How to rectify a heavy door?

Question

The following picture shows how one of my very heavy doors got "skewed" in the door opening. The numbers indicate the gaps between the door and the jambs on the sides. The door used to shut perfectly, but now, apparently as a result of the sagging, the strike of the lock no longer catches the latch.
I checked the hinges and they are super tight. In fact, nothing appears to be loose. Can you help me figure out what moved, how to prevent it from getting worse, and how to fix the damage that's already occurred.

Picture of the top hinge. Perhaps it's part of the problem?

Aloysius Defenestrate · Accepted Answer

Working carpenter; I live with this on a regular basis.
You need long (3") screws in the top hinge. One is adequate, two would be better. That's it. Try to use the holes further away from the hinge barrel.
The underlying reason for this is that the people that hung your door left the short screws in place. (Prehung doors are shipped like this because people would be mad if the hinges didn't have all their screws.)
Oh, and pound the hinge pin down properly on the top hinge. That isn't the root of your problem, but it doesn't help.

fred_dot_u · Answer

This is somewhat disturbing. A heavy door could be considered to be well constructed and as such, would not change geometry. That leaves the door frame, ostensibly attached to the wall and to the house.
It's not impossible to consider that your house has shifted. Our outside garage wall grew cracks during a period of alternating dry and wet seasons, which certainly indicated a shifting of the foundation at that side of the house.
You can measure the diagonals of the door to determine that it is square or not square and less easily, the diagonals of the door frame.
Check the timbers under that portion of the structure for rot or similar failure. Once you can find the location of the shifting, the solution should follow naturally.

How to rectify a heavy door?

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