Internal door sticking or catching: what's actually causing it

Work out where it is catching first

Close the door slowly and watch the gap all the way round. Where the gap closes to nothing is where the problem is, and the pattern tells you the cause.

• Catching on the top corner of the latch side — the door has dropped on the top hinge.
• Tight all the way down the latch stile — the frame has moved or the door has swollen.
• Rubbing on the floor only — the leaf has dropped, or new flooring has raised the threshold.
• Springing back open — the hinges are recessed too deep, or the frame is hinge-bound.

The dropped hinge — by far the most common

Screws into a softwood frame lose their grip over years of use, especially the top hinge, which carries most of the weight. The door pivots forward a few millimetres and catches on the top of the latch side.

The fix is not to plane. It is to re-seat the hinge: longer screws that reach the stud behind the lining, or plugging and re-drilling the worn holes so the fixings bite into fresh timber. Once the leaf sits square again the gap comes back on its own.

Seasonal swelling versus a permanent problem

Timber takes on moisture and gives it back. Doors in bathrooms, kitchens and unheated hallways often bind in winter and run freely again in summer. If a door only sticks part of the year, easing it in the tight season will leave a visible gap in the other one.

The better route is to seal the top and bottom edges — the two faces most often left bare — so the leaf stops absorbing moisture at the ends of the grain.

When re-hanging beats repairing

If the frame is out of square, the leaf is delaminating, or the door has been planed repeatedly and now sits with uneven gaps, re-hanging with a new leaf is usually the tidier outcome. On fire-rated doorsets it is the only correct route — gaps and closing action are part of the door's performance and cannot be adjusted by eye.

Questions we're asked about this