front. Now it's not unreasonable that snow laying on the porch could cause a floor problem.

The screen door is visibly racked, part of it comes from the cheap door hinge having play in it. The home is a 1989 champion, not what I would call a quality piece, but more than adequate for a camp.

I know from the past, before I paid this guy to do it, that if improperly leveled, a door will rack. As I said previously, there is a porch and skirting that goes down behind the porch that makes it difficult to access. I'm looking for ideas to hopefully save me some grief.

Greg · Thu Sep 17, 2015 5:17 pm

About the only idea I have is to check the door jams to make sure they are both plumb & level. Also check diagonal corner to corner to make sure they are the same.

Greg

hotrod53 · Sun Sep 20, 2015 9:04 am

If I were to guess, the jamb would not be square. My first thought was that I would have to jack to floor, beyond that is there any adjustments behind the trim this there is for an interior door? Even if there is adjustment, that probably won't help the screen door I'll bet.

HouseMedic · Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:47 am

Use a framing square on the door frame and jam to check for square. if it is out and you cant make it square by re-leveling the house you might be able to loosen or take out the door frame and shim it out to square it up. There should be some room behind the frame between it and the house studs.

ron