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Fairhope, Alabama · Baldwin County

French Door Repair in Fairhope, 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
  • Baldwin County covered
  • Straight answers on the phone

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French Door Repair diagram
French Door Repair — Fairhope, Alabama

Fairhope sits in Baldwin County, and our work here runs from Downtown Fairhope out past the Fairhope Municipal Pier, with Daphne and Foley close enough that we are usually in the area anyway.

Fairhope has enough older housing stock that repair almost always beats replacement here, and enough new construction that we spend a lot of time on hardware that failed early.

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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Signs you need french door repair in Fairhope

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

  • The handle set turns but nothing engagesBroken multipoint gearbox or a failed drive.
  • Screws visible pulling out of hingesHinge fasteners failing under the weight of a heavy glazed leaf.
  • The astragal weatherstrip is compressed flat in one areaPoint loading where the leaves bind, and the seal has stopped working there.
  • Cold air pouring in down the middleFailed astragal weatherstrip on the joint between the leaves.
  • Condensation in one of the litesFailed insulated glass in a single lite, replaceable on its own.
  • Water coming in at the thresholdFailed sill seal or a threshold that has deteriorated.

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 we see on french door repair around Baldwin County

Salt air is the single biggest factor on the coast. It attacks the steel inside roller bearings, hinge pins, latch mechanisms and closer springs, and it does it year round whether or not a storm ever comes.

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.

Grit at the threshold of a French door pair works into the flush bolt sockets at the sill, and a flush bolt that will not seat leaves the inactive leaf floating, which throws the whole pair out.

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

Local factors we account for in Fairhope: sustained humidity and blowing sand — typical of the Alabama Gulf Coast.

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

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What a french door repair call covers

  • Security upgradesReinforced strikes, longer fasteners and better flush bolts on exterior pairs.
  • Individual lite glass replacementReplacing failed or broken glass in single lites without replacing the whole door.
  • Sliding French door serviceRollers, tracks and hardware on sliding French systems.
  • Multipoint lock repairRepairing and replacing multipoint gearboxes, drive rods and keepers.
  • Handle and lockset replacementMatched handle sets and cylinders for French door pairs.
  • Hinge repair and re-hangingCorrecting sag with proper fasteners into framing and re-hanging leaves plumb.
  • Threshold and sill workNew adjustable thresholds and sill seals under a pair of doors.

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

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How we approach french door repair

  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. 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.
  5. Set the locking hardwareKeepers adjusted so the shootbolts engage top and bottom with the handle lifting smoothly and no forcing.
  6. Cycle both leaves fullyOpen, close and lock each leaf several times, including the flush bolts, before we call it finished. We check the drainage path on every coastal opening, because wind-driven rain gets in where ordinary rain never would.

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

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What affects the cost of french door repair in Fairhope

There is no single price for french door repair in Fairhope, 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
  • multipoint lock repair versus full gearbox replacement
  • whether one leaf or both need re-hanging
  • whether the frame itself has moved and needs correcting
  • astragal, weatherstrip and threshold replacement

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 Fairhope.

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

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Areas we cover for french door repair in Fairhope

We work throughout Fairhope, including Downtown Fairhope, the Fruit and Nut District, Point Clear side and the Greeno Road corridor. If you are near the Fairhope Municipal Pier, the downtown flower baskets on Section Street and Mobile Bay's Eastern Shore bluff, that is inside our normal service area.

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

We also cover the nearby Baldwin County and the Alabama Gulf Coast communities listed further down this page.

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

French door repair in Fairhope: questions we get asked

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.

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.

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.

How long does French door repair take?

Most alignment and weatherstrip jobs in Fairhope take two to four hours. Multipoint gearbox replacement or glass work can add time, especially if parts need ordering for a specific manufacturer.

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 Baldwin County storms that is where water finds its way in.

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.

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

Other door repair services in Fairhope


French Door Repair near Fairhope

We cover the surrounding Baldwin County and the Alabama Gulf Coast communities as well:

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

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895
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