How to Fix a Door That Sticks

After repairing the hinge, Tom sees that the door is still too big to close smoothly; he has no choice but to plane it to fit. To avoid disassembling the doorknob, he'll take the excess off the hinge side.

First he removes the hinges so he can chisel their mortises ⅛ inch deeper—the same amount he will plane from the door's edge. Holding a ¾-inch chisel vertically in the mortise, he hammers a dozen or so parallel ⅛-inch-deep cuts across the width of the mortise and one long cut against its inside edge. Then he leans his weight on the chisel—bevel side up—and rocks it gently back and forth, plowing out the chips of wood. He repeats the process on the other mortise.