How do I fix a door frame that has come loose?

A door frame is not fixed tight against the wall — it stands off it on packers, so it can be set plumb regardless of how the opening was built. When those packers slip or the fixings work loose, the frame flexes every time the door shuts.

What you'll need

• Frame fixings or 100mm screws and plugs
• Timber or plastic packers
• A spirit level
• A drill
• Expanding foam or mortar for large voids

Step by step

1. Find the movement.Close the door and push the frame at several heights. Where it flexes, the fixing near that point has failed or there is no packing behind it.
2. Check plumb before you change anything.A frame can be loose and still be in the right place. Record where it sits now so you do not accidentally fix it in a new, wrong position.
3. Remove the architrave on one side.Ease it off carefully with a bolster and a scrap of ply to protect the plaster. It exposes the fixings and the gap behind the frame.
4. Look at the gap.Between frame and masonry there is usually 5–25mm. That gap should be packed solid at every fixing point, and often is not.
5. Pack at each fixing.Slide timber or plastic packers into the gap at the fixing points until they are snug. The frame must bear on something solid before a screw is tightened.
6. Fix through the packing.Frame fixings, or a screw and plug, driven through the frame, through the packer, and at least 50mm into the masonry or stud. Aim for fixings within 150mm of each end and no more than 600mm apart.
7. Keep checking plumb as you go.Tighten each fixing only until snug and re-check with the level. Over-tightening one fixing bows the frame leg and you will see it in the door gap immediately.
8. Fill the remaining voids.Low-expansion foam for narrow gaps, mortar for wide ones. Low-expansion only — standard foam is strong enough to push a frame out of line as it cures.
9. Test the door before closing up.Hang the door and check the margin all round. It is much easier to adjust now than after the architrave is back on.
10. Refit the architrave.Pin it back into the frame rather than into the wall, and fill the wall side with flexible caulk.

Tips

• Counterbore the fixings and plug the holes with a matching dowel if the frame is stained rather than painted.
• Use plastic packers rather than timber offcuts at floor level, where damp is a possibility.
• If the frame moves at the head as well as the legs, check the lintel — a frame propping a failing lintel is a job to stop and get advice on.

Common mistakes

• Screwing the frame tight to the wall with no packing — The screw pulls the frame leg into the shape of the wall behind it. A frame bent inward by 3mm gives a door that binds in the middle and gaps at the ends, and no hinge adjustment can correct it.
• Using standard expanding foam to fill the gap — Standard foam exerts real pressure as it cures and routinely bows frame legs inwards by several millimetres. Low-expansion frame foam exists precisely because of this.

If it doesn't work

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