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Elmore, Alabama · Elmore County

French Door Repair in Elmore, AL

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.

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

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French Door Repair diagram
French Door Repair — Elmore, Alabama

Between Elmore proper, the the AL-143 corridor area and the newer building out toward the Coosa River, we stay busy in Elmore County, and Millbrook is close enough that we are often nearby.

Between the established parts of Elmore 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.

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

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When to call about french door repair

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

  • The gearbox makes a grinding noise when the handle is liftedWear inside the multipoint gearbox, which usually fails completely soon after this starts.
  • The doors rub where they meetOne or both leaves have dropped on their hinges.
  • The multipoint locks at the top but not the bottomThe active leaf has dropped, so the lower keeper is now below the shootbolt.
  • Daylight visible along the astragalWeatherstrip compressed flat or missing entirely.
  • One door swings open on its ownHinge line out of plumb on that leaf.
  • Condensation in one of the litesFailed insulated glass in a single lite, replaceable on its own.

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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How conditions in Elmore affect french door repair

Remnants of Gulf systems still carry serious rain this far inland, and doors on the south and west sides of a house take the brunt of it.

Humidity swells both leaves toward each other, and since the meeting stile is where the two doors already have the tightest clearance, that is where a French door pair binds first every summer.

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.

We see the pattern often enough across Elmore County that we usually know what we are looking at before we arrive.

Local factors we account for in Elmore: sustained humidity and storm wind — typical of the River Region.

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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French door repair work we handle in Elmore

  • Interior French door serviceAlignment, hardware and hinge work on interior pairs.
  • Handle and lockset replacementMatched handle sets and cylinders for French door pairs.
  • Threshold and sill workNew adjustable thresholds and sill seals under a pair of doors.
  • Security upgradesReinforced strikes, longer fasteners and better flush bolts on exterior pairs.
  • Multipoint lock repairRepairing and replacing multipoint gearboxes, drive rods and keepers.
  • Alignment and reveal correctionSetting both leaves so the reveal is even and the doors meet cleanly top to bottom.
  • Sliding French door serviceRollers, tracks and hardware on sliding French systems.

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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How we approach french door repair

  1. Measure the reveal all the way roundThe gap pattern between the leaves and the frame tells us what has moved before we touch any hardware.
  2. Check both leaves independentlyOne door usually causes the problem, and treating both the same way makes it worse.
  3. Get both leaves back in planeIf the door faces are stepped, no amount of lock adjustment will make the pair meet correctly.
  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. Openings here get assessed for drainage as well as alignment, since summer storms find any weakness at the sill.
  5. Set the locking hardwareMultipoint points and flush bolts engaged cleanly with no lifting or pulling required.
  6. Check it seals along its lengthWe look for daylight and feel for draft down the full height of the meeting stile, not just at eye level.

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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What affects the cost of french door repair in Elmore

Every french door repair call in Elmore County is a little different, and the cost follows what the door actually needs:

  • interior versus exterior pairs, since exterior work includes weatherproofing
  • astragal, weatherstrip and threshold replacement
  • glass replacement in individual lites
  • multipoint lock repair versus full gearbox replacement
  • whether the frame itself has moved and needs correcting

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 Elmore.

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

Areas we cover for french door repair in Elmore

Coverage in Elmore takes in the AL-143 corridor, plus everything around the Coosa River and Wetumpka nearby.

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

We also cover the nearby Elmore County and the River Region communities listed further down this page.

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

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French door repair in Elmore: questions we get asked

Do you work on interior French doors too?

Yes. Interior pairs have simpler hardware but exactly the same alignment problems, and they are usually a quick fix.

Can sagging French doors be fixed without replacing them?

Yes, and it is the usual outcome. The fix is proper hinge repair with fasteners reaching the structural framing, plus re-hanging the leaf plumb. Replacing a pair of French doors is a large job by comparison.

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.

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 Elmore, 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.

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.

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 door repair services in Elmore


French Door Repair near Elmore

We cover the surrounding Elmore County and the River Region communities as well:

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

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

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