Is my front door too heavy for the hinges or...?

[Brian]

Been in this house over 10 years, the front door has mostly been fine - had to adjust the latch "hole" a bit once or twice over the years but no big deal. A few months ago, we had the front door re-painted and the painters pulled off the weather stripping, etc. and never got around to putting it back on. I can't imagine that is really a big deal, but I mention it just in case. I don't think they did anything with the hinges, etc. when I wasn't watching like removing them to paint or anything.

Maybe a month or so ago, we started having problems with the front door not closing/latching when shut without some care to it. It's been getting worse. Basically it looks like it's dropped lower a significant amount. I took a look at the hinges and I'm not sure what I'm looking at. They don't seem to "fit" anymore, and it almost looks like they've deformed enough where one side is sliding inside the other a bit. This is the case for all 4 hinges.

This is not something I can just fix by pulling the pins and re-seating them, right? To me, it looks like the door is just too heavy for the hinges and has pulled down and deformed/ruined them...? Who do I call to re-hang a door properly? I am fairly handy but not sure I want to mess with leveling and hanging a door. Do I need better hinges? All the advice I could find online about sagging doors had to do with uneven sagging that you can fix with a couple long screws, and I think we're beyond that point. There's not much room to sink a long screw anyway, because there's glass surrounding the front door (maybe it's time to make that go away too, sigh...)

[ray1970]

Have you tried tightening the screws? Especially of the door jamb side and specifically the top hinge?

Once I even put longer screws in to grab more wood.

I?d try tightening the hardware first before I spent any money.

[00tec]

Looks like you use that door a lot. The hinges are starting to erode due to them sliding against each other without lube <haha

New hinges, add a bit of oil this time. No need to call a pro, the hinges will use the existing holes and should level fine.

[buffalobo]

Do you have to lift on latch/handle side to latch?

Any other work done around jamb or framing besides just paint?

Inspect weather stripping closely, if removed and reinstalled incorrectly it can cause fitment issues. Always recommend new weather strip if removed

Can often substitute next gauge larger screws if side lights cause issue with longer screws.

Is door/side lights single unit or separate units?

Start with Rays recommendation and report back.

[davsel]

Looks like you use that door a lot. The hinges are starting to erode due to them sliding against each other without lube <haha

New hinges, add a bit of oil this time. No need to call a pro, the hinges will use the existing holes and should level fine.

^This

[Erni]

For a fast snd free check, swap the top and bottom hinnge. Leave center hinge alone and support the bottom outdide of the door with shims when you swap them.

[ChickNorris]

Wont do you much good to try & correct the alignment if you tighten down while open, under load & already in the wrong postion.

There are YouTube vids that are good for explaining how to shim & the order of operations.

[ray1970]

Or maybe your house has settled and you need like $40K of foundation work?

[def90]

There shouldn’t be those gaps between the two sets of hinges. You’re missing the round bearings that fill in those gaps and lifts up the whole hinge. The painters (or someone in the past) didn’t reassemble the hinge correctly, they lost the two bearings that should be in there..

Look at the two bearings in this hinge photo:

[newracer]

I'd get some beefier hinges, ones with bearing if you can, should be a simple replacement.