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…
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Comments
@ 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!
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…
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.
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!
This just happened to me this morning!! I thought I was just not turning the handle right!
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
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.
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
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!
I have the opposite problem. In the winter, our bathroom door doesn’t stay closed. Any solutions?
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
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!!
That’s awesome! So glad to hear that you didn’t have to run off to the Marriott!
xo,
s
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 :)
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?
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
Another even easier solution…run a wax candle over the edges. At my house, part of the humidity/sticking problem is actually the latex paint which never truly cures the way oil paint does. For me it was my front door sticking…had to shoulder shove the door open. Started to use a sander…got lazy and just took a tealight that had been used and ran it all over the top edge and the front of the door that actually touches the door jamb. Its been 4 years and no more sticking.
Hey Sherry and John! I totally know what you mean about putting off the little things on your “To Do” list. For me, it’s cleaning the sink. For some reason, I hate to clean it even though it only takes a couple of minutes. It’s so silly…
This post made me think of John the most though. I’ll explain… There are so many women (and men I’m sure – I just know more women in this particular situation) out there that would love to tackle this project or that or have ideas about keeping things neat and tidy but have no backing from their spouse or significant other. I just want to commend you on being willing to work too to make your beautiful home what it is today. You and Sherry really are a great team who really does work together to get things done and it shows. I just wanted to thank you for reminding your readers that it’s not just one person’s responsibility to make a house a home. I’m really excited that you’ve come on board to be a full-time blogger on top of your full-time dad duties. You both are truly an amazing couple (with an incredibly cute little Clara and Burger, of course) and an inspiration in so many ways to your readers.
Hey Laura,
Thanks so much for the kind words! I’m blushing over here.
-John
That is so funny you mention this because we had the exact same problem with our bedroom door at our place. The people before us, just kept the door shut at all times and snuck out the door in the closet. Kind of a pain, so I told my husband to sand down the top of the door and it worked like a charm. I just keep thinking of the poor renters before us who lived with a stuck door for three years!
Oh, you wanna hear about trapped in a bathroom? My jr. year of high school my friend had a sleepover graduation party. In the morning, I went to the bathroom and locked the door and couldn’t get out! I tried everything and it wasn’t opening! The bath was in the back away from where the guests were so I had to shout until someone finally heard me and came looking. My friend got her parents (who I had never met before) and her dad eventually had to take the door off the hinges to get me out! So embarrassing!
Thanks so much for this wonderful tip! We had the same problem with the door to our master bedroom. It would stick and make an awful noise when you opened it. We’re expecting a baby in two months, so it was important that we have easy access and a quiet door! So I whipped out the hand sander today and went at it – it worked beautifully! Thanks so much!
I know I’m very late returning to this party, but thank you, Lynn! I’m going to try that.
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.