Interior doors are a critical part of your home's aesthetic. A door that is in disrepair can detract from the beauty and function of your home. It's important that you know how to address some common types of damage interior doors sustain if you want to preserve the integrity of your doors over time.
Use these tips to help you better care for your interior doors in the future.
1. Tighten the Hardware
Some of the problems you are experiencing with your interior doors may be caused by loose hardware. If your interior doors rattle or feel loose, the doorstop or the strike plate have probably started to loosen. You can easily tighten the screws holding these components to the door frame in order to make the door more secure.
It can also be beneficial to check the condition of the screws connecting each hinge on your interior doors. These screws can become loose or worn with repeated use. Replacing the hinge screws can help your loose door feel more stable during use.
2. Correct Scratches or Holes
Scratches or holes can appear in your interior doors when they see regular use. This type of damage is unsightly, but it can usually be repaired pretty easily with simple tools you find at the hardware store. The first thing you will need to do is determine if your doors are solid wood or hollow-core doors.
Solid wood doors can be sanded down to eliminate scratches, and wood putty can be used to fill in any holes or gouges in the wood.
Hollow-core doors will pose more of a challenge. You will need to fill any large holes in a hollow-core door with spray foam insulation, sand the surface smooth, and paint the door to camouflage the repaired area.
Many homeowners opt to simply replace their damaged hollow-core doors with new ones since these doors tend to be affordable.
3. Flatten Out Warps
Solid wood doors have the potential to develop warps over time. These warps are usually caused by exposure to moisture. Start the door repair process by removing the door from its hinges and placing it onto a pair of sawhorses with the warp facing upward.
If the door is only slightly bowed, you can place a sandbag on the warped area and watch for the wood to straighten. Serious warps will require the use of wet towels and the addition of incremental weights to slowly bring the wood back into alignment.
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