Gary Wentz: Hi! I'm Gary Wentz, an Editor with the Family Handyman Magazine, leader in DIY Home Improvement. I'm here today to show you how to fix a sticky door the easy way.

A door like this that's rubbing along the top here, or more commonly along here, near the top of the side jamb, I know it's not as common; the door might rub along here as well. Now if your door sticks, the first thing you should do is tighten all the hinge screws, that's the most common problem. I'm going to open the door here and show you what I'm talking about right here. If these screws are loose, the door will change its orientation in the opening and rub against the Jamb along here. Now to tighten the screws, I'd like to use a hand-screwdriver rather than a cordless drill, because I can feel if it's tightening up or not. We can see that this one was loose, and that will probably solve the problem. There is a really good chance that you're going to come across a screw like this one that spins, but doesn't tighten. Well, there are lots of ways to deal with the Strip Screw like that, but the quickest and easiest is just to take it out and replace that skinny little screw with the longer fatter screw, which will tighten in the oversized hole. If tightening the hinge screws doesn't solve the problem, your next step is to close the door and figure out where it's rubbing. Now if you look at the top here, you can see there is a nice wide gap, no rubbing going on there. We've got the same thing down here, a nice wide open gap, but up here near the top, we have no gap at all, that's why it's rubbing. Ideally, we would move this hinge over and it would create a gap over here, and there is a way to do that; let me show you how. What we're going to do is take out the existing hinge screw and replace it with a long screw, at least 3 inches long, that'll go into the wall framing and suck that hinge that direction. If the long screw doesn't work, then you are stuck with your last resort. You'll have to mark the door, shape it with a Belt Sander, so that it fits in the rough opening. That's all you need to know to fix a sticky door.