Maintenance
The Hardware Check Nobody Does Until It Fails
Locks, latches, hinges and closers all wear. Ten minutes a year prevents most of the calls we get about them.
Door and window hardware is the most-used mechanical equipment in a house and the least maintained. Almost everything that fails gave warning first.
Exterior doors
- Hinges. Screws work loose over years, and a door that has dropped even slightly binds against the frame. Tightening the screws — into solid framing, with longer screws if the short ones have stripped — solves most sticking doors.
- Strike plates. The single most important security item on a door, and usually held by three-quarter-inch screws into the jamb. Replacing them with three-inch screws that reach the framing behind is a five-minute upgrade that makes a real difference.
- Weatherstripping. Compresses and hardens. When it stops sealing, you lose conditioned air and gain water.
- Thresholds. Adjustable on most exterior doors. If light shows under a closed door, it needs raising.
Interior doors
Sticking is nearly always seasonal movement or loose hinges rather than a door that has warped. Try the hinge screws first. Planing a door should be a last resort, because once material is off it cannot go back on when the humidity changes.
Windows
- Check that they open, close and lock. Windows that have been painted shut are a genuine safety issue as well as a nuisance.
- Clean the tracks — grit is what makes sliders bind and what wears rollers.
- Check the weep holes at the bottom of the frame. Blocked weeps are how water gets into a wall from a window that is otherwise fine.
- Look at the seal on double glazing. Fogging between panes means the seal has failed.
Sliding glass doors
The most-abused item on most Florida houses. Rollers wear, tracks fill with grit, and eventually the door is being dragged rather than rolled — which then damages the track. Cleaning the track and adjusting or replacing the rollers is far cheaper than replacing a track that has been chewed.
Locks
Graphite or a dry lubricant, not oil — oil attracts grit and eventually gums a cylinder. And if a key has started to need jiggling, deal with it before it strands you.
We do this kind of work as part of a handyman visit, which is usually the most economical way to get a whole list handled at once. Call (863) 633-5499.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my door stick in summer and not winter?
Seasonal movement. Humidity swells timber and frames, and a door with only a small clearance binds. Loose hinge screws make it worse. Try tightening the hinges into solid framing before considering planing, because material removed cannot come back when the humidity drops.
What is the cheapest security upgrade on a door?
Replacing the short strike-plate screws with three-inch ones that reach the framing behind the jamb. It takes five minutes and it is the difference between a door frame that splits under force and one that does not.
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