Door sticks and drywall cracks, ledger board not level?

Question

I noticed some drywall cracking in the corner above the door frame on both sides of the door and that door is unable to fully close, a few weeks ago all was fine, crack was there but door could close (with weather warming up I understand it could be due to expansion).

This is in the addition of the house that was built about 5 years ago. This addition sits on top of crawl space and today I went down there to take a look.

I noticed where the ledger board beams meet, about 1/8” difference in their heights.

I used a 2ft level between the floor joists and some places was dead level some were a pretty off

The floor itself seems level. Don’t have a very long level to test on the floor. Just wondering if the floor joists all have to be dead level to each other or as long as the subfloor is level it’s fine? And also if one part of the ledger doesn’t line up with other, could it be by design? Or it shifted? It looks to be bolted into the foundational concrete blocks pretty well so not sure if it could shift?

Everything is dry and no rot anywhere.

I have no problem adjusting the door to close and patching the drywall around just want to make sure no foundation issue here or ledger I need to jack up and rebolt

Thank you very much and sorry for lengthy post

Answer 1

The floor being level is really the test. Not the levelness of part of a piece of lumber holing up the floor. There can be a variety of reasons for this including the boards themselves aren't straight or not true to their supposed dimensions.

The ledger board off 1/8"... has nothing to do with your issue. It really isn't probably part of any issue but for sure nothing to do with your issue.

The fact that the top of your wall is pulling in a couple of places is pretty normal. I am guessing there is unconditioned space above and that that beams (joists/framing) cause the drywall to be pulled and you get a crack. You can do a million things to try to fix this but it is cosmetic.

As for your doors being tight you need to make your doors smaller.

This involves shaving off the parts of the doors that are sticking. If you have a really really good table saw you can take off 1/8". If you have a really really crappy table saw the 1/8" will be 1/16" on one side 1/4" on the other... So I usually would suggest people use an electric planer.

I am guessing that the door sticks on the latch side and/or possibly the top.

1. Take door off hinges. The best way to do this is popping the pins off. You can unscrew the door but then you may have to deal with possible stripped screw holes. So unless the door didn't seem straight in reference to the framing, I try to leave hinges in tact.

2. Take off knob and latch plate.

3. Always try to plane facing down so you can steadily move planer through surface and make sure planer is in middle of the door. If you have uneven pressure the surface will become uneven, curved, or your will take more off one side than the other.

4. Take a little bit too much off. Remember that you have to prime and paint this thing. Really almost 1/8" after you do 2 coats of primer two coats of latex... these things need 4 coats too.

5. Before you paint you have to pop the door back in (2 pins at least halfway in) so you can close the door and test. It shouldn't even be remotely close to hitting/rubbing and you should be able to see at least 1/8" gap in the top/latch-side from inside the room.

6. Based on planing the latch side you may need to chisel out the latch plate a bit so that it sits inside the door (chisel and utility knife).

7. Paint.

8. Reinstall door.

(I can go over 10s of things to help door from sticking and the cracks from appearing. If you would like to work on these things for days/weeks and find something that works for a couple years that is fine. If it were my house I would fill the crack with something that moves a little easier and shave the door)