Your Door Is Not Swollen, the Frame Has Dropped

A door that catches gets planed. Then it catches again the following winter and gets planed again. Two years later there is a visible gap at the top and it still sticks, because planing was never the fix.

Diagnose Before You Cut

Close the door slowly and watch where it touches. Catching at the top of the closing edge almost always means the top hinge is pulling out of the frame. Catching along the bottom usually means the floor has moved or a carpet has been fitted. Only genuine swelling — rare, and usually in an unheated bathroom — actually calls for removing material.

The Top Hinge Does the Work

Nearly all of a door’s weight hangs on the top hinge. Its screws work loose, the leaf pulls forward, and the whole door tips into the frame. Longer screws driven into the stud behind the lining fix it in about twenty minutes, and cost nothing.

Packing Beats Planing

If the frame itself has dropped, a thin packer behind the relevant hinge leaf re-squares the door in its opening. It is reversible, invisible once the door is shut, and takes less time than getting the plane out.

When Planing Is Right

New carpet, a genuinely swollen bottom rail, or a door that was never sized for its frame. Even then, take the door off, mark it properly, and plane the hinge edge rather than the closing edge — it hides the work.