Doors hung and replaced around Logan County

An outside door has to keep out weather as well as people. Most come prehung, already set in their own frame. That frame goes into the opening on shims until it is plumb and square, the sill gets sealed underneath so water cannot run in under it, and the weatherstrip has to meet the door all the way around when it closes.

Skip any of that and the door still looks fine on day one. It just drags by winter, lets light through at the top corner, or swells shut after a wet week.

Sometimes the door is going where there was no door before. One of Luke's photos shows exactly that: a new opening cut into a brick wall with the wood framing going in, before the door was set.

A new opening needs a header across the top to carry whatever the wall was holding up, and framing on both sides for the door to fasten to. If a switch or an outlet sits where the opening is going, it has to move, which is an easy part of the job for Luke since most of his work is electrical.

Inside the house the door jobs are usually smaller: a door that drags on the floor, one that will not latch, a hinge working loose. Those are worth fixing early, before the frame gets damaged from being forced shut.

A lot of the time the fix is in the hinges. A longer screw driven through the top hinge into the framing behind the jamb pulls a sagging door back up where it belongs.

Luke can put the knobs and deadbolts on while he is at it. A deadbolt is only as strong as what it locks into, so the strike plate gets long screws that reach the framing, not just the thin door jamb.