I am the maintenance person at a local school and have come across a problem with some side by side double steel doors that seem to sag so bad they don't want to close now, they rub together on top. All th hinges seem to be tight I even replaced one top one thinking maybe the pin could be wore out or something might be bent, this made no difference. It is easy enough to pry them up on the end and seems to open the gap on top it moves easily enough but then comes right back down. I tried shimming the bottom hinge out a bit and removing the shim from the top hinge all of whitch seems to make no difference. I guess I am out of ideas and would welcome any advice and suggestions. Thanks.

S N

Take a picture of the door and the jamb, id like to see the margines.
First set a level on either door and check for plum, if there metal doors id bet the jamb is also metal. The 2 kinds I know of are knock down jambs that come in 3 pieces, and solid frames which id beat yours are. If the jamb is all one piece you have to make your adjustments from the hinges, and one way to do this is with a shime, but the placement is key to get the door to do what you want. First the shim doesn't need to be more than a 1/2 wide to work anything bigger want do what we need. So first if you want the gap to be bigger at the top you'll need to place the shim on the top hinge close to where the metal stop is, so if your looking at the mortise... its the side furthest away from the door. Place the shim on that side and do the other door the same, what this does is angel the hinge which pushes the door toward the jamb hince the gap gets bigger, just so you know if you were to use a bigger shim it would only shim the door closer to the other door. So just keep that in mind that when you shim hinges, you shim the sides not the whole thing.

If that doesn't work look around on the door jamb there may be some adjustment screws. Or they may have some screws at the bottom of the jamb 2 on each jamb legs. You can take those out and bring them in to help with the margine at the top. Goodluck and send me a pic where I can be more accurate on what you need to do.

How old is your school and did they prep the ground right when school was made? The reason I ask just like a house a school can settle being the ground of the school it was built on and it can create havoc on the whole school. I also work for a school district we have to get a door company to come out and shave some metal off the bottom of the door because our floors are shifting not the doors. Just an idea.

BOTH of you are giving really good answers, one other thing that could be the cause, take a 4 ft. level and check to see if the metal frame has slipped out of plumb. Check both sides, sometimes when they lay the block wals they don't put the proper ties into the metal jambs, SNOwak this is one you will have to doW hen you find out the problem come back on here and let us know:::: F.B.E.

I worked as a welder in an Electronics Plant and made many doors for electronics cabinets

The right side door had two pin hinges on it and a latch and locking washer -- the

Left door had 4 pin hinges --two held left door on -- two held the front door on

We had a jig to install the pin hinges on -- they were welded in place ---during

Assembly they could be ajusted... The tubes on the hinge plate need to be rolled

Slightly (the ones on the door need pulled toward door) and ones on frame back toward

Frame... This is on top hinges -- doesn't take much to make a big difference...

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Originally Posted by snowak

I am the maintenance person at a local school and have come accross a problem with some side by side double steel doors that seem to sag so bad they don't want to close now, they rub together on top. All th hinges seem to be tight I even replaced one top one thinking maybe the pin could be wore out or something might be bent, this made no difference. It is easy enough to pry them up on the end and seems to open the gap on top it moves easily enough but then comes right back down. I tried shimming the bottom hinge out a bit and removing the shim from the top hinge all of whitch seems to make no difference. I guess I am out of ideas and would welcome any advice and suggestions. Thanks.

S N

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To all who had answers to my sagging doors question, I have them working fairly well now by shimming the hinges, so thanks for all the advice.

S Nowak

I would ask this... how big is your school? Do you have a building trades dept. If so ask the man who teaches carpentry... he may bring his students over and teach them something while fixing your problem at the same time. If this works buy him a doughnut on Monday and allis well.
Mike