To fix a door that sticks, first find out where it is actually rubbing: a loose or worn hinge, wood that has swollen with humidity, or a house that has settled enough to rack the door frame out of square. A door that won't latch is almost always a strike plate that no longer lines up with the latch bolt. A door that swings open or shut on its own is usually sagging on its top hinge. None of these three problems is fixed by forcing the door harder, and none of them normally needs a contractor. The sections below walk through each one, in the order to try them.
What's actually making your door stick
Before you sand, plane, or replace anything, find the exact spot of contact. Close the door slowly and feel for where it drags, or run a sheet of paper around the door while it's shut; wherever the paper won't slide through freely is your problem spot. That five-minute check saves you from removing wood the door didn't need to lose.
Three mechanical reasons cover almost every sticking door:
Loose or worn hinges. A door is a heavy, constantly moving weight hung on three or four small screws. Over years, those screws work loose in the wood, the door drops slightly, and its edge starts catching the frame or the floor.
Humidity swelling the wood. Wood absorbs and releases moisture from the air, and it changes dimension as it does. Purdue University Extension's publication on wood movement, read 2026-09-18, explains that wood adsorbs moisture and swells when the surrounding air is humid and loses moisture and shrinks when the air is dry, and that no finish or drying process stops this from continuing to happen over the life of the wood. That is why the same door can swing freely in January and drag in August with nothing else in the house having changed.
A frame that has moved. Houses settle. A door frame that has racked even slightly out of square will pinch the door at one corner even if the door itself is perfectly fine. This is the one cause that isn't really about the door at all, and it's covered on its own below.
Fix a door that sticks: step by step
Work through these in order. Most sticking doors are solved by the first two steps, and the later steps involve removing material, which cannot be undone.
1. Tighten the hinge screws. Use a hand screwdriver, not a drill, since a drill's torque can strip a hinge screw's short threads. If a screw spins without biting, the hole is stripped. Replace that screw with a longer one, in the two-and-a-half to three inch range that most hardware stores stock for this exact repair, so it reaches past the doorjamb and into the framing behind it rather than just the thin jamb material. This is also the fix for a door that has started to sag: a long screw driven into the top hinge pulls the whole jamb slightly tighter against the framing and lifts the door's leading edge back into alignment.
2. Clean before you cut anything. Paint buildup or grime on the door's edge or the frame's stop molding can be the entire problem. Wipe both down and try the door again before reaching for sandpaper.
3. Manage the humidity, don't just sand around it. If the sticking comes and goes with the seasons, running an air conditioner or a dehumidifier to bring the room's moisture down is worth trying before you remove wood permanently. If that's part of your regular routine anyway, it's worth checking what an energy label actually tells you before you replace a dehumidifier or AC unit, since efficiency ratings vary a lot between models doing the same job.
4. Sand or plane the contact point, as a last resort. Mark the exact spot the door rubs, take the door off by driving out the hinge pins, and remove a small amount of material with a hand plane or sandpaper at that mark only. Rehang the door and check before removing more. This step is irreversible, which is why it comes after the ones that aren't.
When it's the frame, not the door
Some signs point away from the door entirely and toward the house around it: diagonal cracks in the drywall at the corners of the door frame, a gap that has visibly widened at the top corner of the frame, or several doors on the same floor all starting to stick within the same season. That pattern is a house settling or a foundation issue, and it is a question for a structural engineer or a foundation contractor, not something to solve with a plane. Removing wood from a door to compensate for a frame that's still moving means you'll be back doing it again. Hardware in a house wears the same way appliances do: slowly, over years, until the failure looks sudden. The same logic that tells you when repair stops making sense on an aging appliance applies to an aging house frame; at some point the underlying structure, not the part, is the real subject.
Fix a door that won't latch
A door that won't catch is a strike plate and latch bolt that no longer meet correctly, and it's a different repair from a sticking door even though the causes overlap.
Find the misalignment. Coat the latch bolt lightly with lipstick or pencil graphite and close the door; the mark it leaves on the strike plate shows exactly where the bolt is hitting relative to the hole.
If the latch is close but not catching, the metal tab inside the strike plate may be bent outward. Slide a flathead screwdriver behind it and bend it inward slightly so the latch engages more securely.
If the misalignment is small and visible, remove the strike plate and enlarge the hole with a half-round file to match the curve of the latch, filing only as much as needed. An oversized strike hole makes the door feel loose and reduces how precisely the latch actually seats, so keep the opening only as large as necessary.
If the misalignment is larger than a light filing can fix, the strike plate itself needs to move up, down, in, or out. Use a sharp chisel to enlarge the mortise in the frame, reposition the plate, drill new pilot holes, and fill the old mortise gap with wood filler once the door latches correctly.
If the strike plate looks fine but the mark is consistently too high or too low, the hinges are the actual cause. Tightening or adjusting the hinges at the bottom of the door raises a low latch; adjusting the top hinge lowers a high one, using the same long-screw technique described above.
Fix a door that swings open (or shut) on its own
A door that drifts open, or swings shut under its own weight, is telling you it's no longer hanging plumb. The most common cause is a sagging top hinge: the weight of the door has pulled that hinge's screws slightly out of true over time, and gravity now pulls the door toward whichever direction the frame leans.
Check the top hinge first, using the long-screw fix above to draw the jamb tighter. Some exterior door lines ship with adjustable hinges built for exactly this. Therma-Tru's own door care guidance, read 2026-09-18, describes adjustable hinges that move the door up to an eighth of an inch vertically and an eighth of an inch horizontally within the frame using a hex screw, specifically to correct a door that has begun rubbing, sticking, or swinging on its own as a house settles. If your door has hinges like that, check the manufacturer's instructions before reaching for a screwdriver on the frame itself, since adjusting the wrong screw can make the alignment worse.
If tightening and adjusting hinges doesn't stop the drift, a cardboard shim behind the top hinge leaf can push that corner of the door away from the frame. Add one thin layer at a time and test the door between each addition rather than guessing at how much you need.
Tools worth having on hand
A hand screwdriver, a set of longer wood screws, a half-round file, a sharp chisel, a hand plane or sandpaper, and a hinge-pin punch cover nearly every repair above. None of it is specialized, and most homeowners already own most of it. A hinge check like this is worth folding into the same seasonal walk-through you already use for things like water heater maintenance, since both catch small, cheap problems before they turn into bigger ones.
When to call a professional
Most sticking, non-latching, and self-swinging doors are hardware problems a homeowner can solve with a screwdriver and twenty minutes. Two situations are not:
The frame itself is moving. Diagonal drywall cracking, widening gaps at the top corner, or several doors failing at once in the same season point to foundation settling or structural movement. That diagnosis and any structural repair belongs to a structural engineer or a licensed foundation contractor, not a DIY fix.
A door is part of a fire-rated assembly, such as the door between an attached garage and the house. Self-closing hardware and clearances on those doors are set by code, and altering the door, the frame, or the hinges on one is a question for a licensed contractor familiar with your local code, not a general hinge adjustment.
If any part of the job puts you on a stepladder, such as adjusting hinges on a tall entry door with a transom above it, follow OSHA's basic ladder rule of keeping three points of contact, both feet and one hand, at all times, and don't lean past the ladder's rails to reach the top hinge. That short reach is exactly how a routine-looking job turns into a fall.
FAQ
Why does my door only stick in summer? Humidity is almost always the reason. Wood absorbs moisture from humid air and swells, then releases it and shrinks again once the air dries out, which is why the same door can work fine in winter and drag every summer.
Is a sticking door a sign of foundation problems? Usually not. Most sticking doors are loose hinges or humidity, both of which are unrelated to the foundation. It becomes a foundation question when you also see diagonal cracks near the door frame, a widening gap at the top corner, or several doors sticking at once.
Can I fix a door that won't latch without replacing the strike plate? Often, yes. Bending the tab inward or filing the existing hole to match a small misalignment fixes most latch problems without removing the strike plate. Repositioning it is only needed for a larger gap.
Do I need to take the door off its hinges to fix it? Only for sanding or planing the edge. Tightening hinges, adjusting the strike plate, and shimming a hinge leaf can all be done with the door hanging in place.
When should I call a professional instead of fixing it myself? When the problem is coming from the frame or the house rather than the door itself, such as diagonal cracking, a widening gap at the top corner, or several doors failing together, or when the door is part of a fire-rated assembly like a garage entry door. Both are questions for a licensed structural or general contractor rather than a hinge adjustment.
