Happy Thursday everybody.
I’m toward the end of installing my first door. It is an exterior Marvin outswing. It is shimmed and screwed as per instructions but it takes a very hard pull or a slam to latch. It has adjustable hinges but I am hoping for a couple tips before I fiddle.
Also, the door comes with a factory drip cap but the installation instructions seem to call for another.??
Replies
Hey Peter,
If you write to yourself this might move back onto the board and get a response.
It also might get a couple people telling you to be quiet.
Hows that for a tip?
A little schitzo today?
Why do you think you need to adjust your hinges. If you adjusted the strike, would that allow it to latch?
Hi Jim,
No I'm not.
Yes you are!!!Anyway, there is no adjustment on the strike. It is shaped with rounded top and bottom and let in to the frame, to move it would require some careful cutting and leave a gap at the back end. If it was a painted door...
I'm not understanding how the hinge adjustments would help your latch.
You are either going to reduce your weatherstrip thickness (slam it 5000 times) or move the strike and create that gap. Or, you could just let the door hang in the breeze and you'll have THAT gap.
The strike was improperly installed.
Jim,
The hinges are built with allen wrench adjustments to move horizontally and vertically.
I'm thinking of moving the hinge side out which will decrease the pressure on the hinge side of the door (pressure off the weatherstrip) and change the angle toward the latch.
But (inspiration) if that doesn't work I can shave down the edge of the opening the latch catches on! Still, if I can make the adjustment without cutting anything I'd rather.
Those Marvin hinges allow for plenty of play and always need adjustment.
If you have it installed all level and plumblike, don't be skeered, fiddle away, you should get it to work like buttah.
Thanks for the reassurance Mr. Jayzog. Does moving the hinge side out sound right to you?
Can't see it to good from here, so which adjustment to make is hard to say, but I have installed many many Marvins, and I've never had to cut anything to make them work.
Jim is saying to play with the strike, I've never had to do that on a marvin.
Thanks, I'm going to play with the hinges. After all, they can be put right back where they started if they aren't the answer.
"Hard pull to slam the latch" Hmmm. Hard to say without seeing it, but that sounds like you may have installed the frame with a bit of twist, and you're having to bend the door a bit to get it to close.
Does the door hit the stops on the strike side equally top and bottom when you close it gently, or does one or the other gap a bit? If it's not equal, don't put the tools away yet. Adjusting the hinges probably won't help much. One adjustment gives you more/less elevation. The other tips the door side to side, rotating it. Neither will correct for a jamb that's leaning in or out.
It could also be that the stops are just tight and the weatherstripping is holding the door back. If that's the issue, simply leaving it for a few months sometimes cures the issue as the weatherstripping gets a bit less elastic. You could move the strike out a bit, but that could make the door loose as the weather stripping ages. Kinda a call you gotta make on site.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Everything fits, until you put glue on it.
but that could make the door loose as the weather stripping ages
But, you also get to reset the strike and tighten it all back up again.
Yep. But I'm lazy. I just let it be for a couple of seasons and it usually works itself out. ;-)Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.