homesgardens
Ask Judith ?
Doors
article and photos by Judith Capen
Q. We have to replace our front doors, and I’m front doors embraced a little rot at the bottom
wondering where to f ind doors more appropriate as an opportunity to “modernize.” Maybe that’s
for our house. I’ve looked online, with no luck. Can what happened to your doors.
you recommend catalogs, suppliers, etc.? (I don’t Now you’re stuck with finding appropriate
even want to think about the cost of custom doors!) doors. Not easy. Some things to consider...
We have someone to install them if we can supply
the doors. Style
~ The Midnight Gardener Think of your house in fashion terms. Granny
would look silly in Jimmy Choos as would your
A. Good for you. Your current front doors date 4-year-old niece. Jeans, however fashionable
to before the 1976 designation of the Capitol and/or expensive with those raggedy holes, are
Hill Historic District when homeowners were fine for clubbing but not for the office.
hatin’ Victorian. People with glorious original Doors with oval panes of leaded and stained
UPPER LEFT: You’re in luck: when they replaced the original doors they reinstalled the historic hardware.
LOWER LEFT: It does look like time to replace your doors.
LOWER RIGHT AND OPPOSITE: Here are what your original front doors might have looked like.
122 ★ HillRag | June 2009
glass are too Jimmy Choo-ish for our houses, which never
had them. I don’t know where those doors were found
during Victoria’s reign, maybe Denver whorehouses, but
a clean house
they weren’t here. Eschew them. a clean mind
Another inappropriate door style for our houses
is the Colonial-era Cross-and-Bible door. Americans
have liked this style so much since the turn of the 20th
century that lumberyards stock little else. Ubiquity does
a cleaning service, inc.
not make it good. Or appropriate. Those doors are the
blue jeans of our neighborhood, applied willy-nilly, ev- satisfaction guaranteed
eryone for every occasion.
serving DC, MD & VA since 1985
complete residential services, including laundry & ironing
commercial & janitorial special rates
free estimates
major credit cards accepted
licensed, bonded & insured
703.892.8648
ACleaningSvce@aol.com
www.acleaningserviceinc.com
capitalcommunitynews.com ★ 123
Irresistible as the Craftsman style is, it post-dates our houses. This is
like indiscriminate baring of midriffs, at church, the office, dinner with the
future in-laws…
Many of our houses did have doors with beveled glass panes. They
also had gorgeously decorative Queen Anne style doors. A midnight foray
with a screwdriver or a lucky find at a reuse store are probably the only
ways you’ll get a door like that.
Measure Your Door Opening Carefully
Before you begin looking at actual doors, measure your opening care-
fully. Construction, including doors, was not standardized in the 19th cen-
tury. While today’s front doors are standard at 3 feet by 7 feet, it’s hard to
find two openings of the same size on our 19th-century houses.
You do have a little wiggle room: If you find a door or doors that are
within an inch or two of what you need, they can be cut down or padded
up, taking equal amounts off both sides or top and bottom.
If the door is a little too small, like not more than 2 ½ inches, your
handyperson can splice pieces of wood onto the sides, top and bottom,
using biscuits. Many of our original doors were painted, and even if not
originally, they are now. A new coat of paint (priming first with oil-based
paint, see my May article) should cover door-stretching well enough.
If you have to add to the great doors you found, check at the same
place for a piece of old growth wood your handyperson can mill for the
Bathroom & Kitchen add-ons.
Renovations A more complicated way to make a door taller is to replace the entire
bottom and/or top rails with new ones of old growth wood. You might
Interior & Exterior Painting | Tile find you need new bottom rails anyway since that’s where doors typically
Cabinets | Plumbing | Electric rot. Old doors and windows were generally assembled with mortise and
Phred Pham tenon joints, pegged together. A craftsperson can both disassemble the
office 202 491-4473 bottom of a door and replace a piece.
Licensed in DC freeestimate@phixit.net
Lead-Containing Paint
You may discover lead-containing paint on your salvaged door. If so,
make sure your handyperson knows how to work with lead-containing
paint safely.
Once you find your door, new or old, please think carefully about its
hardware and accessories. By all means, reuse your historic knob.
DEBORAH J. BRAUN Don’t forget to get a building permit.
CONTRACTOR It’s starting to sound like reusing old doors might be more trouble
than it’s worth. Possibly. But, it is also likely that you can get a glorious
Renovations and Remodeling, including
high-Victorian door that you’d need a personal bailout to afford new even
Custom Kitchens, Baths and Cabinetry
if anyone were making them, which they’re not.
Also, I’ll lay money that a hundred-year-old door will last longer than
202.744.4684 a brand new 2009 door. The old growth thing again.
www.dbrauncontracting.com Options that occur to me in order of cost, from maybe economical in
dollars but not time to possibly quite expensive in money:
Est. 1974 Lic. #9360 Try Community Forklift. (www.communityforklift.com, see my Hill
A.A. Prices too high? Rag article about them from September 2008). Because they get fresh old
stuff all the time you never know what’s there, so call to check on exterior
ROOFING CO. Give AA a try!
door stock. (301-985-5180). The Forklift folks want building materials
ROOFING reused, so they are not jealously protective of their particular effort but
Shingles • Metal • Slate make recommendations of other reuse groups in the area who might have
Slag • Rubber what you need. One is the Habitat ReStore (www.restorenova.org) 703-
360-6700.
GUTTER REPAIR & Try other salvage/reuse sources, antique stores to the Forklift’s thrift
REPLACEMENT store. A venerable local one is The Brass Knob Back Door Warehouse
Aluminum • Copper (www.thebrassknob.com) 202-265-0587. You can go further afield to
Galvanized places like Architectural Old House Parts Inc. in Front Royal (www.old-
houseparts.net) 540-631-8906. A few years ago I happened by and was
$100 OFF ANY NEW ROOF impressed by both the quantity and quality of what they had. They’re still
there. You could make the search for a new front door an excuse for jaunts
(301) 736-8987 into the countryside. You may have to invest in a roof rack for the Volvo
to bring the door(s) home.
aaroofingco@aol.com
Consider new doors. Smoot Lumber in Alexandria is a really fine
FREE ESTIMATES • ESTABLISHED 1971
124 ★ HillRag | June 2009
lumberyard from whom you Why Cover Radiators?
could get simple glass doors
or possibly a pair of recessed
four-panel doors like your
neighbor’s. They, or Somerset
Door and Column Company,
could build the pair of panel
doors or glass doors to fit your
opening exactly for an afford-
able amount of money. Door f
10% orfe
style SD-201 Somerset is the
kind of plain glass door that 3 or mo
could be appropriate to your
house. If you went with the
four-panel doors, I’d recom- - Stylish, Sophisticated & Cozy
mend Bolection molding to - Child Safety - Shelf Space
bring the molding up off the
surface of the door. (Somerset
- Improve Heat Distribution
calls Bolection molding “Ap- - Increase Property Value
plied Raised Mould.”) Stroll
west on A Street, and you’ll see
versions of that door style. Lloyd’s Custom Cabinetry
The cost of off-the-shelf
doors can vary hugely with
301.599.1616
www.lloydpitts.com
the cost of custom-made doors HR0609
also varying hugely at a mag-
nitude greater. Wood species
can make all the difference Expert Painting on the Hill since 1976
in replacement doors. Go for HandymanMastersLLC.com
mahogany or southern yellow Over 20 years experience in fine homes like yours.
pine, although we’ve had good
Roger Tresolini
HandyMan • Bathrooms •
luck with fir. Kitchens • Roofing 202.546.3194
You might study the Capi- Our Master Craftsman performs all our
tol Hill Restoration Society work-One project at a time.
Design Guideline on doors Interior & Exterior and all related repairs
“Entrance – When A Door is 202-528-0621 • Color Consulting • Wallpapering • Roof Painting
More Than a Door.” Call the Consistently rated 9/10 in overall customer • Light Carpentry & Masonry • Pressure Washing
Society at 202-543-0425. It satisfaction year after year.
Licensed–Bonded–Insured • Reasonable Rates
has more detail, and I’m not Licensed | Bonded | Insured
recommending it just because
I’m the author.
Considering how much
CALL US FOR REAL
attention is required to get Want to know the ESTATE MANAGEMENT
replacement doors right, it’s
easy to understand why so “in’s and out’s” of • Renting/Leasing/Tenant Screening
• Houses & apartments
many replacement front doors the real estate in • Mulit-unit buildings
on Capitol Hill are so wrong.
You may even begin to under- your neighborhood? • Condominium associations
• Cooperative associations
stand the temptation to go to
• Tenant acquisitions
the lumberyard, pick up one
• Home-owner associations
of what they have, shrink the
• Habla Espanol
opening to fit the new door,
slam on some hardware and be Full service property management with monthly/quar-
done. Especially if you have a terly reports, budgeting, funds managements & special
full-time job besides replacing accounts, delinquent notice & collections, building
your front door.
flip to changing hands inspections, project & maintenance bidding, project
...every month in the real estate and planning, contract monitoring, quality maintenance –
But, you’ve lived with your
and more, at your service (M-F 8-6, Sat 8-12)
not-right doors for 25 years, finance section... Read it.
so maybe some time on new Joel Truitt Management, Inc.
doors is worth it.
Good luck! 734 7th Street, SE (between G & I)
Joel Truitt, Broker
Judith Capen, of Ask Judith, is a
registered architect, Hill resident
and historic preservation scold. 202-547-2707
★ Quality Since 1972
capitalcommunitynews.com ★ 125