Tips from the Handy Man by Paul Foti

The North Jefferson News



It’s that time of year again when we all get spring fever and want to spruce up around the yard, house, garage or whatever.

It seems that those long winter months are hopefully over and we are ready to get started on some of those projects that we have been putting off. If you are like me, your list is much longer than you care to admit.

Here is one solution to a problem that many of us have around the home. Do you have a door that doesn’t stay shut when you close it?

From my experience over the years many of us have at least one door like this is at our house. It’s a common problem that can occur just as easily in new homes as well as old ones.

The problem usually exists because the door has settled over time. The latch on the door no longer lines up with the hole in the striker plate located on the door jamb.

If you slowly close the door, you can see that the latch or tumbler is usually lower than the corresponding hole that it is trying to line up with. Common sense would tell us to just lower the striker plate.

However, this could present more problems like removing wood, having screws to install, no wood present to hold them and the dreaded touch-up painting that would be required.

The solution is simple — all we need to do is to remove a little metal from the striker plate. This can be accomplished in a number of different ways.

• First, you could use a file and some old fashion elbow grease.

• Secondly, you might use a drill with a rotary file attached.

• My favorite would be to use a tool like a Dremmel or cut-off tool to slowly remove the unwanted metal.

It usually takes longer to assemble all the tools and clean up afterwards than the time spent doing the actual job. Just remember that if you choose to use one of the power tools be sure to wear your safety glasses.

Here is wishing you much luck on whatever job that is on top of your to-do list this spring.

Paul Foti is the owner and operator of Handy Man Services in Corner. He can be reached at 837-8830.