Warning Sign · Ground Movement
Sticking Doors & Windows — A Sign of Ground Movement?
Doors and windows that stick, bind, or no longer close properly are a classic early warning sign of ground movement beneath your home.
Doors and windows that stick, bind, or no longer close properly are a classic early warning sign of ground movement beneath your home.
Doors and windows are set into frames that are square when the house is built. When the ground beneath a foundation moves — even by a few millimetres — the frame distorts and the door or window no longer sits correctly in its opening.
This is one of the earliest signs of foundation movement because door and window openings are precision-fitted. Ground movement that hasn't yet produced visible wall cracks will often show up first in sticking doors and binding windows.
A sticking door is easy to put down to humidity or the house "settling." But if it's new, getting worse, or affecting multiple openings, it warrants investigation. A CCTV drain inspection is the fastest way to confirm or rule out drainage as the cause.
Learn About CCTV InspectionAuckland's expansive clay soils absorb water and swell. A leaking drain saturates nearby clay, causing it to heave upward unevenly — lifting part of the foundation while the rest remains stable.
Groundwater from a broken drain can slowly erode the fine particles beneath a foundation, creating voids that cause localised settlement.
Drainage problems amplify seasonal ground movement. In dry summers, leaking-drain-affected soil dries and shrinks more dramatically than surrounding soil, creating differential movement.
When a wall moves, the structural frame distorts — a process called racking. Even 2–3mm of differential settlement at a door corner is enough to cause binding.
Heavy rainfall after drought can cause rapid ground movement in drainage-affected areas. If multiple doors and windows start sticking at once, a sudden drainage event may be the trigger.
Unlike cosmetic issues, sticking caused by ground movement typically gets worse over time. Early investigation is much cheaper than waiting until the problem is structural.
Yes — timber doors swell in humidity and can stick temporarily. But humidity-related sticking tends to be seasonal and consistent across the house. Sticking caused by ground movement is usually localised to certain openings, progressive, and doesn't reverse when conditions dry out.
Even one sticking door that wasn't sticking before is worth noting. If two or more doors or windows in the same area of the house are affected, or if the problem is getting worse, investigation is warranted.
Yes, typically significantly. A drainage inspection is a logical first step because drainage problems are both common and fixable. A structural engineer's assessment is still valuable, but they will often request drainage investigation as part of their process anyway.