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July 30, 2009
Door Handle Repair - Advice?
My door handle is holding on for dear life to my front door (both original to the 19th C building)--half of the ancient screws holding the decorative plate in place have pulled out of the equally ancient wood, and I fear any day now the remaining screws will give way. I’d welcome any suggestions/advice from anyone who has dealt with the challenges of an antique door. (One solution would be to unscrew the remaining screws, remove the plate, fill the holes with wood glue, drill new holes for the screws, and put the handle back on again, but this is beyond my own home maintenance skills.) Not sure if this is something a handyman could do, or a locksmith, or better a specialist in historic restoration. Who should I call?
Comments
Would you be up to unscrewing the remaining screws, pushing the ends of wooden toothpicks into all the screw holes and screwing the screws in again, using the existing holes? That should hold it in place and take less than 5 minutes.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at July 29, 2009 9:53 PM
This repair should take 2-3 hours for a patient carpenter or homeowner.
A permanent solution should be 90 degree 1/4" holes in existing door, filled with hard wood dowel of same diameter dipped in glue. When cut off flush, there is a new strong surface for new pilot holes where perfect, not affected by old holes, that may originally have been correctly located, but may have worn to one side.
Posted by: brucef at July 30, 2009 6:55 AM
What you mention in your post and what brucef mentions in his is very simple and easy to do. you do not even have to wait for the glue to dry as drilling out the dowel and putting a screw in tight with expand the dowel to hold it in place. This should take very little time.
If you have any questions, please call me as I do this ALL the time on restoration work and loose door hinges and locks.
Steve
www.thetinkerswagon.com
Posted by: thetinkerswagon at July 30, 2009 9:15 AM
The toothpic thing works great: Use the wide end of flat toothpics. dip them in wood glue and shove into the hole. Fill with as many toothpics as will fit.
Let dry. Then cut off the protruding ends flush with a hack saw blade (or similar).
Good to go!
Posted by: SenatorStreet at July 30, 2009 10:27 AM
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