six Panel door and humidity
 

Looking for advice -
A few of my indoor six panel doors have been getting sticky with all of the humidity this year. They are 15 years old and never had this problem.

We do not have air condition and keep the windows open to cool the house.

I have tried to "clamp" them to see if that would work, but the the problem continues.

One door eventually split in half. See picture.

Any tips on how to fix?

Thank you!

From the picture, my first thought is that the panels on the hinged side were a bit too wide and set too deeply into the groove on the edge board. With swelling from humidity, they may have pushed against the board and popped the connections to the rest of the frame. I wonder if you can rout deeper grooves in the edge board or trim the tongue on the panels.

This looks like a door construction problem, as opposed to a installation problem.
I suspect that the panels are slightly too wide and / or the groove is too shallow.
It will be easier to hand plane the edges of the panels to create more space in the groove.
I also see that the panels were not pre-stained before assembly.
It should be glued with UniBond-800 or epoxy, and then clamped.
If you need help with this you can PM me. I live in Meredith.

Regards,

Phil

Try doors made of quarter sawn lumber, much more stable than flat saw. Perhaps clear vertical grain Fir too.


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Try Phil Swift's product; Flex Seal

It can be used on wood products and can deal with humidity issues.

Just a thought to give it a try.

I dont see any glue dowels holding the stiles(verticals) to the rails (horizontals).
If they are not there you have inferior doors probably from overseas (2 dowels in top,2 in middle,3 in bottom rail is what you should see). The only way to correct the problem would be to drill and install glue dowels (difficult at this point) Or drill first on the edge, use long screws in place of the glue dowels and wood glue on the stiles and rails ONLY. Then use wood plugs ti hide the holes in the edge. Do NOT glue the panels to the stiles and rails. The panels are meant to float (move around in the groove) to accommodate expansion and contraction due to moisture (humidity in summer, dry in winter). If you glue them they will split. The best 6 panel doors used to be made by Morgan door company in Osh Kosh. Years ago I visited their plant, plus 30 years selling building materials, selling millwork, and running my own woodworking shop is where my experience on this matter comes from. Morgan was bought out and is no longer in business. The time frame you bought your doors the door market was flooded with inexpensive foriegn made doors and still is although the quality now might be slightly better.
Good luck with the repair, hope this info helped.
PS: I would be looking for an old woodworker who needs a project to repair this door and I would use the long screws method (I've done it before) !
Bill

I had some of my 6 panel pine doors starting to spread apart. I took them off, stood them on edge and hammered them back together with a 2x4 block and hammer. I got log 3 1/2" finish screws and locked the frame together with them. Then wood putty over the screw holes. Haven't had a problem since, that was 5 years ago.

That was my first thought: no dowels?? I used to use this Stanley #59 doweling jig for centering dowels and getting them straight: https://www.ebay.com/itm/14418081489...EAAOSwRiJhJTAv

Here's the modern equivalent available at Home Depot in Tilton: https://www.homedepot.com/p/General-...-841/100659787

Thank you for all of the advice. I applied Elmers Wood Glue and clamped the door for a couple of days before hanging it back up.

Lets see if it lasts with normal usage.