uPVC Door Dropped and Catching on the Frame? What to Do

What people mean by a dropped door

The complaint is nearly always the same: the door used to close with a light push and now it rubs the frame, or the handle has to be lifted with real effort to throw the locks. That is the door leaf no longer sitting where the frame expects it, and there are only a few things that cause it.

The leaf itself can have sagged on its hinges, so the bottom corner on the handle side drops and catches the frame or the sill. The frame can have moved, which happens where a lintel or the surrounding brickwork has settled or where the door was fitted with too few fixings. Or nothing has moved permanently at all and the door has simply expanded in hot weather.

Heat expansion versus a real fault

This one catches a lot of people out. Dark uPVC and composite doors, particularly anthracite grey and black on a south or west facing elevation, can pick up a great deal of solar heat and expand measurably across the leaf. The result is a door that binds and is hard to lock in late afternoon on a hot day and behaves perfectly by morning.

The way to tell the difference is timing. If the problem comes and goes with the weather and the time of day, it is thermal movement, and forcing it in the heat is what breaks the lock. If it catches consistently in all conditions and is getting steadily worse, something has actually moved and it needs correcting.

• Worse in hot afternoons, fine in the morning: thermal expansion
• Same in all weather and worsening: hinge or frame movement
• New noise or scuffing on the frame: check for a witness mark to find the contact point
• Locks throw but the door then rattles: keeps need adjusting, not the hinges

Safe checks before anyone touches an adjuster

Look at the gap between the door leaf and the frame all the way around with the door closed. It should be reasonably even. A gap that is tight at the top on the hinge side and wide at the bottom, or tight at the bottom on the handle side, tells you the leaf has dropped and rotated slightly.

Then find the actual contact point. A little chalk or a strip of paper closed in the gap will show exactly where it is binding, which is far more useful than guessing. Check the threshold too, because a bowed or lifted sill causes exactly the same symptoms as a dropped leaf.

Finally, look at how the multipoint hooks and rollers meet their keeps in the frame when the handle is lifted slowly. If they are arriving high or low against the keeps, that is the alignment you can see with your own eyes.

• Check the gap around all four edges with the door shut
• Use chalk or paper to locate the exact rubbing point
• Watch the hooks meeting the keeps as the handle lifts
• Clean and lightly lubricate the hooks and keeps, then retest
• Do not lift the handle with force to get it to lock

What can be adjusted, and what that involves

Most uPVC door hinges are adjustable in more than one direction, typically lateral, vertical and compression, though the number of adjustments and the tool needed varies by hinge type. Small movements make a big difference, and they have to be made in the right order and in the right combination, otherwise you can fix the catching and lose the seal against the weather gaskets.

Compression matters as much as position. Too little and the door draughts, whistles and lets water track in. Too much and the whole mechanism carries load it was never meant to and the handle stiffens again. Keeps in the frame can also usually be adjusted independently, which is often the correct fix where the door closes freely but does not lock cleanly.

When adjustment will not solve it

There are situations where no amount of hinge work is the right answer. If the door leaf itself has bowed along its length, if the frame has been pushed out of square by structural movement above it, if the reinforcement inside the outer frame was inadequate, or if the hinges have worn their fixings out of the profile, then you are chasing a fault that adjustment cannot reach.

The same applies where the leaf has been repeatedly forced. Multipoint mechanisms have a hard life on a door that has been fighting its frame, and once hooks are worn, the gearbox is tired and the sash has been packed and adjusted several times already, replacement usually costs less over the next few years than continuing.

Why it is worth dealing with quickly

A door that needs lifting and shoving to lock is a security and safety issue as much as an irritation. If the multipoint hooks are not fully engaging, the door is far weaker than it looks, and there is a real chance of the mechanism failing while the door is locked and leaving you unable to get in or out.

There is also heat and water to consider. A door that no longer compresses on its gaskets will draught and can let water past, which over time affects the threshold and the floor inside.

Getting it sorted locally

We look at doors across the Wirral, Chester and about thirty miles around. Part of the free survey is being clear about whether this is a hardware and alignment job or a door that has come to the end of its working life, and we will explain what we are seeing before recommending anything.

Common questions

Why do I have to lift my uPVC door handle so hard to lock it?

It normally means the multipoint hooks are not lining up with their keeps, either because the leaf has dropped on its hinges or because the door has expanded, so the mechanism is being forced into position.

Is a door that only sticks in hot weather faulty?

Not necessarily. Dark doors on sunny elevations expand in heat and can bind in the afternoon, then close normally when cool, which is thermal movement rather than a fault.

Can I adjust the hinges myself?

Small adjustments are possible on many hinge types, but position and compression interact, so it is easy to cure the catching and create a draught or overload the mechanism instead.

What happens if I keep forcing it?

The load goes into the gearbox and hooks, and these can fail while the door is locked, which turns a straightforward adjustment into a mechanism replacement or a forced entry to your own home.

Does a dropped door mean the whole door needs replacing?

Often not. Where the leaf and frame are sound, alignment and keep adjustment cure it, and replacement is only really needed where the leaf has bowed or the frame is out of square.

Do you fit doors as well as look at existing ones?

Yes, we fit composite and uPVC doors across the Wirral, Chester and roughly thirty miles around, and we will always tell you first if your existing door can be sorted instead.