Front Door replacement
Hello,
We need to have our front door and lock replaced. Does anyone have a recommendation for someone who could put in an Eichler-looking door for us?
Thanks, Julie
The door itself is pretty easy, if its a plain door.
Any good door person should be able to find/build you a plain door to the dimensions you need.
For the lockset, check the archives of these boards for oodles of discussion about eichler-compatible locks, since the original Sargents are not available new. There are a few that look reasonable for an eichler, depending on how close you want to stay to the original set.
If you have an automatic garage door that does not automatically reverse, you should replace it with a new opener that can do reverse. Other reports show that other children had severe injuries when the closing of garage doors almost crushed them. That is why non-reversing garage door openers should be replaced at once. Or, you may opt for a new residential garage door installation if you want a new door with a reverse garage door opener. Don’t be satisfied with garage doors that only stop whenever it hits an object under it. You should be pining for the reversing one.
We went to a lumbar place that is rather well-known for its devotion to wood in San Jose and purchased a new solid core front door. We just got the plain slab without any pre-drilling, since the door lock we purchased from a manufacturer to resemble the originals has to be set further in than standard locks.
Our handyman hung the door and installed the lock, knob and escutcheon.
(Look on Loni's website under home improvement discoveries for the name of the guy who makes the front door locks, knob and escutcheon. So far as I am aware, he is the only current manufacturer of the Eichler-style front door knobs.)
We went to a place in Mountain View that does alot of doors.
We wanted a solid door with exterior that was stain grade, not paint grade. We ended up buying a larger door, which they cut to size. We took the old door in and they redrilled for the locks and hinges to exactly match the existing door.
This is a good approach if your existing door hardware can be reused.
If not, you should get the hinges and hardware and take them with you to the door place. They can drill to match.
Again, this assumes you aren't going to have to re-mortise the hinges on the jamb as well.
sally
