If you have spent time in Alberta, you are more than likely familiar with the seasonal temperature shifts and extreme weather fluctuations. Alberta can easily bounce from bone-chilling, dry winter weeks to sudden, humid summer storms, and everything in between. While we adjust our daily routines and wardrobes for these weather changes, our homes have to absorb the brunt of these forces too.
A common reaction for a property to respond to changing seasons is through swelling doors. You may try to close your front door and suddenly it sticks at the top. Alternatively, your garage entry door requires a firm shoulder nudge to latch properly. Sticky, stubborn, or swelling doors are incredibly common, and they can compromise both the home’s security and energy efficiency.
Why Wood Doors Swell: The Science of Humidity
Wood is a porous material. Even after it is cut, shaped, dried, and painted, it retains a quality called hygroscopicity, which means it naturally absorbs and releases moisture from the surrounding air to stay in balance with its environment.
When the air becomes humid, wood fibers drink in the moisture just like a sponge. This causes the wood to expand across its grain. In Canada, this typically happens during the summer months when warm, humid air settles into our neighbourhoods, or during prolonged rainy spells.
Conversely, when winter arrives and the air turns crisp and dry, wood releases that moisture and shrinks. Given that exterior doors stand right at the boundary between the climate-controlled indoor air and the unpredictable Canadian elements, doors face constant exposure to these shifts. If the door is not perfectly sealed, moisture creeps into the raw wood, leading to that stubborn sticking frame.
How to Fix a Swelling Door
If you have a door that refuses to close smoothly, this does not always mean that it is necessarily required to be replaced immediately. Often, professional door repairs and adjustments can restore the door’s proper movement. Before grabbing any heavy tools, we recommend reaching out to a professional door technician to inspect and handle door repairs to ensure your door remains perfectly square and secure.
- Step One: Identify the Friction Points: Our expert door technicians inspect the door closely as it opens and closes. We are looking for areas where the paint is scuffed, shiny, or worn down along the edges of the door or the frame. These marks tell us exactly where the wood has expanded and is rubbing against the jamb.
- Step Two: Check & Tighten The Hinge Screws: Often, what looks like a swelling door may actually be a sagging door. We ensure the screws on the door hinges are completely tight. Over time, the weight of a heavy exterior door can pull screws loose, causing the door to lean and stick. Tightening them can pull the door back into alignment instantly.
- Step Three: Replace A Short Hinge Screw With a Long Screw: If tightening the screws does not fully resolve the issue, we may replace the short screws from the door hinge with a longer screw. By driving this long screw deep into the structural wall framing behind the door jamb, this pulls the entire frame slightly closer to the wall, creating a precious millimeter or two of clearance for the door to close.
- Step Four: Remove & Plane The Sticking Edges: If the door is genuinely swollen beyond the limits of a door hinge adjustment, this may require the door to be trimmed. We carefully and diligently remove the door and use specialized tools to shave down the door as needed. We also apply primer and high quality exterior paint (or sealant) to lock future moisture out.
How to Prevent Swelling Doors
As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. While repairing a sticking door will bring renewed life to a door, prevention ensures that future or repeated repairs will not be required.
- Ensure All Door Edges Are Sealed: When a new door is installed, or when an old one is painted, people may forget to seal the top and bottom edges. As these door edges are hidden from view, those unseen surfaces are often left as bare, unfinished wood. Those unsealed surfaces are a primary entry point for moisture. By ensuring that the top, bottom, and side edges of your doors receive the exact same paint or sealant protection as the front face, this helps prevent moisture from having a gateway to entry.
- Control Indoor Humidity Levels: Exterior doors are not the only doors that struggle. Bathroom and basement doors often swell due to indoor moisture as well. For example, use the exhaust fans during showers and for at least 20 minutes afterward to draw out humid air.
- Monitor The HVAC: In the summer, running your air conditioning naturally dehumidifies the air. In the winter, keep the furnace humidifier set to a comfortable level that does not cause condensation on your windows.
- Deploy Dehumidifiers: If the basement feels damp, we recommend using a standalone dehumidifier that can protect both the property’s structure and the interior basement doors from expanding.
- Maintain The Weatherstripping: High quality weatherstripping keeps wind and rain out, and it also blocks humid outdoor air from wrapping around the edges of the door. Visually inspect the rubber or foam seals around the entry doors annually. If the weatherstripping is cracked, flattened, or missing chunks, have them replaced to restore a tight barrier.
- Invest in High-Quality Storm Doors: A properly fitted storm door acts as a shield for the property’s main entry door. Storm doors take the brunt of direct rainfall, snow, and intense sunlight, preventing standing water from pooling along the bottom sill where it can seep into the wood grain.
Selecting The Best Suited Door Materials
If you have an older wood door that swells dramatically every year despite your best efforts, it might be time to consider an upgrade. Modern door manufacturing offers materials specifically designed to handle the extreme temperature swings of the Canadian climate without shifting shape.
Solid wood has a low resistance to swelling, as it is prone to expanding and shrinking throughout the year. Therefore, solid wood requires regular professional maintenance and sealing. Alternatively, steel has a high tolerance to swelling, similar to fiberglass doors. Steel doors are also durable and highly secure, making them an ideal option for back entries or garage entry doors.
“Fiberglass doors are particularly well suited for Alberta’s climate. They can be engineered with beautiful, realistic wood grain textures, giving you the warm aesthetic of traditional timber without any of the structural headaches caused by humidity” says Darren Hiebert, co-founder of Door Gurus.
Door are highly complex mechanical systems. A door that sticks can sometimes be a symptom of a shifting foundation, a warped frame, or worn-out hardware rather than simple moisture expansion. If your door is severely stuck, or if you notice cracks in the drywall around the door frame, it is always best to call in a team of experts.
As expert technicians of all things doors, our team specializes in comprehensive door repair, replacement, and installation services. We understand exactly how the Alberta climate treats your home, and we know how to diagnose whether a door needs a subtle hardware adjustment, a professional reseal, or a complete upgrade to a weather-resistant material.
