Why does my wooden door only stick in damp weather?

This is the most common seasonal complaint about timber doors, and the most commonly mishandled. The instinct is to take a shaving off wherever it is rubbing. That works immediately and creates a permanently loose door once the weather changes, which is worse — a draughty gap is harder to fix than a tight door.

Step by step

1. Confirm the pattern before doing anything.Does it bind in wet weather and release in dry? Does it happen every year? Seasonal behaviour is the signature of moisture movement rather than a dropped hinge, which is constant.
2. Find where it is actually rubbing.Close it slowly and watch, or slide a piece of paper round the gap to find where it grips. Doors usually bind along the top of the lock edge or the top rail.
3. Rule out the mechanical causes first.Loose hinge screws, a dropped leaf and a frame that has moved all produce sticking too, and all are worth eliminating before you blame the weather. A binding door that never releases is not moisture.
4. Seal every edge of the door, including top and bottom.This is the real fix. Unsealed edges are where the door drinks moisture from the air. The top and bottom edges are the ones nobody paints and are usually bare, which is exactly why the door moves so much.
5. Deal with the source of the damp if there is one.A door that swells badly every winter in a bathroom, a kitchen or a porch may be responding to a humidity problem worth fixing in its own right.
6. Wait for dry conditions before planing anything.If you must remove material, do it when the door is at its smallest, and remove the minimum. Planing a swollen door guarantees a gap later.
7. Ease with abrasive rather than a plane where you can.For a slight rub, taking the finish and a whisker of timber off with abrasive is more controllable than a plane and easier to keep straight.
8. Reseal any surface you expose.Every shaving you take off removes the seal and creates fresh bare timber, which will take up moisture faster than before. Always re-seal after planing.

Tips

• Candle wax or a dry lubricant on the rubbing point is a legitimate temporary measure while you wait for dry weather.
• External doors move far more than internal ones because one face is exposed to the weather and the other to heated air.

Common mistakes

• Planing the door during the wet season. — It is at its largest. Come the summer the same door has a visible gap, and gaps are harder to correct than tightness.
• Sealing only the faces. — The bare top and bottom edges are the fastest route for moisture into the timber, which is why a beautifully painted door still swells.

Questions people ask