Every August we get the same call. A door that closed fine in May now has to be shoved, or it catches at the top corner, or it will not latch without a lift. The homeowner has read something frightening on the internet and wants to know how bad it is.
Usually the answer is: not bad. Sometimes it is the first honest warning a house gives you. The difference is easy to check, and you do not need us to do it.
Why late summer is when you notice it
North Texas sits on expansive clay. It swells when it takes on water and shrinks when it dries out, and the shrinking is the part that moves houses. By late July the clay under a Dallas home has been baking for weeks. It pulls back from the slab edge, and the corner of the house that sits over the driest ground drops slightly.
Slightly is all it takes. A door frame only needs to go out of square by a few millimetres before the door binds.
A sticking door on its own is usually not a foundation problem
Doors stick for boring reasons far more often than structural ones:
- Humidity. Wood doors swell in damp air and shrink again in winter. If it sticks every summer and frees up every autumn, that is the wood, not the house.
- Hinges. Screws work loose over years and the door drops on its hinge side. Tighten them and see what happens.
- Paint. A few too many coats on the jamb will close a gap that was never generous to begin with.
- Weatherstripping that has swollen or come unstuck.
Rule those out first. It costs you ten minutes and a screwdriver.
The signs that change the picture
One stubborn door is a door. Several of these together is a house telling you something:
- More than one door sticking, especially on the same side of the house.
- The gap around the door is uneven — wider at the top than the bottom, or tapering along one edge.
- Cracks above the door frame running up toward the ceiling, particularly at a corner.
- Stair-step cracks in the brick outside, usually near a window or a corner.
- Floors that slope or bounce in the same part of the house.
- Gaps opening at the baseboards where the trim has pulled away from the wall.
Two or three of those in the same area is worth a look. One on its own is not an emergency.
How to check it yourself in ten minutes
Three checks, no tools beyond what is in a kitchen drawer.
The gap test. Close the door and look at the line where it meets the frame. A door that is binding from humidity has an even gap. A door in a frame that has racked out of square has a gap that is visibly wider at one end than the other.
The ball test. Put a marble or a round pencil on the floor in the middle of the room and let go. A floor that has dropped will move it consistently in the same direction. Do it in a few rooms and see whether they all point the same way.
The crack walk. Walk the outside of the house and look at the brick, especially around windows and at corners. Hairline vertical cracks in mortar are ordinary. Diagonal cracks that step along the mortar joints are the ones that matter.
What it costs to find out
Nothing. We come out, measure floor elevations across the house, and tell you plainly whether anything has moved and by how much. Plenty of Dallas homes we look at do not need work, and we say so.
If something has moved, you get a written plan and a fixed price before anyone starts. Foundation work is not the cheapest thing you will buy for your house, and we would rather you spend nothing than spend it on a problem you do not have.
What we would actually do about it
It depends what the measurements show.
If a section of the house has settled, that is house leveling — lifting the low side back to where it belongs and holding it there on piers set to soil that does not move with the weather. If the slab has moved more broadly, it is foundation repair. If your house sits on pier and beam, the fix is usually underneath rather than outside.
And often the real answer is drainage. If the soil around your house swings between soaked and bone dry every year, the movement will come back no matter what you do structurally. That is what foundation waterproofing is for, and it costs a fraction of the alternative.
The short version
A single sticking door in August is almost always humidity or a hinge. Several sticking doors, uneven gaps, and cracks stepping through the brick are a different conversation. Do the three checks. If two or more point the same way, call us and we will come measure it for free.
Common questions
Should I worry about one sticking door?
Usually not. Check the hinges and see whether it frees up when the weather cools. A single door that sticks every summer and works fine every winter is the wood moving, not the house.
Why does it happen in August and not in spring?
North Texas clay shrinks as it dries out. By late summer the soil under one part of the house has lost the most volume, that corner drops slightly, and the door frame goes out of square.
Can I just plane the door to fit?
You can, and plenty of people do. Just be aware that if the frame moved because the house moved, the door will be loose again after the next wet season and you will have taken wood off it for nothing.
How much does an inspection cost?
Nothing. We measure floor elevations across the whole house and tell you plainly whether anything has actually moved.
