broken door frame

badgolferman wrote on Mon, 18 Nov 2024 03:30:23 -0000 (UTC) :

Sorry for your damage due to the powers that be being careless.

I'm no carpenter, but I've used Elmers Glue for years on wood. It's stronger after a repair than when new. You just have to hold it together for 24 hours.

Do you think you can glue that crack & screw it together temporarily until the glue sets?

I think they get a kick out of being macho men.

I think the frame can be fixed. Put some white glue in the rift (though I did not do that), push it back in place, have someeone hold it if need be (I definitely did not need that), and then nail it from the side with long finishing nails that can go below the surface. YOu can also put in a couple from inside, that is, facing the outside, and put them in at an angle, one leaning up and the other leaning down. (When nails are put in all parallel to each other, pressures can make the upper piece of wood separate from the lower, but not when at conflicting angles. See what I mean?)

Then a layer of paint. Maybe some crack filler first if you want.

I had something similar June of 2021. I was on 3-month trip. I'd rented a room as a roommate with 2 other guys whose 3rd roommate was student teaching. That took care of 6 weeks. Almost all the rest of it I lived in my rental car. I was very careful not to do any damage to the car, and I didn't.

The grass grew faster than I expected and I got an email telling me to mow my grass. (Sp I called a landscape guy who wanted to go look before he gave a price, and then never called me back, even after I waited and called again. I had a sim with local and a USA phone number so it wasn't an international call.) Then I called my next-building neighbor,NBN, whose son was doing landscaping. We live in townhouses and his building is at right angles to mine, so from his stoop, he turns left and looks right at my door.

He told me the police had broken into my home. What!!! I told the presient of the HOA I was going away but no one else. The house next to me was vacant, and I didn't know NBN or his frineds well enough to tell him (I trust him but he might casually mention it to his friends.) I had left the lights on timers and the radio in the kitchen on a timer. They were showing the house next door to a potentional buyer and they heard the radio, and my car was in its spot and they hadn't seen me in weeks, probably 2 months, so they called the police who kicked the door down. I don't have windows on the first floor, only 2 sliding glass doors, which I'm sure cost more than my door frame.

I asked NBN, Is my door wide open? No, he said. And the lawn had been mowed the previous day*** My trip was scheduled for 3 more weeks so I put it out of my mind and enjoyed my trip, except that I saved enough energy so, that despite jetlag, when I got home I could work on the door that evening.

I don't remember if I needed my key. I pushed open the door. The open end of the door hit the floor and slid along it. My frame was broken something like yours, the frame split on the side with the latch, a foot worth of sheetrock ripped from the wall, the door trim from 2 of 3 sides lying on the floor, and 2 of the 3 hinges were ripped out of the door frame.

A little embarrassed so I didn't ask for help. I don't like asking for help. I managed to close the door and go to Home Depot for some longer screws. And that took care of things until I slept after my long flight.

His footprint was on my door, and there had been a police form that fell off, got rained on, and was illegible, even the "case number".. Later I talked to all of my n'bors and none volunteered that they had called the police. I know who did from NBN it but I'm not going to bring it up.

Next day I pushed the cracked part back and nailed it to the 2x4 which I have and you must have backing the door frame.

The door trim was easy enough to nail back in place. I'm not good with sheetrock, and of course more had to be cut out to make it a straight line.

There is a tiny crack showing in the jam but only when the door is open. I didn't bother to use fill or to paint the jamb.

The door is a little harder to shut, I'm 90% sure because I never got around to re-tighening the screws in the upper hinge (and maybe the middle hinge too). I didn't use a ladder to put them in so I couldn't put my weight behind the screwdriver and I can see a small crack between the hinge and the door frame on the side next to the pivot. Pretty sure if I tightened the screws the door would open and shut more easily but I'm not even sure I want that.

Good luck.

You should be able to repair or hire a carpenter. Neighbor across the street had his front door replaced and I believe he said it cost $6,000. I have had sticker shock in past year with cost of plumbing and garage door repairs.

BTW, someone I once knew had their front door replaced with a steel one that was advertised high security or something. Someone still broke in through the door, and the door company offered a free new one (with installlation, I don't know) but she thought she was getting a stronger door and was annoyed about how low high security was.

Unless your house only has doors and not windows or if the windows are given the same treatment a high security door is worthless. They can just go in the window. Simple locks are all that are needed just to keep out the ones that pass through and check the doors. They will let you know if someone has broken into the house for insurance company to know it was a break in.

Hard to believe the door replacement could cost that much unless he had a very special door. Sounds like the kind of ripoff I was going to be charged $ 1800 for a water heater when another company did it for $ 950.

Ralph Mowery wrote on Mon, 18 Nov 2024 11:20:46 -0500 :

Same with the garage door example. Most "repairs" that are expensive are simply people who don't want to DIY have to pay someone else to DIY it.

Once about 20 years (or so) ago I paid a garage-door outfit to replace my one broken across-the-door standard torsion spring (not the long type that go the length of the car - but the shorter type that cross the door opening).

Like I always do when someone else does any work (I love to watch the utility guys work too!) I watched him do it & asked questions, & by doing so, I realized that it's one of those very easy (but dangerous) things.

I paid something like $100 (or whatever in that range) and I liked that it took the guy only about a half hour (or so) because the job is very easy.

All he did was bolt it on & wind it up (properly). It's really that easy.

But what I didn't like was that the company would not put on a beefier spring, nor would they do the math to convert one spring to two springs.

They wouldn't even do the math to convert the 10K cycle spring to 50K! I didn't like that at all.

It was like having an Apple product versus Linux. No choice but their choice and their choice was a substandard product at not a cheap price.

So I started looking that stuff up & I found out it was easy to do it.

All you do is: a. You run the math to convert one spring to two springs b. You run the math to convert a 10K cycle spring to a 50K cycle spring c. You pay five bucks for the "special tools" (two steel rods) d. You pay almost nothing for the 50K cycle springs by mail order e. When they arrive, you get out your ladder and you wind them f. And best of all, those 50K cycle springs last five times longer!

So you're dead by the time one of your DIY-wound springs breaks again.

BTW, before everyone who would never DIY tells me how dangerous it is to wind your own springs, yes, I know. It's extremely dangerous. I know that.

If you're the kind of person who would never DIY things, then of course you'll tell me you have to be a slave & accept their 10K cycle springs.

And you'll tell me you have to be a slave and accept only one spring, which isn't as safe as two springs, nor is that spring going to last as long.

But that's not me. Nor, IMHO, should it be you.

A 50K cycle spring should cost less than or about fifty bucks today. All you have to do is not be stupid when buying & winding them.

Seems like the last 40-50 years there has been a definite emphasis on not getting your hands dirty ... This boomer has worked on everything from digging ditches to building computers and building the house we live in . As far as the OP's door frame . He can have just that one jamb leg replaced , try to glue & screw it back together or have the whole door FRAME ONLY replaced - assuming they didn't damage the door . That is if he can find a craftsman who is capable of doing "repair" rather than "replace unit" . I did that sort of work when I was working at a GC that specialized in insurance repairs .

Agreed! Meet Ideal Door's EZSET torsion springs. So easy even a Democrat could do it.

There are HUGE differences in the quality of water heaters. If you want to replace it again in 5 years buy the cheap one - or go for the high end tank and rest easy for 18 to 20 (or more) years.My current one is now 13 years old - it replaced the last one I installed 25 years earlier - which replaced the original 10 year old contractor installed garbage. Installation cost is the same for cheap crap as it is for the primo model.

Same CAN go for doors. Cheap steel foam core doors, solid wood doors, or Fiberglass doors. I sprung for the fiberglass as replacement for the original steel front door. (Put in complete entry system - side-light, frame and door with stained glass windoe - about $2200 Canadian pesos) The wooden door on the back of the garage will require replacement shortly (after 48 years) - or possibly just repair. The veneer is letting go along the bottom edge - might just epoxy or bondo it up and repaint and get another 10 years???

The quality of the waer heaters were the same. The first man did offer me a heater for only $ 1300 of a lesser quality. I did not ask the first one of the price of the heater and labor but the 2nd place only charged $ 150 labor and the other 850 was heater and parts.

I had a guy come over and take a look. He said he could rebuild and replace the broken jamb sometime after Thanksgiving. In the meantime he used some long screws to attach the split board and strike plate back in place to give the door something to hold on to. Hopefully he will actually come through for me.