Every door on your business property should always open and close properly and smoothly. If one of your doors is not closing properly, then you may have a security issue, you may let out warm or cold air and undermine people’s comfort in the space, ruin your energy efficiency and also frustrate staff who try to close it. Many of the problems that cause a commercial door to get stuck or fail to close properly are fairly simple. Here is how to fix a commercial door that won’t close properly.

1. Clear Any Debris

When something large is in the way of the door, it is simple to spot, and people usually remove it quickly. But, when there is something small causing the door to stay open, you might not realize it. Look along the door’s path for sticks, stones, floor tiles that have lifted, a lost toy or small object, or anything that might keep it open.

2. Check Door Clearance

Can the door still fit in its frame? If you have a wooden door, whether solid core or hollow core, it may have warped with humidity or water damage and no longer fit in the frame. Shifts in the building may have also caused the shape of the frame to change. This is common in a building’s first few years, and then may also occur much later down the line as the building wears. Either way, you can sand or cut down the door to fit. If the gap is quite large, you may want a new door instead.

3. Fix the Strike Plate

The strike plate is the metal plate on the inside of the frame of the door. The door latch (and deadbolt, if you have it) should catch in the strike plate. But, if any element of the door, strike plate, frame or latch has moved enough, the plate may block the latch or deadbolt. Often these doors fail to close properly or seem to close but then pop open. The simple solution is to figure out where the screw plate should be to work properly with the latch and then take it off and reinstall it in the right spot.

4. Adjust Hinge Alignment

The hinges are supposed to allow the door to swing freely into the closed position. But hinges may get damaged and sit on such an angle that they prevent the door from closing all of the way. If you notice that your hinges have a screw missing, that’s usually a sign that the hinge is the issue. Other issues with hinges may be harder for a non-professional to spot. But you can always remove the hinge and bend it to see how it works or if it gets stuck. Reinstalling the hinge where it was originally fastened will often fix things, or you may need a new hinge.

5. Unstick the Door Latch

Stuck door latches won’t pop out of the door, so the door won’t stick in the closed position. Sometimes you can loosen the latch with oil. But it is more likely you’ll need to replace it.

There are other potential reasons why your commercial door may not close properly. The experts at CLAD can help you with commercial doors repair in El Dorado Hills and beyond.