Alabama Sliding Door Repair Statewide door & window repair Click to Call (205) 619-2895
Home Alabama Smiths Station French Door Repair

Smiths Station, Alabama · Lee County

French Door Repair in Smiths Station, 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
  • Lee County covered
  • Straight answers on the phone

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

French Door Repair diagram
French Door Repair — Smiths Station, Alabama

We take Smiths Station work across the whole town, the US-280 corridor through Lee Road 430, and we cross into Opelika and Roanoke on the same trips.

Door problems in Smiths Station tend to sort into two groups: older homes where the frames and jambs have taken decades of weather, and newer builds where the hardware was the cheapest part of the package and has already given up.

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

Common french door repair faults in Lee County

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

  • Daylight visible along the astragalWeatherstrip compressed flat or missing entirely.
  • The astragal weatherstrip is compressed flat in one areaPoint loading where the leaves bind, and the seal has stopped working there.
  • Condensation in one of the litesFailed insulated glass in a single lite, replaceable on its own.
  • One door swings open on its ownHinge line out of plumb on that leaf.
  • A visible gap at the top or bottom of the meeting stileThe pair is out of alignment and no longer parallel.
  • The gearbox makes a grinding noise when the handle is liftedWear inside the multipoint gearbox, which usually fails completely soon after this starts.

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

Smiths Station conditions and french door repair

Spring storm lines come through fast here and put a lot of wind pressure on doors before the rain even starts.

Grit in the flush bolt sockets and the multipoint keepers stops those components seating fully, which means the doors are only partially locked even when the handle feels normal.

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.

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

Local factors we account for in Smiths Station: grit and dust and storm wind — typical of east central Alabama.

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

Our french door repair services in Smiths Station

  • Flush bolt repairHead and sill flush bolts on the inactive leaf repaired or replaced.
  • Astragal and weatherstrip replacementNew seals on the meeting stile so the middle joint actually closes.
  • Interior French door serviceAlignment, hardware and hinge work on interior pairs.
  • Alignment and reveal correctionSetting both leaves so the reveal is even and the doors meet cleanly top to bottom.
  • Security upgradesReinforced strikes, longer fasteners and better flush bolts on exterior pairs.
  • Threshold and sill workNew adjustable thresholds and sill seals under a pair of doors.
  • Frame squaringCorrecting frames that have moved and taken the doors out with them.

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

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 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. Correct the hinges firstA dropped leaf makes every lock and seal fault worse. Hinges and fixings get sorted before the multipoint is touched. Jobs in this part of the state get their weatherstrip assessed for heat and cold, since both extremes show up here.
  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.

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

What affects the cost of french door repair in Smiths Station

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

  • whether one leaf or both need re-hanging
  • multipoint lock repair versus full gearbox replacement
  • glass replacement in individual lites
  • interior versus exterior pairs, since exterior work includes weatherproofing
  • 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 Smiths Station.

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895

Areas we cover for french door repair in Smiths Station

If you are in the US-280 corridor and Lee Road 430, or anywhere near the Georgia line at Columbus and the Chattahoochee valley, we cover you.

Service area: Smiths Station, Lee County, Alabama — and the surrounding communities.

We also cover the nearby Lee County and east central Alabama 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 Smiths Station: questions we get asked

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 Smiths Station 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.

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 bind in summer but are fine in winter. Is that normal?

Some seasonal movement is normal in Smiths Station, 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.

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.

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 Smiths Station


French Door Repair near Smiths Station

We cover the surrounding Lee County and east central Alabama communities as well:

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

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

Click to Call (205) 619-2895
Click to Call (205) 619-2895Tap to speak to a door repair tech now