Most of us tend to take our home’s doors for granted, even though we use them countless times a day. When a door starts sticking or you redo your floors and the doors no longer have the clearance they need, it quickly becomes an annoyance that you need to deal with. Learning how to plane a door will give you a quick and easy way to fix some common door problems and make sure your doors fit properly, and can open and close without issue. Let us walk you through how to plane doors in a few simple steps.
Prepping to Plane a Door
Removing a door from its frame can often be a two-person job. Enlist some help to make sure you don’t get hurt or damage the door while removing or rehanging it. You’ll want to set up your sawhorses ahead of time so you have somewhere to put the door once it’s removed.
Identify and Mark Problem Spots
Begin by determining what needs to be planed. There are a few ways to accomplish this, and you may need to use more than one to pinpoint the problem spot:
Open and close the door several times to find where it’s making contact with the jamb. If you have a door that won’t close, start to close it carefully and note where it first touches the jamb.
Measure the gap between the door and the frame on all sides. There should be about 1/8 of an inch clearance all around the door.
Run a piece of thin cardboard or thick paper between the closed door and the jamb to find the starting and ending point of the area of contact.
Once you’ve found what needs to be planed, mark both the front and back of the door with the starting and ending points, and use a ruler to draw a connecting line both front to back and the length of the surface to be planed. Use the pencil to shade the entire area you’ll be planing off; this makes it easy to see what’s already been planed.
Remove and Secure the Door
Photo: Angelov / Adobe Stock
Next, remove the door by either taking out the removable hinge pins with a pair of pliers or by unscrewing the hinges from the door. Set the door on the sawhorses and secure it with clamps so it won’t move as you’re planing. Position the door so that the side that needs to be planed is easy for you to access.
Plane the Door
Check your plane to be sure it’s adjusted to plane off very thin layers of wood. You can test your plane by running it across some scrap wood. If the wood it removes is too thick, adjust the plane so that the blade is protruding less. Plane the door by using gentle pressure and gliding the plane smoothly across the wood. Work in the direction of the grain from the outside edges in, and be careful not to push down too hard and to keep the plane level, otherwise you can take off too much of the surface. Remember—once the wood has been removed, you can’t put it back!
Check the Fit
Once you’ve planed the surface, rehang the door and open and close it several times to be sure you’ve made the right adjustments. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but it’s better to check the fit before you refinish the wood. Sanding and painting or staining is much easier with the door off the hinges, so once you’ve confirmed a proper fit, remove the door again.
Sand the Exposed Wood
Photo: uladzimirzuyeu / Adobe Stock
Lightly sand the exposed wood, first with coarse sandpaper to remove any grooves from the plane and then with fine sandpaper to smooth the finish. Try not to remove anything more than a very small amount from the very top surface as you’re sanding so you can keep the perfect fit you’ve just made. Brush away any sawdust.
Refinish the Planed Wood
Prime and repaint or restain the planed surface using a foam applicator. You may want to repaint or restain the entire edge for a more consistent finish. Let the paint or stain dry fully before rehanging the door.
Once the surface is dry, rehang the door by replacing the hinge pins or screwing the door back on the hinges. Enjoy your newly unstuck door!
DIY vs. Hiring a Pro
Small adjustments to the fit of a door can be a simple job for homeowners who know how to shave down a door. For more involved fixes, you may want to enlist the help of a local door repair service. Ensuring that the job is done right can save you the cost of having a new door installed, or the aggravation of a door that just doesn’t fit well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Very small adjustments can sometimes be made while the door is on its hinges. Be sure to stabilize the door with a doorstop before you begin. Planing the bottom of the door, around the hinges or latch, or planing a large surface should all be done once the door is removed.
You should only plane no more than 5 to 6 millimeters off of a door’s surface unless manufacturer’s instructions indicate otherwise. More than that, and you could compromise the surface of the door. If you have to trim off a large amount, it’s likely that your door is the wrong size and should be replaced.
Rachel is a freelance writer and editor dedicated to helping people clean up their messes, get organized, and learn to love their homes again. Her work has appeared in Elle, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Apartment Therapy, Lifehacker, and NBC News.
Rachel is a freelance writer and editor dedicated to helping people clean up their messes, get organized, and learn to love their homes again. Her work has appeared in Elle, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Apartment Therapy, Lifehacker, and NBC News.
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