Quick answer
A dropped composite door has sagged at the hinge side, so the leading edge catches the frame and the locks miss their keeps. Almost every modern composite door has three-way adjustable hinges built for exactly this, so a competent installer can usually correct it in one visit without replacing anything, from around £75.
Overview
A dropped door is the single most common composite door complaint. The door sags on its hinges, the top corner drops, and hooks miss their keeps. Every modern composite door has adjustable hinges specifically to fix this.
Symptoms
- Door catches on the frame at the latch side.
- Handle needs lifting harder than it used to.
- Visible gap at the top hinge, or top of the door.
- Door won't lock without a shove.
Common causes
- Hinge screws working loose over time.
- Weight of the door slowly deforming the hinge.
- Foundation or frame settlement (common on newer homes).
- Heavy slam damage over years.
Why composite doors drop in the first place
A composite door slab is heavier than a standard timber or uPVC door — typically 40 to 55kg once you include the GRP skin, insulating core, and glazing unit if it has one. That weight is carried entirely by the hinges, and over months and years the constant load, combined with thousands of open-close cycles, allows the hinge fixings to bed in slightly and the cams to creep off their original setting.
In Cornwall we see it accelerated by two things that are less common inland: exposed, wind-buffeted properties where the door gets caught by gusts and slammed harder than it should be, and holiday lets where a rotating cast of guests use the door without ever knowing not to force it. Both add up to hinge wear faster than a settled family home.
It's also worth saying that a small amount of drop — a millimetre or two — is completely normal and expected within the first year as everything settles. It's when that drop continues, or jumps suddenly, that it needs attention.
How we tell a dropped door from a swollen door
The two most common composite door complaints — a dropped door and a seasonally swollen door — can feel identical to the homeowner: the door catches, the lock is stiff, and it needs a shove. The diagnosis matters because the fix is completely different, and getting it wrong wastes a visit.
A dropped door shows a consistent pattern all year: the top corner on the latch side has visibly sunk, there's a wider gap at the bottom hinge and a tighter gap at the top, and the problem doesn't come and go with the weather. A swollen door, by contrast, is often fine in winter and only tight in warm, humid weeks.
- Run a hand along the top edge of the door with it open — a dropped door visibly droops toward the latch side.
- Note whether the issue is present in cold weather too — persistent all-year problems point to hinges, not expansion.
- Look at the hinge screws themselves for elongated holes or a visible tilt in the hinge leaf.
What a proper hinge adjustment actually involves
Three-way adjustable hinges (sometimes called flag hinges) let a technician move the door in three planes: vertically to lift a dropped corner back up, horizontally to bring the door closer to or further from the frame, and via compression to control how hard the door presses onto its seals. Each cam has a working range of only a few millimetres, and moving one without understanding how it interacts with the others is how DIY attempts make things worse rather than better.
On a visit for a dropped door we start by measuring the reveal — the gap between the slab and frame — at four points, then compare that against the factory target of roughly 3 to 4mm all round. From there the vertical cam is adjusted first in small increments, testing the lock after each change, before touching horizontal or compression settings. It typically takes 20 to 40 minutes for a straightforward case.
Where the hinge itself has worn internally — the cam mechanism stripped or the leaf bent from a heavy impact — adjustment alone won't hold, and the hinge needs replacing rather than tweaking.
Cornwall-specific causes worth ruling out
New-build estates around Cornwall — Newquay, St Austell, the Truro fringes — often sit on made-up ground that continues to settle for two or three years after construction. If your door has dropped and the property is under five years old, foundation movement is a genuine possibility alongside ordinary hinge wear, and it's worth mentioning the property's age when you book a visit.
On older stone and granite properties, door openings are frequently slightly out of true to begin with, meaning the frame was packed and shimmed at installation to compensate. If that packing has degraded or the frame itself has moved with the building, a hinge adjustment can only do so much and the frame packing needs revisiting too.
What happens if you leave a dropped door unadjusted
A dropped door doesn't stay stable — dragging the same corner across the frame or threshold thousands more times wears through the paint finish first, then starts to abrade the GRP skin itself, and eventually distorts the multi-point lock hooks as they're forced into keeps they no longer line up with.
We regularly see jobs that would have been a £75 to £120 adjustment become a £250-plus hinge and gearbox replacement because the door was left dragging for a year or more. Catching it early is genuinely the difference between a quick visit and a bigger repair.
A typical Cornwall call-out for a dropped door
A recent example: a bungalow near Hayle with a south-west facing composite door reported the door 'suddenly getting hard to lock' after eighteen months. On inspection the top hinge corner had dropped around 4mm, hooks were catching the top keep, and there was visible witness marking on the frame where the door had been dragging. A vertical cam adjustment on the top and middle hinge, followed by a minor horizontal correction, resolved it in under half an hour, and the homeowner was shown the wear marks so they'd recognise the early signs if it recurred.
What happens when we come out to survey a dropped door
A survey visit for a dropped door starts before any tools come out. We ask when the drop was first noticed, whether it happened gradually or seemingly overnight, and whether the property has had any recent building work nearby, since vibration from groundworks can knock a marginal hinge setting off completely. We then walk the door through a full open-close cycle watching the top corner, because a slab that drops under its own weight often shows a faint judder right at the point the latch would normally meet the keep.
Only after that visual pass do we get the spirit level and feeler gauges out to record the reveal gap at four fixed points, written down so that if the door drops again in future we have a baseline to compare against rather than guessing. On a first visit this whole process takes ten to fifteen minutes before any adjustment begins, and it's this diagnostic stage, not the spanner work, that stops a repair turning into a repeat call-out.
Hinge types and the adjustment range each one offers
Not every composite door hinge is the same three-way flag hinge, and the type fitted affects how much correction is available. Standard flag hinges typically give around 4mm of vertical lift, 3mm of lateral movement, and a couple of millimetres of compression adjustment. Some newer composite doors use concealed or 'invisible' hinges built into the frame rebate, which offer similar ranges but need the door removed from its keeps to access the adjustment screws, adding time to the job.
Flat, older-style butt hinges with no adjustment mechanism at all are still found on composite doors fitted more than twelve years ago, particularly through some regional installers who used cheaper hardware. If your door has these, a drop can't be dialled out at all — the only options are packing the hinge leaf with shims or replacing the hinges with adjustable ones, both of which cost more than a standard cam adjustment.
Guarantee and CERTASS implications of a dropped door
Most composite doors carry a manufacturer guarantee on the slab itself — typically 10 years against delamination or core failure — but hardware like hinges is usually covered for a shorter period, often 2 to 5 years, and only if the door has been maintained and not forced. If your door is still within its original installation guarantee, it's worth checking whether the original installer is obliged to attend before booking an independent repair, since using a third party can sometimes affect a warranty claim.
As a CERTASS registered installer, any adjustment or hardware replacement we carry out on your door is logged against building regulations compliance for external doors, which matters if you come to sell the property and need to demonstrate the door meets current thermal and security standards. We provide a written record of work carried out on request, which has helped several Cornwall homeowners through property searches where a composite door's compliance was queried by a buyer's solicitor.
Why the time of year affects how quickly we can get to you
Dropped-door call-outs follow a mild seasonal pattern in Cornwall. We see a rise in reports through late autumn as summer's expansion recedes and any marginal hinge wear that was masked by a swollen, tight-fitting door suddenly becomes obvious once the slab shrinks back to its normal size. Spring brings a second smaller peak, often from holiday-let owners doing pre-season checks before the first bookings of the year arrive.
Booking a non-urgent hinge adjustment in midwinter or midsummer, outside those peaks, generally means a shorter wait for an appointment, since call-out volume is more evenly spread. If your door has dropped only slightly and isn't yet affecting security, it's worth mentioning this when you call — we'll always prioritise anything affecting the lock, but a cosmetic gap can often be scheduled around a quieter slot.
Typical repair costs in Cornwall
| Work | Typical price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard hinge realignment (1–2 hinges) | £75–£120 | Most common outcome for a dropped door |
| Full three-hinge adjustment with lock testing | £110–£160 | Where drop affects locking as well as fit |
| Hinge replacement (worn cam or bent leaf) | £140–£220 | Needed when adjustment won't hold |
| Emergency same-day call-out | +£30–£50 | Applied to any of the above if urgent |
Guide prices only — we confirm the cost after seeing the door.
When to call a professional
- Adjustment cams are stiff or you're not sure which cam does what.
- The problem returns within weeks - likely a bent hinge.
Prevention
- Never let the door slam.
- Have hinges checked and screws tightened annually.
