Repairing Cracked Door Jamb - Not Too Bad

AbSoluTc

New here - so first off HELLO! You all seem like a nice bunch of people so I decided to sign up.

We are having quite a bit of work done on our house (built in the late 60's early 70's). Anyways - we are on our second contractor - first one ran off with the money and never finished. Now, our second contractor (the owner of the company) has been "out" for three weeks and we don't plan on him ever showing back up. Long story short - we were ripped off - yet again. So I am now taking matters into my own hands since things have been going on for two years now - yes 2 years. Thankfully MOST of the work is complete, but there are things that still need to be finished.

Sorry, got off track..

I have a door jamb original to the house and seeing as how these guys install doors nice and crappy - I am not going to have them replace the entire jamb as we initially wanted. We even bought a new solid, pre hung door. Unfortunately Lowes got it wrong and the jamb is only 4.5" and our current one is 5 1/4" or whatever it's called. 5.5" ? I don't know the terms. It is going back.

The only major issues with the jamb are as follows:

- Part of jamb was eaten by our puppy many years ago. Simple fix would be to fill it with wood putty and sand it down and replace the trim. It's painted so no issues there.

- Biggest issue is the top hinge (1 of 3). About 1.5" above and below has cracked. This causes the door to sag a bit when opened.


So, what should be my method of attack? I was thinking of removing the trim over the cracked hinge and see if I could drive some screws in or nails to secure it back up. Or drive some much longer screws in through the hinge and that will remove the pressure off the door jamb and drive right on in to the stud behind it. Using 2" screws or less now.

Also, I read that gluing some match sticks or dowel pieces in the holes will resolve loose screw issues? I might do that for the door latch.

Lastly, what are the best screws for doing the door hinge job? I have tried the brass screws and always wind up more times than not, twisting the head off.

Thank you all for the advice and assistance.

PSHome

I wrote an article on installing a prehung door at http://www.pshomehelp.com/2008/01/22...re-hung-doors/ in that article i wrote that it is a good idea to remove one of the hinge screws and install a longer screw in there to hold the door up better because it goes into the jamb but it also goes into the king stud in the wall for more support. that could be something that you could possible do.

AbSoluTc

I am going to try that. Any suggestions on what screws though? We have some REALLY tough wood. I think the trees back then were stronger or something because again - our wood in these door jambs is TOUGH!

PSHome

you going to want to use a screw that is the same color then the other so it doesnt look odd in the door jamb for the type of doesnt matter they will all go into the wood. IF you are going to go from the jamb into the king stub you are going to want to drill a pilot hole so that the screw is flush with the jamb when screwed in.or make the hole a little deeper so that you can putty over it. if the wood is reall har then drill a hole a little bit smaller then the screw that you are going to use.. Sorry this post is allover the place its late where im at and i just notice you post and replied to it