zoothorn

You'll have to divert via A44 to west wales nr coast.. but coffee machine's already on craig.

@craig Done! Of course as simple as pie once the zoot-muddywater clears! Tad of wd.. & even this loose'ish spanner was ideal. No need undo other bolts, nor wedge door up. Handle closes better now too. The door frame was out, as much as door was. An amateur job originally as I knew you see: you can see where whoever did it ground away a bit of the cill's metal lip, for the door to just pass over by a gnat's hair. Now I've put 3mm clearance at this sticking point. Door still 'looks' a bit out.. but it's the frame. Huge thanks craig. Job done for £5. And thanks to others who offered alternate idea: now I know how to toe & heel one of these should it need it, useful knowledge. Zoot

Ok this chimes with the suggestion in the clip. It's just my eyes were convinced -still are but uncertain- the door was moving R when the red arrow was pointing L (& the spanner moved downwards). And just as convinced vice-versa. So I put a mark on my ipad screen. And couldn't tell one from another!! One would assume, that the arrow is showing the direction the door moves upon adjusting. Of course. Just my eyes say the total opposite!!! Apologies, got my pants a in a pickle. Zh

@ craig bear with me: I've loosened the underneath 5mm allen bolt, & also the 2x tiny 2mm ones in a vertical line. Whether or not this was correct, the centre nut now moves! Good! Relief. Ok but sorry the clip still has me confused despite your reply just now. Ok to close the gap between door & frame, to shift the door inward >> Rightwards.. do I move the spanner in a DOWNWARD direction?

@craig apologies, I have edited my reply just now, to now be correct in bold.

You mean whip off underneath placcy cover, & loosen this bolt? @0.50 in the clip, the arrow is ambiguous (to me): ie does the [[edit: LEFTWARD ]] red arrow mean the door is moving L?? As it looks like the gap is fractionally narrowing.. IE, that the door is moving R.

Hi craig. You replied just as the spanner dropped on my doormat. Thin/ 8mm one end, 9mm t'other. Room to use it ok. I had a quick go I couldn't get the top bolt one moved an iota. Hmm the spanner doesn't seem a good fit tbh. 8mm won't fit, & 9mm is annoyingly loose. I've wd40'd & I think I'll wedge the bottom of the door putting some pressure upwards, then see if I can get any of these 4 bolts to move.

Picking up this thread. PM'd the op for an update on his situation. My knotweed still persisting in my garden, my stream not exactly helping matters. zh

.

Aha, the idiot didn't think of releasing the lower one did I! Ok trial & error it is. This door has been like it since 9 years Ive been here, so will be fab to get it done. Terrific thanks.

Hi craig, ok then doing this as suggested earlier in thread, I get 79-1/8" on the door corner to corner. So the solution is thankfully, to tweak the hinges. So I've got spanners bought, as access restricted. Now I have 4 hinges: so how do I go about this pulling the door 'in' at the top-? Is it to loosen off the two middle ones.. & tighten/ pull the door in at the top one/ get the other two back tensioned-up? Maybe wedge door 1st? Thanks, Zoot

Fantastic, thanks so much. Useful to know about the toe & heel process though: I guess it just needs determining, first off, if the door has indeed dropped on the lock side, or is still square: mine -seems- to be still square. Although without a huge builders L shaped set square, must admit I can't be certain. zoot

@craig I don't suppose you'd know what the spanner size tends to be with these? Is that a question too far.. mine I've put a brass measuring caliper thing on, seems to be 9mm but I can't get be 100% certain. This seems a bit of an odd figure, & 9mm isn't in the typical spanner set someone kindly linked to. Thanks, ZH

@craig That's terrific help thanks, so the centre nut thingy -is- the right thing to do, & -can- be adjusted via a small spanner despite the room constraints here. Ok great, will buy one of these. I'd given up hope tbh! Gratefully, Zoot

Ok last go.. Here is the inside of my hinge. Photo 1 taken from the outside to see general orientation. Photo 2 is a close up from same angle, to show 4x screws (blue pointed markers just aiming at each pair of them). These 4x screws seems to hold the large wrap around section in place, on the rearside the door. Even if I could access these 4x screws, the wrap around section wouldn't lift away, as there are two bar things within it preventing it, these two are either side of the nut section thing, that's bang centre of the hinge (which no spanner can make use of).

@MPH243 alas not: The large outer wrap around section of the hinge, cannot be levered off. It's metal for one thing, & seems to be fixed in place by 4x screws too (on the peskiest angle, so could only be accessed by removing the door). Bloody thing!! Driven me stark raving bonkers this. I conclude I'm defeated for now. Thanks anyway. Zh

Aha thanks MPH.. Right I'll have a go at whipping off that white whole section- as I had a feeling the centre screw nut thingy wasn't designed to be tweaked, there. My pics are actually taken from inside, so the beads & handle screws are correct. If I can't get the placcy section off, then I'll get one of those blade whatnots, in case I get brave & fiddle the beads out.. one day. Great help chaps as always on BH. Zoothorn

You can see here, nicely highlighted in a bright white vertical line, how my door beading is set in by 2-3mm, unlike a typical window beading I have here, you can see in the background (top of my blue marker) which is flush.

Thanks for that rick. But none of those could possibly fit. The gap just isn't sufficient to get any in & around the nut bit enough, to get any traction on it. They'll get on say 2mm but slip off. I've gone back to the idea of toe & heel, very tentatively.. but I just cannot get the bead out. No way on god's earth. I did so before on my windows (how tho I can't recall) but the beading in flush with frame edge. So once something pushed in the gap, you can lever &/ or tap the bead away. But my door beading is set in by 2mm. Meaning I don't have anything to lever the bead against. Been trying for an hour & absolutely no way. I'm not risking a tool that levers against the glass: no. I'm not risking a £100 new door pane, no security & rain into my door for a week just to shift the door up a few mm's.

Hi dpm.. I just can't get a spanner in here, so I don't -believe- it's meant to be a 'functional diy tweak bolt'. Anyway, if the only way is to take whole glass out & pack it, levering up etc.. then I've got the help on here. I really need 2 people to be safe doing that that you see & no-one here at all to help. Thanks chaps.

Hi marko.. thanks for that- the best clip of this I've seen. I am a bit reticent about cracking the glass, & the cost of spacers/ 3x tools.. is a £chunk for me. I just want to rule out if there's any way I can adjust the hinges, first, before I resort to this toe & heel job. On the inside hinge I have 2x small allen screws I can access, & one central bigger screw I cannot access. Does anyone know what these 2x small allen bolts are for?? Surely they have a purpose. Thanks, zh

Hi there dpm, no nasty catching on latch bits thankfully. Only at the door plastic at the bottom, clashing on the steel rim of the cill. I understand this -does suggest innitially- that the door's simply gone out of kilter & drooped a tad on the lockside. But you see the house's upvc door & windows, along with 2 extensions, are clearly not a pro job. A decent-effort amateur job, yes. But an awful lot of sub par (even to my amateur stds). Eg WC timber doorframe badly not vertical so the door just closes irritatingly whenever you open it/ EG white silcone to fit the last window trim bits looks like a child's done it! So my hunch is, the chaps's just not hung the upvc front door very well ~20 yrs ago. Thanks Zoot.

Hi rick, that seems complete sense to me. Which I've just done.. & both measure 79-1/8". Hmm. So although I understand the idea of the toe & heel fine, this does kinda confirms my hunch that it possibly isn't the tweak I need to do. I don't want to 'stretch' the door 'wrong' just to solve the issue: that doesn't seem too sensible an approach.. unless.. I can 1st confirm door has sunk down on -just- the lock side. I think it's surely safer to at least -try- the hinge adjustment method.. if I can find a way to access the tweak-screw that is. Four hinges isn't gonna make the job easy tho. Why even diddy jobs seem turn into a building mind-meld for me?! Argh! 🙂

@ProDave Better sketch: the tilt is exaggerated yes, but this is still what everything tells me, is the basic situation I have. IE. If A is 5mm less than B, & C is also less than D.. doesn't that tell me that the door is square, & the whole thing just needs levelling.. rather than trying to 'reform' the door shape via the toe & heel idea-?