Pre-Hung Ext Door?

I installed our 36” Pre-Hung door, I have the hinge side nice plum and straight. Using wedges and GRK 4” screws, all looks good till I check inside. Top is square, I don’t have latch side of door screwed down yet. When I went inside to check out my work on hinge side I notice at top hinge there was no gap between frame and door. Looking at bottom hinge, there is a gap up to middle hinge which looks normal. I’m using a new 7’ Empire level to check if that side of door frame is straight and it is. Heading up tomorrow to start over but before I do, what should I look at to correct my mistake? It’s not easy answer and not easy explanation but thought I would try. Thanks for any guidance

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Originally Posted by Carroll Courtney

I installed our 36” Pre-Hung door, I have the hinge side nice plum and straight. Using wedges and GRK 4” screws, all looks good till I check inside. Top is square, I don’t have latch side of door screwed down yet. When I went inside to check out my work on hinge side I notice at top hinge there was no gap between frame and door. Looking at bottom hinge, there is a gap up to middle hinge which looks normal. I’m using a new 7’ Empire level to check if that side of door frame is straight and it is. Heading up tomorrow to start over but before I do, what should I look at to correct my mistake? It’s not easy answer and not easy explanation but thought I would try. Thanks for any guidance

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Did you use longer screws in the bottom hinges, or did you use longer screws in all hinges and the top one is not installed the same? Were the gaps the same before you installed it?
Shim out top hinge.

You may not have done anything wrong..I've had more than a couple doors where the hinge mortises were not all the same full depth. I've also had some where there was "stuff" under one of the hinges, leaving it slightly proud. Also, make sure the edge of the door is straight. If you are sure the jamb is straight, and the edge of the door is straight, the answer, as Mark said, is to shim the appropriate hinge to get the reveal to be equal.

Try using shims at the very top to push the strike side of the head jamb back towards the hinge side after puting a shim behind the hinge. I use shims to get everything looking good before I start putting fasteners in. As mentioned above the mortising and assembly of pre hung doors is often far from perfect. I sometimes have to compromise on level and plumb a tiny bit to improve the fit.

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-to-shim-a-door/

When hanging doors, I shim out hinge locations before inserting door. For exterior doors, usually just nail thru brick mold, no shimming.

Check that your jamb is square to the wall plane. A common issue is that the king/cripple studs are twisted. So just putting in opposing shims does not always work. You may have to put shims in the same way to correct for twist to alleviate a door from being hinge bound.

A straight edge should run along all the hinge barrels in two planes 90 degrees apart. Sorry, no help on prehung doors. I never used one. For entry doors, I always use ball bearing hinges.

Good morning and thanks for help, few things here for me to check to get this door spot on.