problem with an exterior door

[shephd]

I've got a house that is about 130 years old. A while back, a window a/c unit rusted out and leaked into the wall cavity, from the second floor down to the basement. I took out all the old drywall, had to gut my dining room.

I've got the drywall back up and went to re-hang the door to the back porch. It doesn't fit. We've never really used this door, and my wife thought it wasn't hung right before.

What is the best way to fix this? I don't really want to trim the door if the door frame is off, but I can see how the door frame moved in this old of a house. Drywall can't give that much rigidity, can it?

I measured the door, 31.875". The opening seems to be 32" across. The diagonals are pretty close, but kind of hard to measure. Maybe an .125" off. Both sides are of the door frame are pretty plumb. Could be better, could be worse.

Do I sawzall out the old door frame, put it on the bench with the door fitting in it, and reinstall the whole unit? Better ideas?

 

[akdiesel]

Do you have room to shim the frame? If so, I would think you could shim the frame another 1/8" more to the give you about 32 1/8" opening. Just try to do it on the opening side of the frame and try to keep the hinged side tight but plum to the stud wall and use 16 gauge finish nails to attach the frame for that heavy of door.

 

[shephd]

thanks, akdiesel. that makes sense not to screw with the hinge side, and I wouldn't have thought of that.

I was looking at it this morning while I was drinking coffee. The threshold is one of those aluminum jobs with the grey weatherstriping, so I decided to pull out the weatherstripping. Tried it, and viola, it shuts tight. So I guess I'll be taking a hair off the bottom.