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

[ray1970]

Can't imagine enough wear to creat those gaps - there would be piles of metal dust on the floor from four hinges grinding that much metal away.

Yep. I have some worn hinges on the door between the garage and the house. You will definitely see material on the floor below the hinges when the gaps start growing.

[Brian]

OK great - thanks everybody for all the info so far. Sounds like I may have an option here I can deal with. So I need to pick out some new hinges - sounds like regardless of what I had, that the ball bearing heavy duty hinges are the way to go at this point...

When it comes to replacing them, I'm assuming I do it with the door open of course but need to shim/lift the door back into the proper height and do one hinge at a time - ideally replacing as is, but filling in holes as needed and/or using thicker screws if they're loose (I don't think I'll be able to use longer screws due to the close sidelights).
Given the door will need to be at least partially open and stay level, any pro tips? Or do I just use a crowbar as leverage to lift it up and jam some wood shims in there to hold it in place as best I can at the right height? Am I overthinking it to wonder whether I should replace the top hinge or bottom first?

[00tec]

I would:
Pull all of the pins on the existing hinges and set door aside.
Remove hinge plates from door and frame
Pull pins on new hinges and separate them
Install hinge plates on door and frame (keeping like-for-like on the door vs the frame if your OCD is going to go off)
Lift door into place and have a helper drop the pins in.
Done

[def90]

I work on houses and commercial buildings doing access control systems among other things. Even in houses that are over 100 years old I have never seen a hinge with gaps from wear. Those hinges had bearings or spacers in them at one time that were not put back in.

As for replacing the current hinges, buy hinges that are the same size with the same hole pattern. Take the door off, remove all the hinge plates and install the new hinge plates. Put the door back on.

[ray1970]

Even in houses that are over 100 years old I have never seen a hinge with gaps from wear.

My house isn?t anywhere near a hundred years old but I might post up a couple of pictures of my worn door hinges. The door in question probably gets opened and closed eight to ten times a day. Probably nearly double that number when the kids were still living with us. Twenty five years in the house and it wasn?t new when we moved in. Just since we?ve been there the door has probably opened and closed over 90,000 times.

Sheesh. I guess maybe I should get some new hinges soon. Still opens and closes decently though.

[Brian]

For what it's worth, I don't have another exterior door to compare to (other than the garage doors which have auto-close hinges) but it looks like most of the interior doors have bearings on them. So maybe the painters removed the door at some point to paint the trim and didn't put it back together right. That would made sense with the timing...

[Gman]

I would:
Pull all of the pins on the existing hinges and set door aside.
Remove hinge plates from door and frame
Pull pins on new hinges and separate them
Install hinge plates on door and frame (keeping like-for-like on the door vs the frame if your OCD is going to go off)
Lift door into place and have a helper drop the pins in.
Done

+1

Worn or not, they're not right. Replace the hinges.

[Irving]

Seems simple, but make sure you look at the hinge shape before you order so you don't end up with square corners trying to fit into rounded corners.

[00tec]

Seems simple, but make sure you look at the hinge shape before you order so you don't end up with square corners trying to fit into rounded corners.

Shit, take one off and take it to the depot with you. Doubt its gonna get worse.

[Gman]

Shit, take one off and take it to the depot with you. Doubt its gonna get worse.

In that case, I'd take off one in the middle.