double door Brownstone

I forgot to add that the doors are gorgeous.

Augustiner about sums up the challenges with rebuilding these doors though we can over come bad warps (the last job i did i made sure that the doors were straight and flat in the shop and when i installed them, i found the sides of the frame were out of alignment; we have ways around this and in that case, i did some work to the frames). weather proofing them is another issue and i never make a promise about weather proofing on the double entry doors but instead advise people to have me insulate the inner, single door (and i use stuff that looks the part, none of that suburban looking home depot stuff). this is the problem with a lot of flipper homes, they remove the vestibule to use the added space as a selling point and do not consider the entry doors and how much air they will let in during the winter. On the rare occasions that i am able to weather proof double entry doors enough to please a customer i tell them “do not tell anyone i did that as i consider it to be luck”.

in so far as what classic1 says, when we do doors, we take care of everything and so me years back i realized that this is a lot of money for most people. so we began including at minimum a Marks 91A Mortise lock. every job gets one, its part of the quote. if people want to upgrade from there, i can manage that (some times i source stuff on ebay) and if they want to wait a few years to get a baldwin, i might help with that. i will say it here, i cannot rebuild any pair of doors for less than 8,000 but i do sometimes feel as though i am a bit more thorough than others and i have been very careful to use appropriate finishes and no longer experiment with new water based clear coats (the longevity is not there) and i have NEVER used interior products on the outside of a building but i am aware that many people do. we use only the best epoxies for assembly (west system).

which brings me to this, vard. photos may be good for newbies and less experienced people but when i was a newbie and hired a GC for the first gut reno i oversaw in 1990, i did not look at any photos of their work. i sometimes think that photos are something that contractors use to compensate for something – lack of technical know how which must be explained to customers (and if they cannot explain it, they do not know it). in the case of exterior doors and someone using the wrong product (interior lacquer outside) customers will look at the photo and see what “looks” like museum quality work and will wrongly assume that if a contractor can produce that, then he must be doing the right thing (its deceptive). you mention variations shown on work in 3 different photos; i am not sure i would know what i am looking at in those photos and i finished my first piece of wood in 1976 (it could be poor lighting control on the “photographer’s” part, it could be graining in the wood, uv damage in old wood, or simply different kinds of finishes) (i would not even want to pick someone else’s work apart on here that way as i might be wrong). I will be honest and let you know what bothers me about this; the person producing museum quality entry doors by spraying interior varnish on them can get better “looking” results in less than half the time i can by using the correct (traditional, slow drying) product. keep in mind, to do finishing and make it look presentable enough for a customer to be pleased is very easy (anyone reading this can do it with some training). its what it looks like in 3 years and i can guarantee you that any of the photos you are looking at were taken immediately after the job was done and any variations you see will not matter if the finish is cracked and peeling in a few years. i appreciate your comments vard.

Steve from The Tinker’s Wagon is extremely knowledgable, friendly, and fair. Highly recommend! http://www.thetinkerswagon.com/