Ever been trapped in the bathroom? We were. All the time. Every spring and summer, thanks to a bit of increased humidity, our full bathroom’s door used to swell just enough in the top left corner to keep the door from opening on the first pull. Or the second. Or the third. In fact it usually took some serious “door flapping” (grabbing the knob and rocking back and forth until it sprung free on the fifth or sixth tug) to get out of the bathroom every time we used it. And forget about our poor friends and family members who innocently ducked in there and then freaked out about a minute later when they thought they were locked in the bathroom permanently (screaming and pounding usually occurred in those instances- if not at least some mumbled obscenities).
The odd thing is that we put up with this silly inconvenience for such a long time. Especially when there’s such a simple solution. One day when John had our $50-ish Black & Decker hand sander from Home Depot out (while working on something for our new office- more on that tomorrow) I mentioned that he should hop up on a chair and sand down that dastardly left side of the bathroom door to keep it from sticking ever again.
And it worked like a charm. It seriously took him less than sixty seconds of running a hand sander across the top of the door to ever-so-slightly slim it down so it no longer got caught by the door frame as snugly on those hot and humid days. And even if we didn’t have a hand sander, we’re sure about five minutes with a sanding block or even a piece of sandpaper and some elbow grease would have also done the trick. Oh and painting the top edge after you sand it (priming first = extra credit) will further keep it from expanding again, so your door will be shaved into submission for the long haul.
So if you have a sticky bathroom (or any other room) door that you’re dealing with, just break out that sandpaper and get ‘er done. Or you could wait four years and titter every time you hear friends and family members panicking when they think we’re trapped in the restroom forever. Either one.
And we’d love to know what simple project you guys have been putting off for weeks, months, maybe even years. It always seems like the tiniest to-do’s get put on hold the longest…
Molly says
When we recently renovated our bathroom, the electrician found an unused (read: not up to code and had to be fixed!) electrical box on the hallway side of the wall. For years, my husband–and his grandpa who lived in the house before him–has used a dirty old pull cord to turn the hallway light on. After some minor wall demolition and new wiring, we had a brand new lightswitch! However, the wall remainded torn open for weeks. Really, it was embarassing to look at every time you walked by. Until this weekend…
While Joe was on a boys golfing trip, I got out the spackle, fixed the hole, sanded it and painted that bad boy. We now FINALLY have a completed lightswitch in the hallway. And it only took a few hours, drying time included. I can’t believe we put that off for so long!
Brigid says
The front AND back doors to my old apartment used to stick shut in our grossly humid Chicago summers. I can remember thinking I’d be totally screwed if there was ever a fire (my parents would be proud that I had my handy dandy fire ladder under my bed – that would leave me dangling about 1 story short of the ground…only built for 2 story house, didn’t factor in a 3 story walk-up! haha).
To tide me over until the temperature bottomed out I’d rub a bar of soap along the edges of the doors so they wouldn’t stick as easily. It worked well enough as a short term fix and, as a bonus, I got a nice fruity whiff of soap whenever I went through the doorway!
Jennifer says
We’ve also had to cut/sand some length of the bottom of a bathroom door b/c not enough air could flow into the room (when door was closed) for the vent to work properly. When home alone we’d become accustomed to leaving the door open slightly. But for some reason our guests preferred to shower with the door closed – which severely cut the suction power of the vent. Cutting a little off the bottom of the door fixed it right up.
CourtneyM says
Funny that you mention this because I was cursing our door that goes out to the garage yesterday. We have to either slam it shut or pull really hard the opposite way for it to close. Problem is, it is a metal door, so sanding is really not an option.
Does anyone have any idea on how to fix this? I thought I heard there was a way to adjust the door somehow? Thanks for any input!
YoungHouseLove says
Anyone have any suggestions for Courtney?
xo,
s
Amanda says
Right now, my project that I’ve been putting off is touching up the ceiling in the bathroom – my painting skeelz have improved, so I need to freshen up the line where the old color creeped onto the ceiling. And put another coat of joint compound stippled on the ceiling where the wall came out.
celestte says
I am currently having the same problem – going on 2 years now. We installed new interior doors 2 winters ago. The one that joins our bathroom with our bedroom sticks every summer. Haven’t quite gotten stuck, but it is noisy when you’re trying to be quiet if you get up in the middle of the night from drinking too many liquids right before bed. Today is especially sticky as it is 88 degrees here in southeast WI and extremely humid. Thanks for posting this tip. Such an easy fix.
celestte says
@ CourtneyM: what about sanding the doorjam? Is it made of wood?
erika says
we live in a 1940s beach bungalow (built in 1949), and we have this problem with two of our doors. i have been wanting to sand them down, but am worried about the lead paint dust that could be emitted if I do that. The doors are to the rooms of our 3 year old and 1 year old, and so obviously, I am pretty cautious about lead paint around them. What do you think?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Erika,
Check out our How To page (see the tab under the header) and go to the “Problem Solving” category to see how you can perform a super cheap and easy lead paint test before sanding. And if you do find lead just remove the doors and have someone take them outside and sand them with a mask on. You can even wet-sand them (just google that term) to keep the dust at bay. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Carole says
i’ve been too nervous to start retiling my bathtub surround, even though I’ve had the tiles for a while… we lived for many years with a single shower, so I guess that reduced the sense of urgency…
I think my husband is getting sick of showering in the basement, so I just started tiling this morning!
stylefyles says
we live on a hill in LA and I’ve noticed once or twice the door to our third floor sticking when trying to fully open (the third floor = bottom floor as the house is built down into the hill).
It wasn’t until just after a minor earthquake that I realized the reason….the tremor shifts the house and that’s what causes the sticking. Yikes.
Megan says
Replacing the faucet handles in our tub/shower in the hall bathroom. We purchased the new handles months ago – and they are still sitting in the box on the floor next to the tub! We don’t use the shower, but when we have overnight guests, it is very embarassing to have to hand them a set of pliers and give them a tutorial on how to turn on the shower!
Christin says
This post sent me to your archives to appreciate your bathroom make-over all over again! My bathroom has shower doors, and I can’t remove them because I’m a renter. Is it crazy to hang a curtain in front of the doors? I just love the height your shower curtain gives the whole room.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Christin,
Not crazy at all! We’ve seen that done more than once and think it’s a great way to add height, softness, color, whatever-it-is that your doors aren’t giving ya. So we’re totally behind you on that idea.
-John
Barbara says
Some day I’m going to install shoe molding in the house that was removed when the seller pulled up the carpets to expose the hardwood floors. I’m just very lazy.
Emily says
We did the same thing with our bedroom door- it only took a few minutes but helped a lot. :)
Melissa says
I know it’s not *completely* related, but I have a fun story about getting stuck inside a room…
I was about to go on a first date (that I was really looking forward to) and went to leave the apartment… but couldn’t get out. It was a 1920s building, I’m claustrophobic and was living on the 4th floor (so I couldn’t jump out!). Long story short, maintenance had to remove my door while I had a small panic attack and was an hour and a half late for my date. The date’s my finance now, so it all worked out!
So, I understand the terror of your guests when they think they’re trapped forever!
Anyway, love your site. =)Great tips.
Chelsea@ThisFreshFossil says
Haha, this is pretty funny. Sounds like something we would do! We rented this old duplex that had the old-school original door handles, and the guest bathroom door handle in particular was pretty finicky. Once inside, it wouldn’t let you out unless you jiggled the handle just right.
It provided us with LOTS of entertainment when guests would use it and pound and yell on the door trying to get out. Especially because the bathroom was just off the living area and dining room. :)
In our new house, the old doors often wouldn’t open/close, would get stuck, etc, but we’ve been pretty good in replacing almost all of them so far and the new ones work great! What we haven’t been too good about so far: putting down new quarter round. We installed new flooring and keep putting off that finishing touch, mostly because we keep finding new things that need to be done first (new doors, transition, painting, etc). Oh well, we’ll get there eventually!
~Chelsea
Maureen@Notes on a Visual Life says
I have been putting off hanging my gallery of prints in the kitchen. Sigh. I just need to bite the bullet and do it. I keep thinking, “More holes in the wall of this rental…” Also, interesting idea from Christin. I have rental shower doors which are I.M.P.O.S.S.I.B.L.E to clean. I’ve tried everything! Drives me nutty. The rest of the bathroom will be spotless but the shower doors are anything but. Maybe I’ll grab a nice spa waffely curtain to pop up there. Thanks, all!
Noreen says
The original 1920’s door in our 2nd bedroom always stuck. To get our house ready to show to prospective buyers, I rubbed a candle on the spot that was sticking. VOILA! The wax helps it close and open with ease!
Bekka says
The sticky-door issue has happened to me too – but it’s our master bedroom door rather than the bathroom door. One particularly warm evening I had closed the door to change my outfit, and then when I tried to open the door again, it completely wouldn’t budge – but I wasn’t worried since this had happened before. So I started yanking on the doorknob, which then came completely off the door! I landed on my butt with the doorknob in my hand!! Thank goodness my fiance was home, and after some yelling and banging on the door, he came up and rescued me :-P (yeah, it was an old doorknob, haha)
Hanna says
Funny story…my husband was stuck in the bathroom once then the door knob broke from the outside. We were both working on getting the knob off from opposite sides. I had to pass him tools underneath the door (luckily there was a large gap from when there had been carpet vs. hardwood floor)!!
caitlin says
ha! we had to do exactly this to the basement door. imagine thinking you were trapped in the basement! (or, that you would never get into the basement again).
Lindsey says
Just did this to my back door and bathroom door. And now I’ve noticed the front door is sticking, so I’ll have to tackle that one too. But the big problem is my bedroom doors, which are so old (in a good way) and covered in so many layers of paint (in a bad way) that they squeak like crazy. I need to take them down, strip them and repaint them, and probably replace the hinges. The hard part? The hinges will have to have the paint removed while the doors are still hanging to I can access the painted over screws!
Elizabeth says
Hello! I noticed that you commented that your doors are hollow core. How is it that you can hang hooks on the back for towels? That’s my husbands reasoning on why we cannot hang hooks. Thanks for any insight!
YoungHouseLove says
It totally works! We just use regular screws and we dab some Liquid Nails on the back of the hook to hold it in place along with the screws (so it doesn’t come loose). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Bianca says
I was just wondering…how do you you exactly where you should sand on the door? Should I “check” where it sticks and sand in that area?
Lindsay W says
That reminds me of one of the doors in our house that was never properly hung by the previous owners. We usually just leave it open, but when we have to close it, it is totally off from the frame. Probably a 2 minute job to readjust the hinges, but it just has never gotten done.
This weekend I’ve taken care of two other tiny things on my to-do list. One was to actually paint a painting for my living room…I’ve had the canvas for 8 months. It has finally gotten done, and hung! Yea!! And I also touched up some paint on the cabinet in our powder room that was scratched right after I painted it two years ago. It literally took 3 minutes from opening the paint, until clean up was done. Ah, it always seems like the small things get pushed to the bottom of the list.
Carolyn says
I had an eleventh hour desire to nest right before my daughter was born. I hung a picture on our landing, and then husband an I went out to a friends birthday party.
When we came home the picture had come off the wall, breaking the hook in the process (hung using a 3M hook because we are renting).
My husband and I went out the next day to celebrate our wedding anniversary but then I went in to labour after our nice lunch. Well anyway, I was determined that we stop in at the hardware store to pick up some new hooks. Husband graciously agreed, so I waddled to the nearest courtesy seat (in quite a bit of discomfort!) whilst he did the running around. Fast forward 15 months and I still haven’t gotten around to fixing the wall (got the rest of the hook off, but unfortunately it took some of the paint with it). I really must think about putting that job at the top of my to-do list…soon!
Wendy says
Off topic… but I remember seeing on facebook (quite some time ago) that you purchased a new couch for a room makeover. Did I miss that post or is it part of your new office/guest room?
YoungHouseLove says
Stay tuned! We’ll actually be explaining that purchase tomorrow!
xo,
s
ElleX says
Thank you for this post! I have a few doors that are doing this…
Lynn says
This might help Courtney…
When the buyer’s home inspector was coming through our house, he noted that the bathroom door stuck. Yeah… we’d lived there for five years like that! He showed us how to fix it right then and there. He took one of the screws out of the hinge where it attaches to the jam (it was the bottom hinge since our door was sticking at the top in the same place as yours.) Then he took about a 2 inch long screw and screwed it in at a slightly downward angle. I was so shocked that it actually worked! No more sticking at all… it just very slightly realigned the door. Since moving into our new home, one of the bedroom doors was having the same problem. We fixed it in about 3 minutes with no sanding and no painting! And hopefully it’ll work for you Courtney, with your metal door.
marianne says
our downstairs bathroom has been like that and we’ve lived here for 1.5+ years now. i even got as far as to put the hand sander next to the door – i just haven’t brought myself to actually use it!
Amy says
Hey~
Just wanted to mention that typically a door sticking (only during certain times of the year) is a foundation issue. I don’t say this to scare anyone, but just to mention it as something to look into. We have purchased and renovated a number of older homes, and have had foundations repaired on several occasions. It’s really pretty common in some areas and nothing to be afraid of. In many cases, you can just patch and repair wall cracks, shave doors where needed, and move on with no problem. In other cases where the movement progresses and worsens, a foundation repair may be warranted to stop further movement. Anyway- just throwing in 2-cents from a lot of experience.
Amber says
Not sure if this was asked (and possibly! answered>?), Where did you get the towels that hang on your bathroom door? They’re just swell.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Amber,
They’re from TJ Maxx and we got them for a steal. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Handy Man, Crafty Woman says
oh yes, those dreaded small projects that you take forever to get to! I am trying to think of one of ours, but I’m distracted by these other stories…they are amusing!
rene@bargainhoot says
We’ve totally had that happen at our old 1910 home. My father-in-law got stuck in our guest room once when he was staying with us. SOOO embarassing to hear him yell for help!!!
Trish says
We put off our bathroom door drama until the door literally squashed my SIL into the tiny little room. The deal is, we live in a new house and the dude in charge of door installation used all different sizes of screws so none of the doors now stay shut. So, with twins who were 2 when we moved in, we just kind of dealt with it…hoping one of our dads would fix it when he came over. Finally, the door to one of our powder rooms literally came off the hinges. And what did we do? We left it there. I mean, kids who are potty training don’t need to close the door. It’s kind of at the end of a hallway so even the “responsible” parents just dealt. It’s when my SIL decided she needed to close the door that her troubles began….
Fortunately, no one was injured and now our door is fixed. I called a handy man out to do all the doors. Of course, I didn’t survey the work and it turns out he did pretty much the same thing. Seriously, if you want it done right you’ve just gotta do it yourself.
BTW….loving your diaper rinsing do-hickie. Wish we would’ve had that.
Dana @ House*Tweaking says
That’s hilarious! But I know what you mean about nipping lil’ things in the bud. I recently cleaned our two-story foyer window on a ladder FOR THE FIRST TIME since we’ve lived in our home…over 2 years. Yikes! I could see it from our loft every day – all smeared and cobwebby with dead bugs lying in the sill. I finally busted out the ladder and wiped it down with vinegar/water. While I was up there, I saved an elastic hair band that my son had thrown into the foyer light *slingshot style* months ago. Nothing like killing 2 birds with one stone.
Bridget B. says
Once again you guys read my mind. Our hall bath door has this same problem and it’s always slightly embarrassing when guests get “trapped” in there.
The closest thing we had found to a fix was-get this- waxing the top edge with a bar of soap. It works, but only temporarily.
I’ll have to give the sanding a try.
Janice says
That’s exactly what’s going on with one of the bedroom doors in my home. Why didn’t I think to sand it?! Thanks for giving me an “Ah-ha!” moment.
Jannell says
@ Courtney with the sticking metal door.
You can adjust the frame a little. If it was a “pre-hung” metal door (most likely), then it came with a wood frame around it and the hinges attached to it. Chances are the frame was screwed into place in the rough framed opening. If you push back the weather stripping you’re bound to find the screws.
First check around the door to see if the sides, top & bottom are level. If you’re lucky, you might just have to ease up or tighten a few of the screws under the weather stripping. More labor intensive would be pulling the trim off and adding shims around the door to level it up.
Are there any noticeable water issues? Perhaps the door frame itself is swelling. If it was installed with too tight of a fit this could happen.
And worst case would be that it’s sticking from too much weight coming down on it from above because the header is undersized. I doubt this would be the case, unless there are windows or other doors next to it- then maybe the span would be to wide for the header. Try to really pay attention to where the door is sticking in the frame and what is not level/plumb.
And as Celestte said above, you could always lightly sand the door jamb where it is sticking so long as it isn’t too bad- you don’t want to end up with a gap!
Best of luck!
Erin says
YES! When I was a little girl, I used to have to go to NY for one week in August (for visitation). On one such visit, I was sent to take a bath and remained STUCK in the bathroom for 3 hours. The heat of the bath combined with the miserable heat and humidity of NY in August combined to swell that door but good! I’ve always wondered why they lived that way, but I’ve never met anyone else who understood first hand my experience. Thanks so much for sharing…
Michelle Kersey says
my son’s bedroom door does the EXACT same thing! Drives me nuts when I’m trying to close the door quietly… hmmm, might be time to break out the hand sander! I’ve been thinking I would have to re-align the door.
Louise says
I remember as a child getting trapped in the toilet, the lock broken, Dad had to take the door off the hinges. I’ve been trapped in a lift for an hour and a half, just after I had returned from a long haul overseas trip (Europe to Australia) and I had a cold – now that was really awful!
Beth says
This just happened to me this morning!! I thought I was just not turning the handle right!
jamo says
do you find that your marble bathroom tiles are really slippery? how do/did you deal with that – other than rugs? has it been a noticeable issue? i bought a tile very similar to yours and was wondering what your opinion was now that you’ve lived with them a while. thanks
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jamo,
Thankfully we’ve had no issue with our tiles being slippery since the room is very small (so it’s not like we ever have a running start) and we step out of the tub onto a bath mat to dry our feet. If we did have an issue we have heard that there are etching creams at tile shops that you can use on the tile to give it some grip so that was going to be the plan but we haven’t had a problem so we’ve kept it as-is. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Erica says
The hydraulic closer on our back screen door became stuck in the open position when we were moving some furniture in to our house. We just popped it off the door but put up with the door hanging open and banging against the porch while we were away on particularly windy days. We thought we’d fix it and we just didn’t. Then one day we were at Ace Hardware and decided it was time to stop the nonsense and fix the door. To fix it was so inexpensive and putting the new closer on the door took about five minutes.
Heather says
My brother moved into a new apartment in January. He moved in before his roommate and since it was a new building, not a lot of his neighbors had moved in yet. He went to the bathroom in the morning and closed the door and wound up getting locked in. He screamed and yelled but no one could hear him. He had to kick a hole through the door and crawl out the hole. The door was shredded! He was so nervous and scared. I felt so bad!
SK says
I have the opposite problem. In the winter, our bathroom door doesn’t stay closed. Any solutions?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey SK,
It sounds like you might have a problem with the latch lining up? That’s something you can hopefully adjust to keep the door shut. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Alex Johnson says
Oh my gosh! I just found your blog a few weeks ago (my husband and I currently have an offer in on a fixer upper and found you on a google search for home improvement ideas)and can’t believe this post! We have been dealing with a sticky bathroom door in our current house for months! Then Sunday night, when my husband was gone, the kids and I got stuck in the bathroom and it almost sent me over the edge. When I left for work on Monday morning, the last thing I said to hubby was “If that bathroom door doesn’t get fixed, you can find me at the Marriott!”. Hubby looked puzzled and said he wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted him to do about it. My response? “Fix it. There is a solution to every problem, and this is no exception”. And off to work I went……only to pull up your blog and find the post that saved my sanity!!! I sent hubby the link and when I got home at 5:00, the bathroom door had been sanded and painted and it was all love and rainbows in my house again!! Thank you!!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome! So glad to hear that you didn’t have to run off to the Marriott!
xo,
s
Megan says
We did the same thing on our bathroom door…the house we’re renting wasn’t able to shut completely…the guests always felt a bit uneasy about that :) so we fixed it up the same way you did :)
Milady Griffin says
We totally just fixed this problem the night before I read this post! But now, it’s getting stuck again, and I think it may have to do with the recent rise in humidity. Are you guys having any more problems? Maybe we just need to sand it down more. How much did you sand off?
YoungHouseLove says
Did you prime and paint the part you sanded to keep it from expanding again? That seems to be the key- ours still works really well and we only sanded it down a smidge. Hope it helps!
xo,
s