Doors – What type of wood panels could replace the glass in a storm door

You need to set up a temporary wall under the ends of the ceiling joists of the garage, bearing onto the floor of the garage. Since the section needed is so short, you will only need 5 or 6 2X4s or 2X6s to hold the ceiling and lift the wall for the short time while you replace the bottom plate. If you need 10 ft studs to hold everything up, cut 2 of them in half to double up as top and bottom plates, then use the other 3 to use as studs cut 1/4 longer than needed for a snug fit to lift the existing a little. Get one stud jammed in, set another and with either a hydraulic jack, or by "bowing" them in, as in pushing in the middle of the stud to bow it so it in essence gets shorter between the 2 points until you release it, which will lift the wall a little. work all the studs together one at a time, one will help the other. Or 2 bottle jacks can do it all too, if you have 2 handy. 7 ton, maybe even 2 1/2 ton would work too. That corner, if there is no more than a roof over the garage, is pretty easy to lift up. You wont need much, an 1/8" will do.

This is all on the premise that the loft is contained under the roof with no 2 story bump out to house it, that the roof rafters bear on the top plate of the same wall that has the destroyed bottom plate.

You described two problems. One, the door not latching closed easily; two, the door swinging closed by itself. These may or may not be related. ...

1) If the latch and latch hole in the frame do not line up horizontally, then you may need to adjust the position of the latch hole and/or file the hole in the metal latch guide to enlarge it slightly. A Dremmel or similar tool is very handy for this repair.

2) If the latch and latch hole in the frame do not line up vertically, then the two problems can likely be fixed with shims behind the middle and the upper or lower hinges, depending on whether the door latch needs to move up or down.

• 2a) If you shim to where the latch works but the door is still moving by itself you can put a hammer to the hinge pins to give them a slight bend - they can handle a pretty good blow and the bend is barely noticeable. This will put a small amount of resistance in the hinges to keep the door open.