Front and Exterior Door Repair in Phoenix
The front door takes the sun, the dust and the monsoon rain, and it's the one door you need to lock and seal every day.
Arizona ROC #366903 · Licensed, Bonded & Insured
A front door that sags or won't latch is usually a repair, not a replacement. So is a French door that won't lock. We hang a new door when the old one is past saving.
Doors that stick, sag or won't latch
An entry door sags the same way an interior door does: the top hinge loosens and the door drops. The fix is the same, a long screw into the framing, or shimming the hinges. Steel and fiberglass entry doors can also warp slightly in the sun, especially dark-colored doors facing west, and a warped door needs the strike adjusted so it latches without slamming.
Rot, water and sun
The bottom of a door frame is where water sits after a storm, and on a lot of Phoenix houses it's the first thing to rot. A jamb that's soft at the bottom gets cut back to good wood and a new piece spliced in, sealed, and painted. A rotted threshold gets replaced. Water coming in under the door is usually the sweep, the threshold, or a gap at the bottom corner of the frame where the caulk has let go.
Sun is the other enemy. A front door facing west takes the full afternoon, and the finish cracks, peels or fades in a few years. A fiberglass door gets cleaned, sanded and refinished. A steel door gets primed and painted. A door that's actually warped from heat, so it won't seal at the top or bottom, gets the strike plate and weatherstripping adjusted first, and gets replaced if that's not enough.
French doors and sidelights
French doors don't line up because one of the two doors has dropped. The fixed door is held by bolts at the top and bottom, and when those wear or the door sags, the active door can't lock into it. Adjusting the hinges and the flush bolts fixes most of them. A sidelight, the narrow window beside a front door, leaks where the glass meets the frame or where the frame meets the wall. It gets resealed, and the glass unit replaced if it's fogged.
Replacing an entry door
A door that's rusted through at the bottom, split, or rotted gets replaced. Most entry doors come as a pre-hung unit: the door and its frame together. The old frame comes out, the new unit goes into the same opening, and the trim and stucco get patched. We also replace just the slab, the door without the frame, when the frame is sound and the door isn't.
A new door that faces the afternoon sun should be a light color, or fiberglass rather than steel. Dark steel doors get hot enough to scald in a Phoenix summer, and the paint fails early.
Problems we fix on this page
- Front door sticks
- Front door won't latch
- Front door drafty
- Light under the front door
- Water coming in under the front door
- Front door sweep worn out
- Threshold loose
- Threshold rotted
- Door jamb rotted at the bottom
- Front door finish peeling in the sun
- Front door swollen
- Front door hard to lock
- Handleset loose
- Want a new handleset
- Want a new front door installed
- Sidelight glass leaking
- French doors don't line up
- French door won't lock
- Side door to the yard rotted
- Side door sticks
- Front door warped from the sun
- Front door finish cracked from the sun
How it starts
Send a photo of the door from outside. Tell us what's wrong. Fixed price up front, no surprises on the bill. We can install a door you've already bought. Levi is on the job.
Questions
- My front door sticks only in the afternoon. Why?
- Heat. A door facing the sun swells and warps a little every afternoon and settles back at night. Adjusting the strike plate so it latches without force usually solves it. A door that's warped past that gets replaced, and the new one should be fiberglass or a light color.
- Can the rotted bottom of my door frame be fixed without replacing the whole frame?
- Usually. The soft part gets cut out and a new piece spliced in, then sealed and painted. If the rot runs more than a foot or two up the jamb, a new frame is the better fix.
- Do you replace just the door and keep my frame?
- Yes, if the frame is sound. That's a slab replacement. The new door gets hinges and the lock bored to match, and it's less work and less patching than a full pre-hung unit.
Related pages
Door & window repair
Sticking, sagging, drafty or broken. We make doors and windows open, close and lock the way they should.
Locks
Deadbolts that take two hands, handles that droop, and the smart lock you want on the front door.
Weatherstripping
The doors and windows that let in heat, dust and storm water, and the gaps nobody thinks to look for.
Interior doors
Doors that stick, won't latch, rub the frame, or have a hole in them. Adjusted, repaired or replaced to match.
Carpentry & trim
Baseboards, casing, crown, shelving and the small wood projects that finish a room.
Ready to get it fixed?
Tell us what needs doing. Quotes are free. We usually reply within minutes, and always within 24 hours.