Door Restore
December 9, 2018 6:39 AM Subscribe
We live in an old home and several interior doors need some help. Who do we call for that kind of work?
The house was built in 1915 and has the original interior doors and hardware. There are several unique issues that need to be dealt with:
-One door has warped out of plane with the jamb
-One door appears to have been chewed on by a previous owner’s pet, and now our cats can put their paws through the hole and pull on the door
-Hardware is all original and the latch spindles are worn
-In an effort to deal with loosening hardware, previous owners chipped out larger and larger holes in the door jamb to move the latch plates around and several are in the wrong spot or loose
We’d like to keep the original doors and have them refurbished. Who do you call to have that kind of work done? Do you know someone in the greater Boston area that does that kind of work?
The house was built in 1915 and has the original interior doors and hardware. There are several unique issues that need to be dealt with:
-One door has warped out of plane with the jamb
-One door appears to have been chewed on by a previous owner’s pet, and now our cats can put their paws through the hole and pull on the door
-Hardware is all original and the latch spindles are worn
-In an effort to deal with loosening hardware, previous owners chipped out larger and larger holes in the door jamb to move the latch plates around and several are in the wrong spot or loose
We’d like to keep the original doors and have them refurbished. Who do you call to have that kind of work done? Do you know someone in the greater Boston area that does that kind of work?
You might want to give a call over to the North Bennet Street School or post a commission. They have classes over there in preservation carpentry and furniture making so surely someone could do this job. The teachers and grads over there are some of the best in the world at what they do.
posted by bondcliff at 8:03 AM on December 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by bondcliff at 8:03 AM on December 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
Your state historic preservation office or local historic preservation nonprofit may maintain a list of qualified contractors who specialize in historic restoration work.
posted by Preserver at 8:23 AM on December 9, 2018
posted by Preserver at 8:23 AM on December 9, 2018
I feel this way about a lot of ask.mefi posts, but could you let us know how it goes after all is said and done, with a few photos, and — if this is something you are comfortable with — some details on the expense incurred?
I realize now that there is no built-in mefi way of doing this follow up. It is not a front-page post, and not a question, and if it shows up in meta, I might never see it. Hmm.
posted by Glomar response at 4:23 AM on December 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
I realize now that there is no built-in mefi way of doing this follow up. It is not a front-page post, and not a question, and if it shows up in meta, I might never see it. Hmm.
posted by Glomar response at 4:23 AM on December 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Well, it took awhile for someone to respond but we did find a carpenter through the North Bennett Street School. We ended up doing the following:
-Rework doors/door stops so that every door in the house closes properly
-Fix all the loose door knobs
-Repair the animal damage to the one door
-Add a functioning knob to a door that did not have one (a previous owner had... spackled the hole for the knob hardware and added a dead bolt? Why???)
-Paint any exposed wood from the other repair work
He did a great job! You can't even tell the one door used to have a big bite taken out of it. All of our doors close for the first time ever, which is great. He spent about 10 hours in the house, plus took the one animal door back with him to fix that damage; total cost was $750.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:01 PM on February 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
-Rework doors/door stops so that every door in the house closes properly
-Fix all the loose door knobs
-Repair the animal damage to the one door
-Add a functioning knob to a door that did not have one (a previous owner had... spackled the hole for the knob hardware and added a dead bolt? Why???)
-Paint any exposed wood from the other repair work
He did a great job! You can't even tell the one door used to have a big bite taken out of it. All of our doors close for the first time ever, which is great. He spent about 10 hours in the house, plus took the one animal door back with him to fix that damage; total cost was $750.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:01 PM on February 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Sublimity at 6:45 AM on December 9, 2018