A landlord in Hemel Hempstead got in touch because the tenant was struggling badly to open and close the flat entrance door.
Once on site, I tested the door and found the problem had progressed much further than a simple adjustment. The whole frame was moving when the door was operated.
I identified an issue around the hinge pin and tried the available vertical adjustment, but moving the door enough to improve one problem immediately created another. The door started rubbing against the top of the frame and the hinge-security pins still would not line up correctly.
At that stage, the door and frame had simply moved too far out of shape for a normal adjustment to put everything back where it belonged.
I spoke to the landlord and explained that the security pins would have to be removed if the door was going to close reasonably at all, and that replacing the complete door and frame should probably be considered sooner rather than later.
The landlord agreed. I removed the problematic pins and realigned the door vertically as far as the existing frame allowed.
The result was not a miracle cure for a badly distorted installation, but the tenant could open and close the flat door without moving the whole frame and disturbing half the building each time.
