Question for handyman(or woman)

[smitity]

So I've got a problem at my apartment/duplex.

There's a leak above our front door, right in the doorway area. So every time it rains the wood of the door or doorway swells, making the door a pain to close. We've told the landlord about the problem, and the leak itself should be fixed in the next week or so.

Now after about a few straight days of rain it has swollen to the point where we have trouble shutting the door at all. It looks like next week will have several more days of rain too. So obviously, I'm looking for some kind of remedy for the swollen door until the leak can be fixed.

So far I can only think of two things, one is to sand down the swollen wood on the door and/or doorway. It looks like there are a couple areas in particular where the door and doorway are hitting I could target. The other idea is to find a way to speed up the drying of the door/doorway. I'm not really sure how to do the latter, we have a couple fan-based space heaters the blow warm air, but I suspect that would take forever and not work very well.

Has anyone else encountered this before? Are they any other options for getting the door to shut? Do either of my ideas sound reasonable, or am I just a nerdy scientist with no real handy-skills?

Any and all help will be appreciated.

[SUSkinsFan]

I'm not sure about drying the door (using a hair-dryer or some kind of space heater may work), but to keep the leak from getting worse I would recommend some silicone that you get from the hardware store to put a temporary plug in place until the landlord fixes the problem.

[33]

You will probably have trouble speeding up the drying process. I don't think I would recommend you sand the door yourself if you've got no experience with that sort of thing.

Stopping the leak might be the easiest solution depending on the leak itself. Any clue where the leak is coming from? You say it's an apartment, what floor? What's above you? Can you see the leak?

[smitity]

It's actually a duplex. The leak looks like its right at the top of the doorway. Where the top of the door is, but it looks like some of the swelling is at the side of the door too.

The landlord suspects its a shingle busted. We've had some issues w/ large branches hitting the roof from on old tree out front, he actually had to get a forklift to remove the branches a few months ago. So that part of the roof may have been damaged without him noticing at the time.

Using the silicone to keep the leak from getting worse may be the way to go. Maybe that'll allow the door to dry and de-swell over the next few days.

[81artmonk]

Quick fix for now would be to sand down the high points of the door which are preventing it from closing.

[THEREALTOR1]

Get some long 3" or 4" deck screws and screw the top of the door jamb into the header above. As long as they bite, it should pull the jamb up at least 1/8" or so I would think. It's temporary until the leak gets fixed, but it's a possible solution for the moment.

[redskinmickey]

if you sand the door, what happens when the wood dries? It shrinks back and now you have a new leak because your door no longer seals properly.

Shut the door, then set up the fans to blow across the door, i will speed the drying process faster than you think. Go to home depot and buy a $10 blue tarp and secure it to the roof above the door. this should deflect the majority of the rain until it can be repaired properly. Good luck.

[THEREALTOR1]

Just had another idea, depending on how tight the jamb/door are sticking, if you just need a little bit of play, you could loosen the screws on the hinges to get you some play in the door. Again just temp., but if it's gonna get fixed soon, no big deal.