Door repair
Door Repair
Sticking, dragging, sagging, will not latch. The slab is the part everyone blames and the part least likely to be at fault.
- Typical visit
- One to three hours
- Coverage
- All 93 counties
- Estimate
- Free, fixed in writing
- Replacement
- Offered, but rarely needed
Start here
Ten services, and this is the right page for six faults
We run a lot of overlapping door services, which is useful once you know which one you need and confusing before that. This table sorts it.
| What it is doing | Which service | Why that one |
|---|---|---|
| The slab catches, drags or will not close | Door repair | The slab or its hinges have moved. Adjustment, not a new door. |
| The key turns hard, or the bolt will not throw | Door lock repair | Cylinder, latch or strike. Usually alignment rather than a broken lock. |
| The jamb is soft, split or pulling away | Door frame repair | The frame is the problem, and a new slab in a bad frame solves nothing. |
| The slab is warped through or rotted beyond repair | Door replacement | The one case where a new door is honestly the cheaper answer. |
| A patio door drags or will not lock | Sliding glass door repair | Rollers and track, almost always. The frame stays. |
| A storm or screen door bangs, sags or has torn mesh | Screen door repair | Closers, hinges, latches and mesh — its own assembly entirely. |
Scope
Where door repair stops
Four things that look like door repair and belong on another page. We will move the job over ourselves rather than charging you for the wrong one.
If the frame has failed, not the door
Soft jambs, split casing or a frame pulling away from the wall is frame work. Hanging a perfect door in a failing frame fixes nothing and it is a different quote.
If the lock is the only problem
A key that turns hard, a bolt that will not throw, a handle that spins. That is lock work and it is usually quicker and cheaper than a door call.
If the slab is genuinely finished
Warped through, rotted through, or broken. We do fit replacement doors, and the page for that exists — but we check the five tests first.
If it is a storm door or a patio slider
Both are their own assemblies with their own hardware, and both have their own pages.
Repair or replace
Five tests we run before anyone mentions a new door
Most companies quoting doors sell doors. We do both, which is the only reason this list is worth reading.
Is the slab straight?
Close it and sight down the edge, or hold a string corner to corner. A door that is warped more than a shim can take will never seal, and no amount of hinge work changes that. This is the most common genuine reason to replace.
Is there rot, and how far has it gone?
A soft bottom rail on a timber door can be cut out and rebuilt. Rot that has travelled up into the stiles or through a panel usually cannot, economically.
Is the frame sound?
If the jamb is good and only the slab is finished, that is a slab swap, which is far cheaper than a full prehung unit. We check this before quoting either.
Is the opening still square?
On a settled Nebraska house frequently not. An out-of-square opening takes a repaired door better than a standard prehung unit, which has to be packed in anyway.
What is the hardware worth?
Original hardware on an older door is often better than anything that comes on a new one. If we are replacing a slab, we reuse what is worth reusing and say so.
We fit replacement doors and we repair them, which means we have no structural reason to steer you either way. That is the honest version of the pitch every repair company makes. Ask us which of the five above applies to your door and we will tell you.
Nebraska conditions
What Nebraska does to a door
Ground that settles, air that swings from humid to bone dry, and wind with nothing in its way.
Loess soil and settlement
Much of eastern and central Nebraska sits on deep wind-blown loess. It is strong when dry and can collapse when it gets thoroughly wet, which makes settlement here less gradual and more sudden than in clay country. A door that was fine last year and badly out this year is often the ground, not the carpentry.
Humid summers, extremely dry winters
Nebraska swings from muggy July afternoons to winter air dry enough to shrink a timber slab visibly. The same door binds in August and shows daylight in January, which is exactly why planing it is the repair people regret.
Wind that never really stops
Open plains and sustained wind mean an exterior door takes repeated pressure. A latch that only just engages will rattle all night, and a storm door caught by a gust will tear its closer out of the frame.
Blowing snow rather than deep snow
Ground blizzards drive fine snow horizontally into any gap. A door that seals adequately in still air will pack snow into the threshold and the jamb when the wind gets up, and that meltwater is what rots the bottom of the frame.
Questions
Door repair questions
My door catches at the top corner.
Classic sign of a dropped slab or a frame that has moved. Hinge screws that have lost their grip in dry jamb timber are the usual cause and it is a quick fix.
Should I plane the door down?
We would rather you did not. Nebraska timber shrinks hard in a dry winter, and material removed in August cannot be put back in January.
You offer replacement. Why would I trust your repair advice?
Fair question, and the honest answer is that we make money either way, so we have no reason to push you. The five tests on this page are the ones we actually use.
Cold air comes in under the door.
Sweep or threshold, and both are cheap. In a Nebraska wind you notice the difference the same evening.
The bottom of the frame is soft.
That is frame work rather than door work. Caught at the jamb bottom it is a cut-out and rebuild; once it reaches framing the job is larger.
Can you do several doors in one visit?
Yes, and it is much cheaper per door. Most houses have the same fault repeated across three or four.
Coverage
Door repair across Nebraska
A mobile service covering the whole state, from the Missouri River to the Panhandle. Pick your town below, or call and we will come to you.
Door Repair Across Nebraska
Related
Our other services
Ten services, one trade. Whatever else needs doing can go on the same visit.
Next step
Tell us where the door is catching
Free estimates across Nebraska, with a fixed written price before anything is touched.