alex_nguyen•1mo agoProlific Poster

Pro tip: stop using the wrong size shim on door hangers

I've been on three callbacks this month for doors that keep sticking or banging, and every single time, the last guy used a 1/8 inch shim when they needed a 3/32. It's a tiny difference, but it throws the whole alignment off. The door guide rollers wear down faster, you get that awful grinding noise, and the customer complains about the ride. I learned this the hard way on a job in Tacoma about two years back, spent a whole Saturday redoing a bank of six doors. The extra quarter inch of play matters more than people think. What's your go-to method for checking door hanger alignment before you call it done?

3 comments

3 Comments

danielmason1mo ago

You really think a 1/32 difference is the main culprit? I've seen doors run fine with a mix of shims if the track is leveled right first. Most of my callbacks are from guys who skip the laser and just eyeball the plumb. Had one last week where the whole header was out by almost half an inch, no shim was gonna fix that. What leveling tool do you trust before you even reach for a shim?

valw361mo ago

Half an inch in the header? That's not a shim job, that's a framing problem. No wonder you're getting callbacks. I'd trust a 4-foot level on the track itself before anything else, but a laser's the only way to really catch that kind of mess from the start.

william_jackson6512d ago

Tacoma job taught me that too. Laser every time now, no exceptions.