Huge Mess
I have a 3 family brownstone and am finishing up a renovation. I am now to the front doors and here is Brownstone problem #923. I am on my last nerve. These doors are double doors and were painted a matte black and had lovely glass plexiglass inserts, which I was going to replace with…
I have a 3 family brownstone and am finishing up a renovation. I am now to the front doors and here is Brownstone problem #923. I am on my last nerve. These doors are double doors and were painted a matte black and had lovely glass plexiglass inserts, which I was going to replace with beveled glass. I was planning on doing some repair to the doors (strip the paint, sand, wood filler, etc and repaint).
I arrived home from work on Friday to see what my contractor had someone do. One of the doors was slathered in nasty pinkish brown wood putty, applied like plaster in glumps with apparantly the intention of sanding it down and painting. He told me that the doors were a wood patchwork, apparantly 100 years of repairs and attempted repairs. Apparantly someone took a heat gun and burned them and the bottoms have wood rot. Well, wood putty is obviously not the solution to wood rot and burned doors. In fact the unpainted wood putty is already flaking off this Monday am.
I guess that this might be a common situation — Paint holding together an antique patchwork of wood. My building has become an eyesore in one day. I asked the contractor to scrape off the wood putty, sand the doors as best as possible and make them as presentable for now by painting the door for now that was stripped until I can figure out how to really repair them. One is also badly warped, apparantly that one has a grafted plank of wood (a repair?) that has contributed to that.
The worker also dripped stripper and black paint over the plexiglass door “window”, which of course doesn’t come off (any way I know), so I am stuck with this crap until I decide what to do with this set of doors.
I may have to spring for a new door. It is a simple design with a large panel of “glass” in each double door.
Does anyone has any experience with this kind of door mess?
Does it sound salvagable or do I go to a mill shop and bit the bullet for a new door or are there first aid methods?
That is the first question. The second question is for experienced brownstoners. Is there light at the end of the renovation tunnel? Is it a train? Aside from the fact that I have been building a good head of steam with my contractor about different problems, I think I am just tired of this. This is a shameless bid for encouragement. Thank you.
Thanks Rick. What are the dimensions? My doors have glass panels for the length of the window which I like. But the doors look in pretty good shape.
You got me thinking about the extra pair of doors I had stashed away in my basement. See “Brownstone items for sale” here on the forum, I posted the info today.
Dear GR, Rick and NeoGrec,
Thank you very very much for your encouragement. I am now in off the ledge. Thank you very much for sharing your experiences too. Brownstoner is a little like message in a bottle, sort of mysteriously tossing out these anynomous pleas for information, help and encouragement. And lucky me, as always, I get the help I need. Though I feel a little battered and tired, I realize that these are problems associated with my great good fortune to have this house in the first place. And you are right that I should keep my eye on the prize.
And thank you for the tip on Amighini. I will check them out!! Thanks again!!
Hang in there! Our reno was 5 years ago and we are still working on smaller projects. We had many nightmare moments but we love living in our house and constantly feel amazed and fortunate that we can live in NYC and enjoy the space, aesthetics and other pleasures of owning an old house. Ultimately, time heals all.
As to your doors, I have to say we’ve spent a fair bit of time and money trying to fix a pair of pretty rough front doors. They look fine right now — but not great — and I guess we’ll leave as they are, ie. patched up but no better. With hindsight, I think I would have opted for new doors. Either a salvaged vintage pair or possibly very simple custom made replacement doors.
Nice words GR…. And to the poster, don’t give up hope just as you’re crossing the finish line.! About your doors, your contractor screwed up. I work on doors like these all the time.Yes, the can be a mess, but if you’re going for paint grade they can often be fixed. I’ve patched many a doors that had rot from years of snow and rain from the bottom. Car Bondo works great for patching!……. anyway, if you feel that your doors have to be replaced you can get great ones at Amighini, I was there last week and bought a pair. Expensive but so cool!
Please don’t give up. I have been through a crooked g/c who walked away with $20-30k of our money, (that was a lot) citing that he “ran out of money and had to close his business”, blamed us for slowing him down, and left everything in disarray. After we stopped blaming ourselves, we slowly got introduced to some of the nicest and honest professionals… Some from personal recommendations from this site, no less. Their work, our sweat equity efforts, the family sacrifices, exhausting as it all is, seemingly neverending as it almost always is – IS WORTH IT. We know that we’ll acieve Phase 1 completion so we can move in-and so much of what was will be so much better. Then we have Phase 2 things we want to do, phase 3, etc. We are actually looking forward to those things – we are trying to keep it simple and realistic. There is a sense of planning and working hard to then save up to achieve something. A bit of a reward…
I think the beauty of owning an old house is honoring the past, re-shaping it to be lived in, but also the pride of maintaining (your hard work and efforts are legitimante and you have helped upkeep a fine place), knowing that there are crafts people who specialize in so much of this work again, and that you are supporting them.
It’s ok to be frustrated – venting is good. I think that many people who read these posts are with you and would encourage you to hang in there.
As per your door – there are many salvage places that might get you an even nicer door. Here’s one place that makes me “drool”; check out these refinished old doors:
http://www.amighini.net/frame-menu.html
Best,
GR