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Cottonwood, Alabama · Houston County

Door Frame Repair in Cottonwood, AL

When a door will not close right, people replace the door. Most of the time the door is fine and the frame is the problem. Jambs rot at the bottom, split at the strike, and go out of square when the house moves, and no amount of...

  • Repair first, replace last
  • Homes & businesses
  • Houston County covered
  • Straight answers on the phone

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Door Frame Repair diagram
Door Frame Repair — Cottonwood, Alabama

We service every part of Cottonwood, including Main Street and the AL-53 corridor, and the nearby Houston County towns like Rehobeth and Webb.

Between the established parts of Cottonwood and the newer subdivisions, we see two different kinds of failure: worn-out frames on one side of town and worn-out hardware on the other.

Not sure whether it is a repair or a replacement?Describe the symptoms and we will give you a straight answer.

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When to call about door frame repair

These are the door frame repair faults we are called out to most often in Cottonwood. If you recognise one, the underlying cause is usually the second half of the line.

  • Gaps between the jamb and the wallThe frame has pulled loose from the framing behind it, or the fasteners have lost their grip.
  • A hinge screw goes in but never gets tightThe screw is turning in decayed wood or in an over-drilled hole with nothing left to bite.
  • The door binds at one corner onlyThe frame is out of square, almost always from foundation or wall movement.
  • The jamb sounds hollow when you tap itRot that has consumed the core while the paint film outside still looks intact.
  • Interior trim pulling away from the wallMovement in the frame or the wall behind it.
  • Insects or carpenter ants near the door bottomAlmost always a sign of moisture-damaged wood in the jamb or sill.

One call gets you an answer.We will tell you what is wrong and what it takes to fix.

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

Why door frame repair fails in the Wiregrass

The Wiregrass gets punishing summer heat and enough tropical rain that hurricane remnants are a normal part of the year, not an exception. Sally and Michael both did door and window damage this far inland.

Heavy rainfall overwhelms whatever drainage exists at a threshold, and if there is no sill pan under the frame the water goes into the framing and the subfloor, so what shows up as a soft jamb is usually the smallest part of the problem.

Sand piling against a sill holds moisture against the bottom of the jamb the same way mulch does, and the rot that follows starts at the very bottom of the leg where nobody looks until the wood is already soft.

We factor that in on every door frame repair job around the Florida line nearby and the rest of Cottonwood.

Local factors we account for in Cottonwood: heavy rainfall and blowing sand — typical of the Wiregrass.

Get a real diagnosis, not a sales pitch.We fix doors for a living.

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

Door frame repair work we handle in Cottonwood

  • Kick-in damage repairRebuilding split jambs after a break-in and reinforcing them properly.
  • Brickmould and exterior casing replacementReplacing rotted exterior trim with material that will not do it again.
  • Steel and commercial frame repairRepairing hollow metal frames, anchors and welded joints.
  • Full frame replacementWhen the damage is beyond repair, replacing the frame without disturbing more of the wall than necessary.
  • Strike jamb reinforcementSteel strike boxes and long screws into the framing to make a forced-entry repair stronger than the original.
  • Hinge jamb repairRepairing stripped hinge mortises so the screws hold again.
  • Water management detailsFlashing, drip caps and sill pans so the repair does not rot out again.

Tell us what the door is doing and we will tell you what it needs.No guesswork over the phone, no pressure.

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

How we approach door frame repair

  1. Read the door for evidenceWear marks, paint cracks and the shape of the reveal tell us how the frame moved and in which direction.
  2. Find where the water gets inRot is downstream of a leak. Repairing the timber without finding the entry point guarantees a repeat.
  3. Choose repair or replacement honestlyIf splicing gets you a solid frame we splice. If the damage runs into the framing behind it, we tell you that instead of covering it.
  4. Rebuild in material that survives hereTreated timber, composite or a full jamb depending on exposure. Untreated pine at a wet sill is a repair with an expiry date.
  5. Re-hang to the corrected frameOnce the jamb is sound, the door is reset to it, with hinge fixings that reach the framing rather than just the casing.
  6. Seal it so it stays sealedCorrect sealant at the correct joints, and paint or finish onto sound substrate so water has nowhere to start again. In the Wiregrass we check tracks and channels for fine sand, which grinds moving parts flat faster than anything else in the state.

Need it looked at soon?Call and we will tell you honestly when we can get there.

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

What affects the cost of door frame repair in Cottonwood

What a door frame repair job costs comes down to a handful of things, and we would rather be straight about them up front:

  • whether the frame can be spliced or has to be replaced
  • whether the threshold and sill pan also need rebuilding
  • whether the cause is structural movement that needs to be addressed first
  • wood versus hollow metal frames on commercial openings
  • interior versus exterior frames, since exterior work includes weatherproofing

Call and describe what the door is doing. In most cases we can tell you over the phone which of those applies to you before anyone drives out to Cottonwood.

Get a real diagnosis, not a sales pitch.We fix doors for a living.

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

Areas we cover for door frame repair in Cottonwood

If you are in Main Street and the AL-53 corridor, or anywhere near the Florida line nearby and the Chattahoochee valley, we cover you.

Service area: Cottonwood, Houston County, Alabama — and the surrounding communities.

We also cover the nearby Houston County and the Wiregrass communities listed further down this page.

One call gets you an answer.We will tell you what is wrong and what it takes to fix.

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

Door frame repair in Cottonwood: questions we get asked

Will fixing the frame fix my lock problems?

Very often, yes. If the deadbolt has been hard to throw, the strike side of the frame is usually the reason. Correcting the frame lines the bolt up with the strike again.

Is it worth repairing a frame on an old house?

Usually very much so. Old growth jamb material is better than most of what you can buy now, and splicing preserves the original profile and casing rather than replacing it with a modern lookalike.

Why does the bottom of my door frame keep rotting out?

Water is getting to it and staying there. That means a failed threshold, a missing sill pan, a drip cap that is not shedding water, or ground and mulch sitting too high against the sill. Replacing the wood without fixing the water just resets the clock.

How do I know if the damage is rot or termites?

Rot is soft and spongy and follows water paths from the bottom up. Insect damage leaves galleries and frass. Either way the moisture problem that let it start needs fixing, or the repair will not last in Houston County.

Someone kicked in my door. Can the frame be saved?

Usually yes, and it can be made stronger than it was. Most kick-ins split the jamb at the strike because the original screws only went into thin jamb material. We rebuild the split and reinforce it into the structural framing behind.

The head of my door frame sags. Is that serious?

It can be. A sagging head jamb often means the header above the opening is carrying load it should not be. We look at that before doing cosmetic work, because the door is telling you something about the structure.

Get a real diagnosis, not a sales pitch.We fix doors for a living.

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

Other door repair services in Cottonwood


Door Frame Repair near Cottonwood

We cover the surrounding Houston County and the Wiregrass communities as well:

All door repair services in Cottonwood  ·  Door Frame Repair across Alabama  ·  All Alabama service areas

Broken, stuck, or will not lock?Talk to someone who works on these every day.

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