Doors
Door Repair
The slab is the part least likely to be at fault, and the part everyone blames. In a state with this frost depth, the ground is usually the real culprit.
- Typical visit
- One to three hours
- Common fault
- A dropped slab
- Worst advice
- Plane the edge
- Estimate
- Free, fixed in writing
Rule these out first
Four things it is probably not
Minnesota doors produce a narrow set of complaints with a wide set of wrong answers.
Not this
It is not the door that is too big
A door that binds in one corner has not grown. Either the slab has dropped on its hinges or the opening has moved around it, and taking material off treats neither.
Not this
It is not a broken lock
When a door will not latch, the bolt is almost always missing a strike that has drifted a few millimetres. The lock mechanism is usually fine.
Not this
It is not permanent damage because it only happens in winter
Frost lifts openings and then releases them. A door that binds in February and clears in May is telling you about the ground, and the fix is adjustment that tolerates both.
Not this
It is not a draught you have to live with
Most cold air at a Minnesota entry door comes past a flattened sweep or compressed weatherstrip. Both are inexpensive, and you notice the difference the same evening.
How it actually works
Why Minnesota doors move
Four mechanisms, and only one of them involves the door.
Frost penetrates deep here
Minnesota frost reaches further down than almost anywhere in the country. It lifts footings, steps, stoops and porch slabs, and the door frames sitting on them go up with it.
The opening racks, not the slab
When one side of an opening lifts and the other does not, the frame goes slightly out of square. The door then catches on a corner that was fine in October.
Hinge screws lose their grip
Decades of seasonal movement and dry winter air loosen screws in jamb timber. The slab drops a few millimetres, and everything from the latch to the sweep stops lining up.
Then it mostly comes back
Spring thaw releases the heave and the opening settles toward where it was. That is why the right repair is one that works across the range rather than one set for February.
By temperature
When door problems show up
Doors complain on a schedule in this climate.
70°F
Swelling and sticking
Humid summer air swells timber slabs and jambs. This is when people reach for a plane, and when doing so causes the most trouble later.
30°F
Draughts become obvious
Flattened sweeps and compressed weatherstrip announce themselves as soon as there is a temperature difference to notice.
0°F
Latches and locks stiffen
Metal contracts, lubricant thickens and a lock that was marginal in autumn stops throwing cleanly.
-20°F
Frost heave at its peak
Steps and stoops are lifted as far as they will go. Doors that catch now will often clear on their own by May, which is useful to know before anybody cuts anything.
On the visit
What we check on a door
Four observations that between them find almost every fault.
Exactly where it rubs
Top corner means a dropped slab. Bottom edge means hinges or threshold. Latch side only means the strike has drifted. Marked and measured rather than guessed.
Whether the hinge screws bite
Open the door, support it, and try the top hinge. Screws spinning in dry jamb timber are the single most common root cause we find.
The paper test, all the way round
Close the door on a strip of paper at several points. Anywhere it pulls out freely is a gap you are heating the outdoors through.
The jamb bottoms and threshold ends
Pressed for softness. Snowmelt and salt sitting at the base of a frame is where most Minnesota exterior doors eventually fail.
Minnesota conditions
What Minnesota does to a door
Deep frost, long snow cover and a hundred and thirty degrees of annual range.
Frost depth and heave
Minnesota frost goes deeper than almost anywhere in the country, and it lifts whatever is sitting on it. Steps, stoops and entry frames move seasonally in a way that homeowners in milder states simply do not experience.
Months of snow against the threshold
Snow piled at an entry stays for weeks rather than days. It melts in afternoon sun, refreezes overnight, and works into sweeps, thresholds and jamb bottoms.
Salt and sand on top of that
Winter treatment carried in on boots sits at the base of the frame, corroding hardware and accelerating rot well beyond what water alone would do.
Dry winter air shrinking the slab
Heated Minnesota interiors in January are extremely dry. The same slab that was swollen shut in August shrinks measurably, which is exactly why planing in summer is the repair people regret.
Questions
Door repair questions
My door catches in winter and is fine in summer.
Frost heave. The ground is lifting the opening and releasing it again. We adjust so the door works across the range rather than cutting for its worst week.
Should I plane the door down?
We would rather you did not, and in Minnesota particularly. Timber removed in August cannot be put back when the slab shrinks in a dry January.
Cold air comes in under the front door.
Sweep or threshold, and both are cheap. It is the highest-return small repair on a Minnesota entry door.
The bottom of the frame has gone soft.
Snowmelt and salt sitting where they should have drained. Confined to the jamb bottom it is a cut-out and rebuild; once it reaches framing the job is larger.
Why will it not latch any more?
The slab has dropped a few millimetres and the bolt is missing the strike. Repositioning the strike usually solves it with no new hardware.
Do you work on storm doors?
Yes — closers, latches, hinges and panel swaps. In Minnesota wind a storm door that will not latch eventually tears off its hinges.
Coverage
Door repair across Minnesota
A mobile service covering the whole state, metro to the Iron Range. Pick your town below, or call and we will come to you.
Door Repair Across Minnesota
Related
Other repairs we handle
Windows and doors are the whole business, so whatever has failed, it is on this list.
Next step
Tell us where the door is catching
Free estimates across Minnesota, with a fixed written price before anything is touched.