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How to Stop a Door from Slamming: 15 Ways

Updated
Fix that slamming door before it causes damage to your home.

Can’t open a window without a door slamming in your house? Are you tired of that screen door slamming shut each time you let it close behind you?

Slamming doors are not only loud and annoying but can cause damage to your home. But I’m about to show you how to stop a door from slamming with 15 easy methods.

Key Takeaways

  • Slamming doors can cause loose hinges, structural damage, paint deterioration, and window damage.
  • To prevent door slamming, consider using doorstops, checking hinges, adding felt pads or weather stripping, and installing door closers.
  • Other methods include using finger pinch guards, rubber bands, stick gel bumpers, door silencers, and magnetic door stops.
  • Additional solutions include improvising with rags and towels, using door seals, checking torsion springs, installing wall-mounted door stops, and using door wedges.


What Damage Does Slamming Doors Do?

Slamming doors isn’t just something that makes annoying sounds. It can actually do a lot of damage, some of which might even surprise you. Regularly applying excessive force when closing the doors can have a series of effects.

Loose Hinges

If you often slam your door, you will eventually cause the door’s side post to shift out of alignment. When this occurs, the loose hinges will create a gap between the side post and the seam.

In turn, this leads to cold seeping through the gap, causing discomfort and further potential damage. Loose hinges can also lead to an unstable door that could eventually fall off and injure someone.

Structural Damage

Daily slamming of a door can cause severe damage to the door’s construction. For instance, if you have a wooden door, you could loosen the fasteners and push the door out of alignment. This will ultimately increase the cost of repair.

Paint Deterioration

If you’ve painted your door, you may want to reconsider slamming it shut. The paint on the door’s surface and around the corners can readily deteriorate due to moisture and cold air leaking in. As a result, moisture can readily deteriorate the paint and cause significant damage to the door itself.

Window Damage

The surrounding windows may be subjected to the impact of a slammed door and may sustain damage. You may not notice it immediately, but your windows will gradually become weak and worn out. If your door has a little glass window, you risk breaking it if you slam it too frequently.

How to Stop a Door From Slamming

Next up, you will discover 15 DIY methods that will prevent everything from the bedroom to bathroom doors from slamming shut.

1. Add Some Doorstops

If you like to have the windows open but despise the sound of inside doors slamming, just slide a door stopper beneath the offending door. It’s one of the most cost-effective solutions and something that can add to your home decor.

2. Check the Hinges

Instead of learning how to prevent a door from slamming, maybe you need to know how to fix slamming doors.

Door hinges that are worn or incorrectly placed might create a minor imbalance, causing the door to slam shut on its own.

To determine if your door is out of plumb, open it to a 90-degree angle and then place a level against the latch. Tightening the hinge screws may resolve the issue, but they must be replaced if the hinges are worn.

3. Consider Felt Pads

felt pads

Consider some felt pads if your door is still slamming after tightening the hinges. Shintop Felt Tape is a great choice as you can cut it to size. Simply adhere a couple of little felt pads to the doorframe’s edge.

A pad should be placed on the top and bottom of the frame and two additional pads on the top and bottom of the strike plate. The pads give just enough soft cushioning to prevent the door from slamming shut.

4. Install a Door Closer

Have you ever noticed how front doors in a bank will softly close when you release the handles? A door closer is an anti-slam device installed at the top of the door. They use a spring-loaded mechanism that slowly closes the door once you release it.

It basically uses the same principles for slamming the door, only in reverse. Without getting into too many details, the mechanism uses air pressure to slowly close the door behind you. This self-closing mechanism can be either manual or hydraulic-powered.

5. Consider Weather Stripping

If felt pads are insufficient for a heavier door, consider using foam weather stripping to create a soft, secure seal and mute sound. This is basically a foam or a rubber pad that sticks to whatever surface you need it to stick to.

Clean the surface of the doorframe’s interior edge, add a piece of weather stripping to match the length, and apply pressure to stick it to the frame.

6. Use Finger Pinch Guards

This extra-soft foam cushion is an ideal choice for protecting toddler fingers as the door closes. It will also prevent the door from slamming shut.

Invest in these inexpensive door pinch guards and position them over the hinges, the handle, or the door’s edge. Ideally, you should attach your protection roughly 6 inches from the edge of the external door and remove it as needed.

This helps create a gap that doesn’t allow the door to fit the frame when closing.

7. Use a Rubber Band

This is one of the simplest and most effective methods of preventing a door from slamming shut. Additionally, it is a cost-effective and practical solution, and installation is straightforward.

Once the door is opened, wrap the rubber band around the handle. Stretch it upward and downward until it reaches the other side. Because the band is looped around the door, it acts as a bumper, preventing the door from colliding with the frame.

8. Consider Stick Gel Bumpers

These are like tiny little pieces of polymer gel. They act as small bumpers that can be stuck to the frame of your door, absorbing impact and reducing both noise and vibration. Hushbumps is one of the best choices.

9. Install a Door Silencer

A door silencer is another good and inexpensive anti-door slam tool. You’ve almost certainly seen a door silencer installed on hefty steel doors in schools and hospitals.

It is a piece of heavy-duty rubber that has a flat circular backing. It can prevent both metal and wooden doors from slamming shut.

10. Buy a Magnetic Door Stop

An all-metal magnetic door stop will keep the door from slamming shut in the event of a gust of wind. They can be mounted on the floor or the wall and work to keep them open rather than softening the blow of a slam.

11. Improvise with Rags and Towels

Towels and rags are an incredibly accessible and economical solution to door slamming. They are obviously far more durable than rubber bands, which can easily snap or wear out.

12. Think Door Seals

This is another instance where you’ll be utilizing something that wasn’t specifically meant to prevent doors from slamming but is nonetheless successful in accomplishing that goal.

Door filters are filtering strips that can be applied to the bottom of your door to prevent offensive odors from leaking inside. These filters regulate the amount of air that enters your home, thereby reducing the chance of your door slamming.

13. Check the Torsion Springs

Torsion springs assist in regulating the pace of your door’s travel. Torque acts as a counterbalance to the door’s weight, preventing it from closing rapidly. If your garage door closes too quickly, it’s likely that your springs aren’t generating any resistance.

14. Install Wall-Mounted Door Stops

While a wall-mounted door stop will not prevent the door from slamming shut, it will prevent it from banging into the wall. This is useful if the door is caught in the wind or if you or a family member open it too forcefully.

A variety of door stops are available, each of which may be readily screwed into the wall behind your door. This type of door stop acts as a protector for your wall.

15. Use a Door Wedge

Door wedges were once much more prevalent than they are today. They are triangular in design and are often constructed of plastic. All you have to do is place them on the floor with the thinner part under the bottom of the door.

Firmly push the wedge in until it cannot be moved any further, keeping the door in place. A door wedge is an excellent alternative if you wish to keep the door open rather than simply stopping it from slamming.

FAQs

How Do I Stop My Roommate From Slamming Doors?

If you can’t get your roommate to be careful with slamming doors, you can always turn to one of the aforementioned methods.

How Can I Make My Door Close Slower?

Using a door closer will help your door close slower. These soft close mechanisms will use pneumatic force to gently shut the door.

Can Slamming Doors Cause Cracks?

The force of slamming doors can cause joinery to deteriorate, hinges and handles to break, and cracks to form in your walls.


The Bottom Line

When you want to know how to stop a door from slamming, consider any of the methods mentioned above.

Sometimes it’s not a matter of simple prevention, and you have to learn how to fix slamming doors (by tightening the hinges). Use whatever method works best for you and stays within your budget.

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About the Author

Candace Osmond

Candace Osmond is a USA TODAY Bestselling Author and Award-Winning Interior Designer. Using her years of hands-on experience, she now writes about design and DIY. She currently resides on the rocky East Coast of Canada with her family and slobbery bulldog.