First, figure out which kind of sticking you have
Doors stick for three different reasons, and they need three different fixes. Seasonal swelling sticks in summer and behaves in winter, usually rubbing along the top or the latch side. That's humidity. Hinge problems stick year-round, typically dragging at a corner, because loose or worn hinges let the door sag out of position. And sometimes the house moved: sticking that appeared and steadily worsened, often alongside a drywall crack above the door, which in Kansas City frequently traces back to our expansive clay soil shifting the frame with the seasons. Look for the shiny or worn spot on the door's edge where it rubs, and note when it happens. That tells most of the story.
The 10-minute check before anyone sands anything
Grab a screwdriver and tighten every hinge screw, on the door and the jamb both. Half the "swollen doors" Ken gets called about are actually one loose top hinge letting the door droop into its frame. If a screw spins without tightening, the hole is stripped: back it out, glue in a few wooden toothpicks, trim them flush, and drive the screw into solid wood again. And for a door sagging at the top corner, swapping one short top-hinge screw for a 3-inch screw that reaches the framing behind the jamb pulls the whole door back square. That one screw has fixed more doors than every sanding block in Missouri.
Why "just sand it down" backfires
Sand or plane a swollen door until it glides in August, and by February you'll have a visible gap and a draft, because the door shrank back and the wood you removed is gone forever. A proper fit accounts for the seasons: enough clearance to move in summer without rattling in winter, taken evenly from the correct edge, with the door kept square and the freshly exposed wood sealed. Raw edges drink moisture fastest, which is why an unsealed quick fix often sticks worse the next year. One honest note there: Ken doesn't paint, so he'll leave a planed edge ready for sealer and tell you exactly what to put on it.
When the door is telling you something bigger
A door is a seven-foot measuring instrument hanging in your wall. When several doors start sticking at once, or one sticks alongside a drywall crack that keeps coming back, the doors aren't the problem, they're the messengers. KC's clay soil swells and shrinks between wet springs and dry summers, and door frames rack slightly as the house moves. Ken will tell you honestly when you need a door adjustment and when it's worth having a foundation pro take a look before anyone touches trim.
What Ken actually does on a sticking-door visit
He finds the rub, checks the hinges and the frame for square, and fixes the cause instead of the symptom: hinges reset or upgraded, strike plates aligned so the latch clicks without a shoulder check, and planing only when the door genuinely needs material removed. Most visits end with the door closing with one finger, which is the standard he held doors to on job sites for thirty years.