Maintaining Your Doors

In the following weeks we will be going over the major issues that come up when doors are not maintained properly.

One of the most irritating and possibly harmful thing about a door is when it closes too fast and bangs or knocks you thru the entryway. This is because the door closer is either incorrectly adjusted or it has worn out and needs to be replaced. The first and most obvious thing to look for when checking, is if there is fluid running down from around the closer cover or body. This is an sign it is time to replace your closer immediately. If no fluid is showing then it is probably in need of an adjustment.This can be easily done with the proper tools and instructions.

Here are some of the more common door closers and their instruction sheets.

LCN 4011 is a regular arm which is located on the pull side of a door with the body mounted on the door. This closer is handed so if you are replacing it make sure you know what hand to order.

http://www.tdl-construction.com/5jf2

LCN 4111 is the parallel arm version of the 4011 and is mounted on the push side of the door. This model is also a handed closer

http://www.lcnclosers.com/pdfs/28479rK.pdf

Norton 7500 model is a closer that has 3 options, parallel arm, regular arm, and top jamb mount. see page 6 for the adjustment instructions.

http://tinyurl.com/Norton-7500-7700

Norton 1600 is commonly used on aluminum storefront doors.

http://tinyurl.com/Norton-1601bc1

These are two of the major closer manufacturers and we will discuss some of the others in another post.

When you are adjusting the closer be sure that you know which valve controls which part of the swing/travel of the door. It is very important not to back the valve out to far as all the fluid will come gushing out very rapidly and go all over the door, floor and you. This fluid is extremely hard to clean up.

Our next problem that we will address is the rubbing door. This is usually caused by hinge screws working loose and allowing the door to sag and as it closes it will hit the frame and bounce into the latch position if there is enough force from either a push or the closer pulling the door shut. If tightening the hinge screws doesn’t fix the problem then it is time to shim the hinges to pull the door away from the lock side of the frame. This can be done by using the cardboard shim packs that come with the hinges or what we like to use is small strips of the self adhesive 12 square flooring material that is available at Lowe’s and Home Depot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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