Straightening Warped Doors
Great moments in building history: The procrastinator's downfall
“I’m afraid we’re all going to be sitting around the dinner table, and the door’s going to explode.” My father-in-law’s comment sounded a bit extreme, but a quick investigation proved that he might have a point. The header over a four-panel, 12-ft. wide set of sliding doors had sagged so much that the screen doors could not move, and that the glass panels were beginning to bind.
“No problem,” I said. “We’ll just remove the top casing and knock out some of the shims.”
We removed the casing and found the worst: There were no shims.
“I’ve also got this problem over here,” he added. He pointed to one of the lower corners of the unit. The threshold that had initially sloped out to shed water was now sloping in and collecting it. Water was working its way through the corner, and the subfloor was rotting. The inside edge of the threshold had been set on the subfloor, the outside edge on masonry. As the floor joists shrank over time and the masonry didn’t, the angle of the threshold had changed. Great. I would have to pick the door up 3⁄8 in., and it was already tight against the header.
Realizing that this problem was not going to be solved that day, we outlined a plan. My father-in-law told me of his upcoming six-week vacation and mentioned that it would be nice to have me complete the door repair before he got back.
It seems that if you have lots of time to do a fairly small job, you procrastinate. Consequently, the Saturday morning before my in-laws’ Monday return, I went to their house to work on the door. The door frame was sagging mostly in the middle, so I found that I could remove the panels by first pushing them to the outside. I removed the frame and then the drywall covering the header. The outside wall housing the door unit was set in an alcove surrounded by only about 30 sq. ft. of siding, which I removed. I had decided to cut down the depth of the existing header 1⁄2 in. to 3⁄4 in. and to bolt another 2×12 to the outside of the header to stiffen it. I could then fur out the small wall area flush with the new header. I replaced the siding, repaired the subfloor up under the threshold, reinstalled the door frame, and hung and taped the drywall over the door.
By this time, it was getting late, and I was beat. But I only had to reinstall the glass panels; then I could lock up. One panel in. Two panels in. Three panels in. I carried the fourth panel to the door. One minute to quitting time. Working from inside, I held the panel with the top edge leaning slightly out and hoisted it up. Somehow, I missed, and the top of the panel went outside the track. The top of the panel was getting heavy very fast. I tugged on the panel with everything I had to keep it from falling through the opening, but I was losing. In desperation, I tried to shuffle my feet forward to regain my balance, but of course, my feet couldn’t go forward because there was a door panel in the way. Then I realized that I had fought the battle a split second too long; I not only couldn’t save the door, I couldn’t even save myself. Spread-eagle on the door, I flew through the opening. I closed my eyes. Still on top of the panel, I hit the deck two steps below with a thundering crash. I braced for the inevitable onslaught of pain sensors. Feeling none, I slowly opened my eyes and realized why. The panel wasn’t broken. I inspected it carefully. The insulated glass wasn’t even cracked. I started to feel incredibly lucky.
With a little more care this time, I picked up the door and installed it; but as I tried to slide it past the stationary panel on the outside, something snagged. I checked to make sure the top and the bottom of the panel were in the right places. They were. Then the reason for the problem hit me. I confirmed my suspicion by sighting down the vertical rails of the whole panel. Yup. It wouldn’t work because the whole panel was bowed from the impact of the fall. Never having seen glass bend before, I found this situation almost unbelievable, and I also realized that I was really in a whole bunch of trouble. I downgraded my luck from “incredible” to just “very.”
The best solution that I could come up with was to take the panel frame apart and try to get new glass Monday morning, but this solution would involve temporarily boarding up the opening, and I had nothing to do it with. I couldn’t leave the house open to go get materials; that was one of the pitfalls of working alone. I considered having my wife come over to baby-sit the unsecured house while I went to get materials, but ruled out that solution as a possible source of information leaks. After all, it was her parents’ house. Racking my brain, I realized that I was treating the bent door as trash. Suddenly, I came up with an idea. It was a long shot, but I had nothing to lose.
I took the panel back out and onto the deck, laying it down so that the bowed side faced up. I put 3 in. of lumber underneath the top and bottom edges, put a piece of 1⁄4-in. plywood on top and hopped on. Checking my progress every so often, I started jumping. Pretty soon I was using the panel as a trampoline and jumping as high as I could. After five minutes of serious bouncing, the panel was back to straight. I installed the panel; miraculously, it fit, and the door worked fine. I locked up, and as I drove home, the adrenaline rush was replaced by exhaustion.
As I walked in the door that evening, my clients’ daughter said, “You’re home late. Did everything go okay?”
“Fine,” I replied.
—Bill Dudley, Rockville, Maryland
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