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Home Services French Door Repair

Statewide · Alabama

French Door Repair in Alabama

French doors are two heavy doors meeting in the middle with nothing but hardware holding the alignment. When one leaf drops even slightly, the pair stops meeting cleanly and everything downstream stops working: the latch, the seal, the multipoint lock.

  • 316 Alabama communities
  • Homes & businesses
  • Repair first, replace last

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French Door Repair diagram
French Door Repair

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.

Exterior French doors take weather on two large glazed leaves and seal along a vertical joint in the middle, which is the hardest place in a house to keep sealed. Getting the astragal and weatherstrip right is most of the job.

We repair both interior and exterior French doors, including multipoint locking systems, sagging hinges, failed astragals and glass replacement in individual lites.

Alabama is not one climate. Salt air on the coast, expansive clay through the Black Belt and the Birmingham metro, hard freezes on Sand Mountain and blowing sand in the Wiregrass all attack doors differently, and the right repair changes with them. Pick your city below for what we see locally.

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

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What we repair

  • Hinge repair and re-hangingCorrecting sag with proper fasteners into framing and re-hanging leaves plumb.
  • Astragal and weatherstrip replacementNew seals on the meeting stile so the middle joint actually closes.
  • Multipoint lock repairRepairing and replacing multipoint gearboxes, drive rods and keepers.
  • Flush bolt repairHead and sill flush bolts on the inactive leaf repaired or replaced.
  • Threshold and sill workNew adjustable thresholds and sill seals under a pair of doors.
  • Individual lite glass replacementReplacing failed or broken glass in single lites without replacing the whole door.
  • Handle and lockset replacementMatched handle sets and cylinders for French door pairs.
  • Alignment and reveal correctionSetting both leaves so the reveal is even and the doors meet cleanly top to bottom.
  • Frame squaringCorrecting frames that have moved and taken the doors out with them.
  • Interior French door serviceAlignment, hardware and hinge work on interior pairs.
  • Sliding French door serviceRollers, tracks and hardware on sliding French systems.
  • Security upgradesReinforced strikes, longer fasteners and better flush bolts on exterior pairs.

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

Common faults

  • The doors rub where they meetOne or both leaves have dropped on their hinges.
  • A visible gap at the top or bottom of the meeting stileThe pair is out of alignment and no longer parallel.
  • Cold air pouring in down the middleFailed astragal weatherstrip on the joint between the leaves.
  • The multipoint lock will not throwThe door is not sitting in the frame correctly, so the lock points do not line up with their keepers.
  • The inactive leaf will not stay putFailed flush bolts at the head and sill.
  • One door swings open on its ownHinge line out of plumb on that leaf.
  • Water coming in at the thresholdFailed sill seal or a threshold that has deteriorated.
  • Condensation in one of the litesFailed insulated glass in a single lite, replaceable on its own.

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 work

  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 both leaves independentlyOne door usually causes the problem, and treating both the same way makes it worse.
  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 hardwareMultipoint points and flush bolts engaged cleanly with no lifting or pulling required.
  6. Test both leaves through a full cycleBoth doors should close, latch and seal without force.

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

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French Door Repair FAQs

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.

Why will my multipoint lock not throw anymore?

The door has moved, so the lock points no longer line up with their keepers in the frame. Forcing the handle in that state is how the gearbox breaks, so it is worth correcting the alignment before something expensive fails.

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.

There is a draft right down the middle of my French doors. What fixes it?

The astragal weatherstrip on the meeting stile. It compresses flat over time and stops sealing, and it is a straightforward replacement that makes a large difference in your area winters.

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.

How do I stop water coming in under my French doors?

Usually the threshold seal and the sill pan. A pair of exterior French doors has a hard job at the bottom of the meeting stile, and in your County storms that is where water finds its way in.

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

French Door Repair by city in Alabama

The Tennessee Valley

Hot, sticky summers followed by genuine winter freezes.

The Shoals

River humidity, hard winter freezes and heavy spring rain.

The Sand Mountain And Lookout Mountain Plateau

Plateau winters that run colder than the valley floor.

The Appalachian Foothills

Foothill freeze-thaw with heavy spring and fall storms.

The Birmingham Metro

Red clay soil movement, long humid summers and sudden cold snaps.

West Alabama

Heavy rainfall, high humidity and an active storm season.

The Black Belt

Expansive prairie clay that moves foundations year to year.

The River Region

Long hot summers, heavy thunderstorms and tropical leftovers.

East Central Alabama

Humid summers, mild winters and a busy spring storm season.

The Wiregrass

Extreme summer heat, sandy soil and inland hurricane effects.

The Alabama Gulf Coast

Salt air, extreme humidity, sand and hurricane season.

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

Other services

  • Sliding Door Repair

    Sticking, jumping, or dragging sliding glass doors put back on smooth-rolling track.

  • Door Lock Repair

    Deadbolts, latches, cylinders and strike alignment repaired on residential and commercial doors.

  • Door Frame Repair

    Rotted, split, kicked-in and out-of-square frames rebuilt so the door fits again.

  • Door Handle Repair

    Loose, broken and seized handles, knobs and levers repaired or replaced.

  • Door Hinge Repair

    Sagging doors, stripped hinge screws, squealing pins and worn knuckles put right.

  • Patio Door Repair

    Sliding, French and multi-panel patio doors repaired, realigned and resealed.

  • Door Glass Repair

    Broken, cracked and fogged door glass replaced, including tempered and insulated units.

  • Commercial Door Repair

    Hollow metal, aluminum and high-traffic doors kept working for businesses and property managers.

  • Storefront Door Repair

    Aluminum storefront entrances repaired: pivots, closers, locks, glass and alignment.

  • Door Closer Repair

    Closers adjusted, rebuilt and replaced so doors shut properly instead of slamming or hanging open.

  • Automatic Door Repair

    Automatic sliding and swing doors, operators, sensors and safety systems serviced.

  • Screen Door Repair

    Sliding screens, storm doors and screen panels rescreened, rerolled and rehung.

  • Interior Door Repair

    Sticking, sagging, rattling and damaged interior doors made to work properly again.

  • Exterior Door Repair

    Front and back entry doors resealed, realigned, reinforced and repaired.

  • Window Repair

    Sashes, balances, glass, seals and hardware repaired on residential and commercial windows.

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