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Vernon, Alabama · Lamar County

French Door Repair in Vernon, AL

The characteristic French door problem is the doors rubbing where they meet. That is almost always hinge sag on one or both leaves, and it gets blamed on the doors swelling far more often than swelling is actually responsible.

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

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French Door Repair diagram
French Door Repair — Vernon, Alabama

Our Vernon customers are spread from the courthouse square to the US-278 corridor and out around the Lamar County Courthouse, and we serve the surrounding Lamar County communities on the same schedule.

A lot of what we see in Lamar County comes down to age. Houses built decades ago have solid frames with tired hardware; houses built recently have sound hardware in frames that are still settling.

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

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The french door repair problems we see most in Vernon

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

  • There is a step you can feel between the two door facesThe leaves are no longer in the same plane, generally a hinge or frame issue rather than a door one.
  • The flush bolts on the inactive leaf need forcingMisaligned keepers, or corrosion in the bolt housings.
  • The gearbox makes a grinding noise when the handle is liftedWear inside the multipoint gearbox, which usually fails completely soon after this starts.
  • Daylight visible along the astragalWeatherstrip compressed flat or missing entirely.
  • The handle set turns but nothing engagesBroken multipoint gearbox or a failed drive.
  • The doors rub where they meetOne or both leaves have dropped on their hinges.

Most doors we see are repairable.Call and find out before you price a replacement.

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How conditions in Vernon affect french door repair

Humidity stays high from late spring through September, which is exactly when wood doors that fit fine in winter start dragging on the jamb.

Storm wind on a pair of French doors loads the meeting stile and the flush bolts, and if the inactive leaf is not solidly bolted top and bottom, the wind will find that out for you.

The bottom of the meeting stile is the hardest place on a house to keep watertight, and heavy rain against a French door pair will find any weakness in the sill seal or the threshold there.

Knowing that is the difference between a repair that holds through a Vernon summer and one that does not.

Local factors we account for in Vernon: storm wind and heavy rainfall — typical of west Alabama.

Most doors we see are repairable.Call and find out before you price a replacement.

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What we repair

  • Frame squaringCorrecting frames that have moved and taken the doors out with them.
  • Alignment and reveal correctionSetting both leaves so the reveal is even and the doors meet cleanly top to bottom.
  • Security upgradesReinforced strikes, longer fasteners and better flush bolts on exterior pairs.
  • Hinge repair and re-hangingCorrecting sag with proper fasteners into framing and re-hanging leaves plumb.
  • Flush bolt repairHead and sill flush bolts on the inactive leaf repaired or replaced.
  • Interior French door serviceAlignment, hardware and hinge work on interior pairs.
  • Astragal and weatherstrip replacementNew seals on the meeting stile so the middle joint actually closes.

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

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Our french door repair process

  1. Measure the reveal all the way aroundThe gap pattern between the leaves and around the frame tells us exactly what has moved and in which direction.
  2. Check each leaf on its ownWith the inactive leaf bolted, we test the active one, then reverse it. Faults that look shared usually are not.
  3. Correct the hinges before the hardwareMultipoint locks and flush bolts cannot be adjusted into working if the door is sitting in the wrong place.
  4. Rebuild the seal at the meeting stileAstragal weatherstrip is the hardest working seal on the door and it is usually the one that has been ignored.
  5. Set the locking hardwareKeepers adjusted so the shootbolts engage top and bottom with the handle lifting smoothly and no forcing.
  6. Test both leaves through a full cycleBoth doors should close, latch and seal without force. We assess whether the opening has shifted before adjusting hardware, since correcting the symptom here tends not to hold.

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

What affects the cost of french door repair in Vernon

There is no single price for french door repair in Vernon, because two doors with identical symptoms can need very different work. Here is what makes the difference:

  • interior versus exterior pairs, since exterior work includes weatherproofing
  • whether the frame itself has moved and needs correcting
  • glass replacement in individual lites
  • multipoint lock repair versus full gearbox replacement
  • whether one leaf or both need re-hanging

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 Vernon.

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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Areas we cover for french door repair in Vernon

Vernon coverage runs across the courthouse square and the US-278 corridor, and out to the areas around the Lamar County Courthouse and the Buttahatchee River.

Service area: Vernon, Lamar County, Alabama — and the surrounding communities.

We also cover the nearby Lamar County and west Alabama communities listed further down this page.

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

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French door repair in Vernon: questions we get asked

Are French doors less secure than a single door?

They can be, because there are two leaves and a joint in the middle. Reinforced strikes, solid flush bolts and long fasteners into the framing make a big difference and are inexpensive.

The inactive door keeps moving when I close the active one. Why?

The flush bolts at the top and bottom of the inactive leaf have failed or are no longer reaching their keepers. Both need to be solidly engaged or the whole pair loses its reference point.

My French doors rub in the middle. Is that because the wood swelled?

Usually not. Nine times out of ten it is hinge sag on one leaf, and the giveaway is that the rub is worse at one end of the joint than the other. Real swelling affects the whole edge evenly and comes and goes with the season.

Can one lite of glass be replaced or does the whole door need doing?

Individual lites can normally be replaced on their own. That is one of the advantages of a true divided or simulated divided light door.

The handle on my French door spins without doing anything. What broke?

The multipoint gearbox or the drive connection inside the door. That is a replacement part matched to the specific system, and it is worth identifying the manufacturer before ordering.

My French doors bind in summer but are fine in winter. Is that normal?

Some seasonal movement is normal in Vernon, but if it is bad enough to stop the door closing, there is usually an underlying alignment problem that the seasonal movement is pushing over the edge.

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 Vernon


French Door Repair near Vernon

We cover the surrounding Lamar County and west Alabama communities as well:

All door repair services in Vernon  ·  French Door Repair across Alabama  ·  All Alabama service areas

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
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