Your door sticks. It’s annoying. Every time the humidity spikes in the summer, you have to do that weird hip-shoulder shove just to get the bathroom door to latch, and honestly, it’s a miracle the hinges haven't ripped out of the jamb yet. Wood is a living thing, basically. It breathes. It expands when the air is thick with moisture and shrinks when the heater kicks on in January. When your house settles—and they all do—those perfectly rectangular frames become slightly trapezoidal, and suddenly, you’re looking at a door that’s a quarter-inch too wide for its home.
Learning how to plane a door isn't just about shaving off wood; it’s about knowing where to stop. If you go at it blindly with a block plane, you’re going to end up with a door that looks like it was chewed on by a beaver. You need a plan.
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Why Your Door Is Sticking (It Might Not Be the Wood)
Before you go ripping the door off its hinges, look at the screws. Seriously. Open the door and check the top hinge. Most of the time, the weight of the door pulls on those top screws over the decades, and they start to sag. If the gap at the top (on the handle side) is tighter than the gap at the bottom, your hinges are the culprit, not the wood. Try tightening those screws first. If they just spin because the holes are stripped, shove some toothpicks and wood glue in there, let it dry, and then re-drive the screws.
If the hinges are tight and the door is still rubbing against the jamb, look for the shiny spots. You can see where the paint has buffed off or where the wood is burnished. That’s your target. If you can’t see them, take a piece of chalk and rub it along the edge of the door. Close it, open it, and see where the chalk transferred to the frame. That is exactly where you need to work.
Tools You’ll Actually Need
You don’t need a massive workshop for this, but you do need the right edge. A dull blade is your worst enemy here. It’ll tear the grain and leave you with a mess that requires hours of sanding.
- A Hand Plane: A No. 4 bench plane is the gold standard for this, but a smaller block plane works if you’re just hitting a small "high spot."
- Electric Power Plane: If you have to take off more than an eighth of an inch, these are a godsend. They are loud, messy, and can ruin a door in three seconds if you aren't careful.
- Savers or Sawhorses: Don't try to plane a door while it’s hanging. Just don't.
- Wood Chisel: For the corners or near the hinge mortises.
- Pencil: For marking your "stop" lines.
The Art of Taking It Off the Hinges
Pop the pins. Use a hammer and a nail set (or even a thick screwdriver) to tap the hinge pins up from the bottom. If they’re stuck, a little WD-40 or 3-in-1 oil helps. Once the pins are out, the door is heavy. Be ready for it. Lean it against a wall on a piece of cardboard so you don't scratch the floor.
Now, lay it across your sawhorses. Most people skip the next part, but it’s the most important: Mark your lines. If you need to shave 2mm off the latch side, draw a crisp line with a pencil and a straight edge. This gives your eyes a "fail-safe" so you don't plane the door into a wedge shape.
How to Plane a Door Without Splintering the Ends
When you’re using a hand plane, the grain matters. Wood grain is like the fur on a dog; if you pet it the wrong way, it gets prickly. If the plane feels like it's "hopping" or digging in, turn around and go the other way.
Here is the secret that pro carpenters like Tom Silva from This Old House always emphasize: The "End Grain" Trap. If you run your plane right off the edge of the door, the wood will blow out and splinter. It’s called spelching. To avoid this, always plane from the outside corners toward the middle of the door. Work from the top corner inward, then from the bottom corner inward. Never, ever sweep the plane off the end of the door unless you’ve clamped a "sacrificial" piece of scrap wood to the end to catch the splintering.
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The Bevel Technique
Doors aren't actually perfectly square on the edges. If you look closely at a well-hung door, the leading edge (the side with the handle) is usually cut at a slight angle—maybe 2 or 3 degrees. This is called a "leading edge bevel." It allows the door to swing past the jamb without catching. When you are learning how to plane a door, try to maintain or recreate this bevel. The "long" side of the door should be the side that faces you when the door is closed.
Dealing With the Bottom of the Door
If you just installed new, plush carpet and the door is dragging, you’ve got a different beast. You probably need to take off half an inch or more. A hand plane will take you all day. This is where a circular saw or an electric planer comes in.
If you use a circular saw, wrap the base of the saw in painter's tape so it doesn't scratch the door's finish. Clamp a straight-edge guide to the door so your cut is perfectly straight. If it’s a hollow-core door—the cheap ones in most modern apartments—be careful. They only have about an inch of solid wood at the bottom. If you cut off two inches, you’ll see the hollow "honeycomb" inside. If that happens, you’ll have to scrape out the cardboard, find the block of wood you just cut off, and glue it back into the hollow space to seal it.
Sanding and Sealing: The Forgotten Step
Once the door fits—and you should test-fit it at least twice before you call it done—the wood is raw. Raw wood is a sponge. If you leave it unpainted or unsealed, it will suck up the first bit of humidity it finds and swell right back to where it was.
Sand the edge with 120-grit sandpaper, then move to 220-grit. It should feel smooth, not fuzzy. Then, hit it with a coat of primer or sealer. Even if nobody sees the bottom or top of the door, paint it. That seal is what keeps the door stable for the next decade.
Practical Next Steps for Success
To get this right on your first try, start with these specific actions:
- Check the hinge screws first: Tighten them or replace them with 3-inch screws that reach all the way into the wall framing. This fixes 50% of sticking doors without any wood removal.
- Chalk the edges: Identify the exact points of contact so you aren't guessing where to plane.
- Check for hollow cores: Knock on the door. If it sounds like a drum, it's hollow. Be extremely conservative with how much wood you remove from the top or bottom.
- Plane toward the center: Always work from the edges toward the middle to prevent the wood from splitting at the corners.
- Seal the raw wood: Immediately apply a finish or paint to the shaved area to prevent moisture from causing the door to swell again.
If you follow these steps, you’ll have a door that closes with a satisfying "click" rather than a frustrating "thump." It’s one of those DIY tasks that feels intimidating but actually just requires a sharp blade and a little bit of patience._