I looked at a job yesterday with the following conditions: 4-yr. old 3080x1-3/4" multi-panel Honduran Mahogany entry door w/ 2080 sidelights (beveled glass, 1-lite), matching sill, casings (int. & ext.) and rabbeted jambs; 2 pr. 5x5 butts; Baldwin mortise lockset; Pemko rubber door bottom; tile interior floor; concrete exterior surface; plaster walls/ceiling in & out; nice, even reveals all around; the top edge of the door is unfinished. The problem is that the latch stile is warped to the interior 1/2" proud of the jamb at the top. This warpage is consistant over the full length of the stile when sighted with the door open, but the deadbolt can be operated if moderate closing pressure is maintained. Once the door is closed, it looks good from the floor to the lockset, but from there to the top goes from zero to 1/2" sticking in. It seems to me that this amount of warpage cannot be hidden by adjusting the butts in at the bottom without creating a new eyesore and draft. Tweaking the frame is possible but difficult, as it is a wall-to-wall, floor to ceiling install with a near-flush "accessible" sill locked in by hard surfaces, so that I would have do all frame twisting from the top . I guess that only leaves hardware options? Probably a triple-lock type of hardware should have been installed originally, along with proper finishing on all 6 sides/edges incl. behind the butts and lockset. Anyway, if I install a triple-lock system now, I will need to be on a ladder pushing the top corner in while operating the lever with my foot to get the door latched. If that is done, will the door get a new memory over time? How about if once it is closed, I tell the HO not to open the door until I come back in Summer '05 to apply finish to the top, having allowed the door's moisture content to have gone high, then low, all in the proper alignment? Or does the door need to be taken past straight somehow (steamed, clamped bowed the other way, or ...) in order to get rid of the warpage? I apologize for going on so long. I would appreciate any suggestions.
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