Wood French Door Repair?

Cole

I have a client whose wood fench door is in need of repair on the bottom part.

Can you take them apart?

If so, how hard is it?

I know I can have the piece custom made to fit but was wondering if anyone has done this?

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dougchips

If you are refering to an interior door, most of the wood is covered with a wood veneer. Some of the exterior doors are the same way but some have real wood. The joint on interior doors are rather complex, a funky shaped joint plus dowels, so you would have to locate the dowel, remove them and then seperate the joint. The exterior doors are a different monster.

King of Crown

Are you talking about the bottom of the door itself? like a door with real panels?
It must be a RRRREEEEAAAAALLLLL nice door to take it apart and fix. It would be an absolute nightmare.

How bad is it damaged?

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Cole

We are talking about an exterior door.

It has rot from a broken window.

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King of Crown

Is it old, and they really like it? I cant imagine it being worth fixing unless they were absolutely in love with it.

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dougchips

What brand is it? You should be able to order a new panel if it is Andersen or Pella. If it is an Atrium, just replace the door.

Cole

It is pretty old.

I cant even find out the manufacturer.

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dougchips

Time for a new door then unless you want a real challenge.

BTW. most of the Production french hinged doors will have a name on the hinges.

King of Crown

Side-bar, I love Atrium doors.

back on subject, It might be worth fixing if they are really old. But you can get a door company to make a new door that is exactly the same for the cost of fixing the old one.

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dougchips

King, when I drive up to a house to measure for a patio door and the house is 5-20 years old I know that they have an existing Atrium door. 100% of the ones that I've changed have rotten bottom panel and the water flows through the sill. Not sure if they send the defective ones to new england, but I would not use one. I'll give you this, they make a pretty door. The ones that they sell at home crepo with sidelights are crap also, if the door is sqaure then the venting sidelights are not. Also the wood finish is a little rough.

King of Crown

I installed some the other day that had a new hinge system on them. It worked really cool, but that is all I really know about them, except that they were way over priced. The hinges on it seemed to be revolutionary though.

But water damage on doors is a rare find around here.

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dougchips

Correct, they do have the best hinge design that I have ever seen. The last one I installed was last summer and the adjustable hinge system made up for the door not being built square.

Did you have daylight where the seams on the cladding came together? For some reason their seams push out on the compression weather stripping enough to create a little daylight. Did the wood veneer have round sanding marks that looked like they sanded it with 80 grit?

King of Crown

yes.
this particular door had glass in it, and there were circles in the glass from th esander. And there was some light that came in, I just added a dust pad behind the weatherstripping though, and it took care of it.

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Cole

Ok, we are going to try and replace the door.

The problem I am running into now, is the door was made by The Atrium Door Company and they went out of business in 1997.

So now, I am going to have to get the door custom made.

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dougchips

Atrium still makes door, that baffles me. What is your RO and do they want a sliding door or hinged? Also do they want a wood interior?

Cole

http://www.allaboutdoors.com/article...articles_id=35

The atrium door company, out of the wooden-door business since 1997, left behind a legacy of nicely crafted doors, which are now beginning to show their age. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to make your door look and work almost like new.
Allaboutdoors.com ( http://www.allaboutdoors.com ) has many of the items you will need to restore your door.

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dougchips

http://www.atriumpatiodoors.com/

King of Crown

Yeah, we were just talking about them. I like that http://allaboutdoors.com

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Cole

I am guessing they were bought out by Woodgrain Millwork.

So I should be able to order it through them and they have a location here in Dallas.

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brownie77

I'm with you Doug! I've replaced and sold countless rotten Atrium wood sliders and hinged patio doors. House built during the mid to late 80's to mid 90's. Those fingerjointed frames just can't hold up to the elements. You pull the door frame out of the opening in 10 pieces...