A quick-fix to doors that rub

You may often find when doing interior paint jobs that bedroom and bathroom doors will rub on the carpet when opening and closing. If this is the case, fixing these problems will improve air-flow in the house (keeping doors from closing at one end of the house when another is opened elsewhere) and remove unnecessary wear and tear on the carpet or the customer’s freshly painted doors.

To shorten doors quickly and cleanly, PaintPRO offers the following tip:
While doors are still in place, take a small piece of 1⁄2" inch plywood and lay it flat on the carpet against the door. With a pencil, mark the door at the edge of your piece of plywood.

Now remove the door and lay it flat on sawhorses which have been padded with a couple of clean drop cloths. With a straight edge (drywall square), draw a straight line across the door on both sides where you earlier made your mark. Be sure that your line is marked at the same height on both sides.

Now, with a new blade in place, use a utility knife to score the lines on the door. This will help to prevent any splintering of the end-grain when you make your cut with a hand or power saw. (As shown in the last issue, the cordless skill saw/drill combo pack from Hitachi proved to be a handy tool for the job)

Next, using a quality tape on your masking machine, mask up to the line on one side so your saw can glide across the door without scratching or making marks on the surface.

To complete the job, use your hand or power saw to cut a straight line across the door, just below the line you had scored with the utility knife. If you don’t use hand saws often, you may consider clamping a straight edge to the door so your saw is guided along a straight path.

With the doors now opening and closing without any obstruction, your customers will love you not only for your quality painting services but for your ability to fix other painting-related problems as well.