How To Fix Sagging Doors - Easily Align And Square Your Doors Using Shims

Well, the heat is already starting to creep up here in South Texas and one of the first signs that the weather is changing is that our doors tends to creak or just binds up. I noticed that my door to the garage is a little bit harder to close and upon close inspection, I noticed that it is not aligning properly. It has a bigger gap at the bottom and getting narrower on top and the opposite on the other side..bigger gap on top and narrowing at the bottom.

Now, how to fix this short of taking off the door, is to first tighten the hinge screws and if it doesn't work, then we need to use a shim on the bottom hinge so as to push the bottom side of the door to the right. When we put a wooden shim on it then it will hopefully look like this... from this to this..hopefully, we can realign the door and get it as square as possible to the frame.

Background Music: "Carefree" Kevin Macleod

[jessicajones]

I can’t tell you how long I have been fighting with my sagging front door. A strong north wind would blow it open. I tried replacing screws and bending hinges none of that worked and took a while for me to do. Your hack was so fast and easy and it finally fixed my problem! Thank you for showing us not so handy people how to fix what was a big problem for me.

[annahall]

We used steel washers backing out each of the 3 screws one at a time then sticking the screws through the hole in the washers.

[DivaInTheWoods]

I'm not the master carpenter that many of the commenters are, so I appreciate this very quick and easy fix! I appreciate all their suggested substitute shims though. I just needed the concept demonstrated in a BRIEF video. Thank you for this!

[laly]

Thank you much! This video helped us fix our door. We had tried other videos and nothing was working, we almost gave up till I came across this video.

[JDela-lekp]

Loved the demonstration about the shift of the door, good job! Doesn't claim to be the best fix but its a great option

[LifewAnika]

I really like the way you showed the art and craft diagram of the door. Thumbs UP for that.

[smartautocollision]

The way you draw on the paper it makes it very easy for me to adjust the door I watch couple video I don’t understand but when I watch your video I fix my washroom door thank you very much

[Imcuddely]

To everyone saying this is a "Janky" fix, you have no idea what you're talking about. You have all 100% positively used more doors than you can count that have been shimmed out to the point there is a good chance you use one everyday and don't know it. The only difference between this and a high dollar union carpenter doing commercial buildings is that we hide the shims better.

[j.k.j.j.k.j.]

Thats called a hinge push. Great job. Pro tip: use one longer screw in each hing to keep it from sagging again. And in your case it will close the hinge side a lil bit and in return open the striker side a lil bit.remember to torq each long screw evenly so the reveal is equal on both the hinge and striker side.

[kingtut]

Great illustration. However, who wants to see the shim showing like that?

[AceDublB]

I would never leave a shim showing like that, very rough looking.

Use some washers, pennies, etc. to shim the hinge along with a few 2 1/2” screws.

[missprettyification]

😂my husband finally got maintenance to fix after 1 year in 10 months that man said it’s like butter now ain’t 😂 yes it is little luxuries that make u so happy 😂 so easy to close don’t even hear it anymore

[allenl.]

The sagging door problem in my house is finally fixed. Thank you very much.

[alihaidari]

so easy, I did it in 5 min- thanks for sharing your skills, and no part of my shim is visible !

[johni]

Saved me going to buy a new door. You are the man, thank you!

[ChristopherB]

Thanks from Canada 🇨🇦. I’ve been living with this problem all summer, but will fix this weekend‼👍🏻 🍻

[sandsuperman]

I don't comment or like as a rule, but your method worked so you get both! THANK YOU!! I tried the method of bending hinges, but it goes back after a couple weeks. This wont sag over time - awesome stuff!

[SniperTrader]

Wow that's so easy compared to every other method I've seen, had my door fixed in like 5 mins.

[telias]

Thank you for this. Had issues with my keyless dead bolt not lining up perfectly with the door jamb. Realized that over time, the door had sagged and the shim on the lower hinge did the trick. Door has never worked better.

[DoofyChemical]

Hey man, just wanted to say thanks. I just happened to have some spare shims and this fixed my sagging door all in about 5 minutes.