Heard a guy at the supply house say door hangers are overrated

I was grabbing some rail lubricant at the local supply house near Akron last Tuesday and overheard this older mechanic telling a trainee that door hanger adjustments are basically a waste of time if you haven't checked the sill first. He said he's seen 3 out of 4 service calls where someone fiddled with hangers for an hour when the real problem was a warped threshold or a piece of debris. I've always gone straight to the hangers myself, so now I'm wondering if I've been chasing the wrong thing. Anyone else been taught to check the sill before touching the hangers?

3 comments

3 Comments

barbarah1925d ago

Wait hold on, "3 out of 4 service calls" where someone wasted time on the hangers? That's wild lol. I've been in the field for like 8 years and I always thought you start at the hangers because that's what the old timers taught me. But now you're telling me a warped threshold is the real culprit that often? I honestly feel like I need to rethink my whole approach here. That mechanic's number sounds too specific to be made up, like he's seen it enough times to notice a pattern. Next time I'm on a call I'm definitely looking at the sill first before touching anything.

casey68225d ago

Yeah @barbarah19 that "3 out of 4" stat definitely makes you stop and think. I feel you on rethinking things, sometimes the old ways just stick with us forever until someone points out something obvious.

anthony_campbell8825d ago

Look, I've been doing this for about 12 years now and I wish someone told me about the threshold thing sooner. My first year I wasted so much time on those hangers and even replaced a few perfectly good ones just because that's what the senior guys said to do. Once I actually started checking the sill and the floor underneath, I found warped wood or concrete settling was the real problem like 70% of the time. The hangers were just doing their job, the support underneath was shifting. If you're in an older house, especially one built before the 80s, seriously just look at the bottom first and you'll save yourself a lot of headache.