General · DIY guide

How to fix a sticking door

Almost every sticking door gets planed when it should have been rehung. Take ten minutes to work out where it is actually binding first — the fix is usually a longer screw, not a power tool.

  • DifficultyEasy
  • Time30–90 minutes
  • Materials$0–20

Legal to DIY in Victoria

Checked as at September 2026. Rules and prices change — confirm anything you are about to act on.

What you need

  • Phillips and flat screwdrivers
  • Longer screws (65mm) for hinge fixings
  • Chisel and pencil
  • Fine sandpaper
  • Cardboard shims
  • Candle wax or dry lubricant

Step by step

  1. Find where it is binding

    Close the door slowly and watch the gap all the way round. Slide a piece of paper into the gap at several points. Binding at the top of the latch side usually means the top hinge has pulled; binding at the bottom usually means the door has dropped.

  2. Check the hinge screws before anything else

    Tighten every screw. If one spins without biting, the fixing has pulled out of the jamb. Replace it with a 65mm screw that reaches the framing behind — this alone fixes a large share of dropped doors.

  3. Shim a hinge to move the door

    To move the door away from the latch jamb, pack a thin cardboard shim behind the leaf of the top hinge. To swing it the other way, shim the bottom. Small changes, then test.

  4. Adjust the strike plate before touching the door

    If the door closes but will not latch, the problem is usually the strike plate. Undo it, file or move it a couple of millimetres, and refit. Far less invasive than planing.

  5. Only then consider taking material off

    If it still binds, mark the exact contact point in pencil with the door closed. On a door painted before about 1970, treat the paint as lead-bearing and do not dry-sand it. Otherwise, sand or plane only that area, take off less than you think, and reseal any bare timber — unsealed edges swell again in a Melbourne winter.

Common mistakes

  • Planing before checking the hinge screws
  • Taking material off the whole edge instead of the binding point
  • Leaving planed edges unsealed
  • Ignoring a door that only sticks in wet weather — that is moisture, not geometry

When to stop and call someone

If the door frame itself is out of square, or doors across the house have started sticking at the same time, that can be movement in the building rather than the doors. Worth having looked at.

This guide is general information, not advice for your particular house. Rules change — check the current position with the Building and Plumbing Commission, Energy Safe Victoria and WorkSafe Victoria before you rely on it. Plumbing, gas and electrical work must be done by a licensed practitioner. If your home was built or last renovated before 1990, assume asbestos until it is ruled out — see what a strip-out finds.

Doing this in an older Melbourne home?

What you find behind the wall depends a lot on when the house went up, and that varies suburb by suburb. If the job turns out to be bigger than a weekend, these pages set out what we usually find and what a full renovation costs there:

See every suburb we cover →

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