Doors In Inner West Homes Can Present Challenges

Because the majority of houses in the inner west of Sydney are ‘older’ homes, often built as far back as the federation era, we see many instances where timber work has become neglected in homes or is in need of replacing or repair. Many doors on older homes are actually lovely, well made solid timber doors. They were made in the days when craftsmanship was the ‘norm’ and many doors from the federation era, for example, feature multiple panels and intricate timer trim around those panels. We have worked on such doors recently where the doors were in a sorry state and needed ‘bringing back to life’.

Door Restoration Project Example

We were presented with solid timer doors with the following issues:

  1. Non original, non functioning door handles fitted
  2. The door would not close properly
  3. Paintwork was ‘rough’ and in need of refinishing

Firstly, we suggested replacing the old painted over door handles with a nice ‘period’ looking door handle set. An example of this is shown below:

door handle image

Replacing door handles can seem like an easy job however this is not always the case. In this instance the old door handle set had a broken door latch, so a new, low cost latch was purchased from Bunnings. The new door latch and handles were fitted and the old door plate mounting holes were filled prior to final finishing.

Secondly we looked at why the door would not close properly. This can be down to several reasons but often it can be because the hinges have come loose from either the door or the door jamb or because the door has been painted over so many times the added thickness prohibits the door from closing! In this instance it was a combination of both. We replaced the hinge screws with a longer, more appropriate screw and planed the side of the door down a few millimetres using an electric planer. This required taking the door off the hinges first!

Thirdly, we sanded down the door and repainted it. Fortunately the client had the correct paint to match the existing paintwork. If this had not been the case most paint shops can ‘match’ paint to a sample supplied to them. In most cases the match is very close to the original colour.

The finished door presented really well with the new paintwork, the new, fully functioning door handle set and latch and the operation of the door (the opening and closing) was now 100 percent.