Many homeowners prefer to use products made from wood in their homes, preferring the natural beauty of wood to the harshness of metal and plastic. This choice though is not without its problems though and when doors and drawers are made from wood there is always the possibility that they will stick. In most cases though, it is easy enough to fix doors and drawers that stick.

There is one thing to remember when wood is used for drawers and doors, and that is that wood doesn't stay the same size and shape all of the time. Wood expands and contracts to varying degrees dependent upon the temperature and humidity of its surroundings. Thus it is easy to see how doors and drawers could stick when the wood expands.

-How to fix doors that stick

Doors tend to stick due to one of two eventualities. Either the door has dropped or else the door or door frame has expanded. The easiest test of a door to find out where it is sticking is to take a coin and run it around the door in the gap between door and door frame. A dropped door is normally indicated by the coin not moving along the top corner of the door. Assuming that the door fitted perfectly when it was originally hung, then a dropped door can simply be fixed by tightening up the screws that hold the hinges in place.

In the event that the door has not dropped, then the coin test will also show where the door is sticking. Once high points have been located it is then a case of getting hold of some medium grit sandpaper and start to sand the wood away. This though needs to be a careful undertaking, and the door will need to be tested continually to find out when enough wood has been sanded away. There is a danger that too much sanding could lead to a draught if the door contracts during a cooler period of weather.

-How to fix drawers that stick

Wooden drawers are as likely to stick as doors are, although it may not be a case of expanding wood. Careful examination of the drawers needs to take place before any rectifying work is undertaken. It is not uncommon for drawers or sliders to break, and come apart from their fixings. Any screws or nails that are not flush with the drawers will often cause drawers to stick. These kinds of problems though are easily fixed with the use of a screwdriver or hammer.

If there is no obvious obstruction causing a drawer to stick then it might require the use of sandpaper just as the door may have done. Drawers though run far easier with the use of a lubricant and drawers runners should have something similar to paraffin wax, beeswax or common soap rubbed on them. The use of lubricant in many cases will be enough to stop a drawer from sticking.

Fixing doors and drawers that stick is something that everyone should be able to do. There is no real technical skill needed to fix either problem, once the cause of the fault has been discovered. In most cases the sticking doors and drawers can be fixed with the use of a screwdriver, sandpaper and lubricant.

Learn more about this author, Tim Harry.
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