How To Repair The Door Jamb When The Strike Plate Has Been Moved

The strike plate, as shown in Figure i, is that piece of hardware that is mounted on the door jamb. The strike plate catches the door bolt, which is function of the passage set up, and holds the door in a closed position.

Figure 1 - Door strike plate

The shifting and setting of a business firm or other building can crusade an interior or exterior door to go out of alignment and in some cases it means that the door bolt will no longer seat properly in the strike plate, hence the door volition non remain in the closed position.

Note: Before attempting to repair a misaligned strike plate brand certain that the trouble is not loose swivel screws or a damaged hinge. It is likewise likely that the door is sticking, also equally the strike plate being out of position.

In most cases the strike plate has been mortised into the door jamb in gild for it to sit flat with the face of the door jamb. This ways that adjusting the strike plate will most likely leave a visible gap between the door jamb and the strike plate.

Figure two - Strike plate on door jamb

Note: Yous volition come beyond websites and books that suggest that you hit the strike plate with a chisel or other heavy object to drive its position either up or downwards. This proposed method of repair volition by and large cause more impairment than it fixes. The screws belongings the strike plate in position are not meant to move up or downward, even a 1/16 inch. As well if the mortise is snug around the strike plate, which it should be, driving the strike plate up or down tin cause the woods to dissever. If you desire to have loose screws in the strike plate and/or split wood above or below the strike plate then follow their instructions.

Realigning a strike plate is non a simplistic project, if you desire to do it properly. You will require a precipitous wood chisel.

Figure three - Center of strike plate

Figure 4 - Center of door commodities

The first step is to determine the position that yous want the strike plate, relative to where it is now. Does information technology need to go upwards or down and by how much? To practice this, use a pencil to marking the center of the strike plate, equally shown in Figure iii, and the center of the bolt. Close the door and then that the door bolt is resting upward against the strike plate and measure the distance that the center of the door bolt is off from the center of the door bolt, as shown in Figure 4. In our instance the strike plate needs to be moved i/4 inch up in order for the centre of the strike plate to marshal with the centre of the door bolt.

Step 2 is to measure 1/four inch up from the current position of the strike plate and draw a straight line across the summit and a line going down to match the inside border of the strike plate, as shown in Figure 3.

Using a sharp woods chisel, preferably 1 inch or larger, remove the textile between the lines and the erstwhile position of the strike plate.

Note: In our example the strike plate has rounded edges. Put the strike plate in its new position and trace the rounded corner in its proper position. So, you will take to employ a small-scale chisel or if y'all are comfortable with a router use it to take out the backlog cloth.

Place the strike plate in its new position and determine:

If you lot will have to drill a new large hole for the door bolt in the center of the strike plate?
If you will accept to fill in the old large pigsty where the door commodities lodged after the door was closed in social club to be able to insert the strike plate lower mounting screw?

Note: If you lot take to fill up in the old big door commodities hole the best way to do information technology is with two part epoxy wood fill and a slice of dowel that fills the hole as all-time possible. If you lot are using a ii office epoxy wood fill then fill the sometime strike plate spiral holes at the same time. Allow the epoxy to dry thoroughly before drilling any new holes, this unremarkably means at least 24 hours.

In one case you have drilled the new holes for the door bolt and forest screws you can install the strike plate.
You lot will now accept the strike plate in the right position simply will besides have a gap between the lesser of the strike plate and the face of the strike plate every bit shown in Figure 5. The gap should be filled with the 2 part epoxy woods make full and then painted.

Figure v - Wood gap below strike plate

Note: If you lot have a natural forest stop or stained wood finish on the door jamb where yous can run into the wood grain, it is almost incommunicable to practise a repair that is non noticeable. The exception being that a furniture refinisher tin make those types of invisible repairs, however it may be difficult to justify the expense.

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