25 Years Experience
Kitchen and bath remodel, decks, painting, tile work, carpentry, etc.
No job too small!
We do emergency repairs also.
Mark Roberson
Jacksonville, Alabama 36265
256-365-6101
Replacing doors falls into two categories: replacing just the door, or replacing the door plus the frame. The first is easy, but the second does take considerable more work. Here, we’ll cover the first case only.
To remove the original door, open it far enough to expose the hinges and give yourself ample working room. Whenever possible, put a wedge under the door on each side to take the pressure off the door hinges. One on each side helps prevent the door from falling in either direction after the pins are removed. In most cases, the door is attached to the frame with a two-part hinge – one part attached to the door, the other to the frame.
Take a hammer and a flat-head screwdriver, with a thin blade and flat, sturdy handle and tap the pin on the bottom hinge upward. Try to get it about 7/8 of the way out then stop. Tap the top pin up the same amount.
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Pins can stick for any number of reasons. If the door hasn’t been used for a while, or if the hinges are rusty or painted over, you may find it necessary to apply rust remover or paint remover first. Usually tapping with persistent, sharp blows is enough to do the job, however. Avoid scraping the frame with the blade of the screwdriver.
At this stage, it’s helpful to have a partner to ensure the door doesn’t fall after the pins are completely removed. Remove the bottom pin first, while holding the edge of the door to prevent movement. Take care to keep your fingers out of the space between the inner door edge and the frame. If the door moves, you’ll get a nasty pinch. While one person is holding the outer edge of the door, the other can remove the top pin.
With luck, the door will still be balanced on the hinges and you can insert your fingers into the inner edge and lift the door away. If necessary, grab the outer edge and the top and lift away.
Provided the old door isn’t too warped, it can be useful for size comparison with the new door. New doors sometimes need to have the bottom trimmed an inch or two. Trimming is best carried out at the location you bought the new door, if possible. Measure the old one before you purchase.
If you need to replace the hinges, unscrew the hinges from the frame and the old door. If you plan to reuse the old hinges and door handles, now is a good time to clean them and dust the hinge cracks with carbon or silicon powder.
It’s possible to use sewing machine oil or light grease to lubricate hinges. But, over time, that causes them to accumulate dirt and grit and eventually wear and squeak. A better method involves using a kind of powder popular with professional locksmiths.
This very fine carbon or silicon powder is sprayed inside the lock to keep tumblers rotating smoothly. It makes for a good lubricant for hinges, too, and can be easily wiped away.
Check the door frame and ensure that the screw holes will stand up well to reuse. If necessary, fill with wood putty, let dry, then drill a small starter hole for new screws.
Screw the refurbished or new hinge into the door frame. Measure and trim the new door to size, and attach the hinge. Set the door onto the hinges and work the top pin in first, about half way. Then work the bottom pin in part way (at least half, if possible).
Tap the pins in the rest of the way. Congratulate yourself on a job well done.
I just had to get a look at the pictures right next to each other. I’m so excited about the difference
Ok, now isn’t that awesome? I just wish that I’d had my new camera when I took the old pictures, so the crispness and the color would be more uniform. I guess this way it just makes it more like all those weight loss before and after shots. We didn’t put makeup on the house for the before, and we used crummy lighting. And then for the after, we made sure to use plenty of makeup and really good lighting. Ha!
I can’t tell you how much I love these shutters! I think he could actually go into business just selling shutters! They’re gorgeous!
Ok, truth be told, my dear husband had these done long ago! And – I even had the picture taken long ago. This blog has just taken a bit of a back seat to some of my other projects for a while. Don’t ever hire your wife to be your webmaster. 
Here are the pics of the finished shutters in the front of the house:
He also made some little ones for my side kitchen window, that I’ll get a picture of soon. And isn’t my dog pretty? He sure makes the picture nice, doesn’t he?
Our house is definitely a work in progress, but, these shutters made so much difference! I’m always surprised when I come up the street and see our house – it’s almost like a different house, just with that one change. The cedar and the red bricks compliment each other just beautifully.
And after 15+ years of watching Mark work his magic on homes, I have every confidence in his making our house the most coveted on the block! Well, we do have a very old house across the street – built in the 1840′s. So if old houses are your game, ours might not be your favorite. And there is a two-story a little ways up that was recently sold, that my hubby and my friends and I were all drooling over. What I am saying, though, is that I actually get butterflies in my stomach – with excitement – when I think of what Mark will do to our house.
And these incredibly gorgeous shutters are just a taste of that.
Mark has made us some fabulous cedar shutters to beautify our outdated 1960′s house. They are so gorgeous that I even got a compliment this morning from the kids’ school bus driver.
Here is the house with the original shutters:
And here are the two opposite-end windows with an old shutter and a new shutter:
And then we got a new camera – awesome! And here is the vibrantly-colored picture of the house midway into the job:
(Please pardon the ‘porch’ – it’s in the middle of renovations, too! And it’s going to be so great, as well!)
There are two really great sites for business to network on, and they are Merchant Circle and Squidoo.
You can find us on those two sites at the links below:
www.Squidoo.com/repair-and-remodel/
Come check us out and say ‘Hello!’
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