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Jemison, Alabama · Chilton County

French Door Repair in Jemison, 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
  • Chilton County covered
  • Straight answers on the phone

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French Door Repair diagram
French Door Repair — Jemison, Alabama

Jemison is part of our regular Chilton County territory, and between Main Street, the I-65 exit 219 corridor and the the Jemison depot area we are here most weeks.

A lot of what we see in Chilton 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.

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

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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 Jemison. If you recognise one, the underlying cause is usually the second half of the line.

  • The inactive leaf will not stay putFailed flush bolts at the head and sill.
  • Cold air pouring in down the middleFailed astragal weatherstrip on the joint between the leaves.
  • The handle set turns but nothing engagesBroken multipoint gearbox or a failed drive.
  • The gearbox makes a grinding noise when the handle is liftedWear inside the multipoint gearbox, which usually fails completely soon after this starts.
  • Screws visible pulling out of hingesHinge fasteners failing under the weight of a heavy glazed leaf.
  • 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.

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

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What Jemison weather does to 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.

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.

It is why the same repair done properly in Jemison lasts, and the same repair done cheaply does not.

Local factors we account for in Jemison: storm wind and heavy rainfall — typical of the River Region.

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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French door repair work we handle in Jemison

  • Multipoint lock repairRepairing and replacing multipoint gearboxes, drive rods and keepers.
  • Individual lite glass replacementReplacing failed or broken glass in single lites without replacing the whole door.
  • Hinge repair and re-hangingCorrecting sag with proper fasteners into framing and re-hanging leaves plumb.
  • Frame squaringCorrecting frames that have moved and taken the doors out with them.
  • Astragal and weatherstrip replacementNew seals on the meeting stile so the middle joint actually closes.
  • Security upgradesReinforced strikes, longer fasteners and better flush bolts on exterior pairs.
  • Alignment and reveal correctionSetting both leaves so the reveal is even and the doors meet cleanly top to bottom.

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

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What happens when we get there

  1. Look at the pair as one assemblyFrench doors fail as a pair. Adjusting one leaf without reference to the other just moves the problem across.
  2. Check both leaves independentlyOne door usually causes the problem, and treating both the same way makes it worse.
  3. Correct the hinges firstA dropped leaf makes every lock and seal fault worse. Hinges and fixings get sorted before the multipoint is touched. In the River Region we check for both humidity swelling and clay movement, because the two are easy to confuse and need different work.
  4. Rebuild the seal at the meeting stileAstragal and weatherstrip get replaced together, because that centre joint is where the draft and the water come through.
  5. Set the locking hardwareKeepers adjusted so the shootbolts engage top and bottom with the handle lifting smoothly and no forcing.
  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.

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

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What affects the cost of french door repair in Jemison

What a french door repair job costs comes down to a handful of things, and we would rather be straight about them up front:

  • glass replacement in individual lites
  • interior versus exterior pairs, since exterior work includes weatherproofing
  • multipoint lock repair versus full gearbox replacement
  • 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 Jemison.

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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Areas we cover for french door repair in Jemison

Our Jemison service area includes Main Street and the I-65 exit 219 corridor and the surrounding Chilton County communities, out around the Jemison depot and the peach orchards along US-31.

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

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

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

French door repair in Jemison: questions we get asked

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.

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.

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.

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.

How long does French door repair take?

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

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.

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

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Other door repair services in Jemison


French Door Repair near Jemison

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

All door repair services in Jemison  ·  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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