Hinges and door gaps
A dropped hinge pulls the whole door out of line. We find where it started.
Get a priceHere's the gauge we use, held against a door edge. 4mm is the last pass, 6mm is a fail. The marks are the tool's, not ours.
A wide gap is a way through for flames and smoke, and it very often starts at a hinge.
How a hinge goes wrong
A screw works loose. Then another. The door's heavy, so it hangs a little lower each month, and by the time anyone looks it's sitting a few millimetres down on the latch side.
Or the wrong screws went in at the start. Short ones that don't reach the frame, or brass ones that shear off.
Most fire doors have three hinges. A door with only two, and an empty recess in the frame where the third should be, is a classic.
Then the door starts catching on the floor, somebody planes the bottom, and the gap gets worse.
Measuring
We measure all four edges. Sides and top first, then the bottom.
If the door has dropped, we pack behind the hinge. The photos show it: a thin strip of plastic, 3mm in the shot, sitting behind the leaf. That's often all it takes, and nothing about the door itself has to change.
Where the frame has moved, or the old screw holes have worn smooth and won't grip, the fix is bigger. We refix the frame or repair the timber first, and then hang the door again.
The bottom gap has its own limit, set by the door's test evidence, so we check that before touching the edge.
Things we won't do
Plane a fire door to hide a hinge fault. Once the timber is off the edge it's gone for good, and a fire door has very little spare.
Fold up a bit of card for a packer. It squashes flat within a year and the door drops again, and it burns anyway.
Flats
Flat entrance doors take more use than any other door in a block. Slammed twice a day for ten years, even a good door will drop.
We put right 34 doors in a block of flats in Luton, and the same job on your block would run the same way. Doors in a row, same faults, one crew.
Questions we get asked
Is a 5mm gap a fail?
Outside the 2 to 4mm range on the gauge, so it needs putting right.
Can a door be rehung rather than replaced?
Often. If the frame's sound, we take the door off, refix the hinges and set the gaps again.
Send it with the postcode and we will price it one door at a time.
Get a price