Ask Judith

homesgardens Ask Judith ? Doors article and photos by Judith Capen Q. We have to replace our front doors, and I’m wondering where to f ind doors more appropriate for our house. I’ve looked online, with no luck. Can you recommend catalogs, suppliers, etc.? (I don’t even want to think about the cost of custom doors!) We have someone to install them if we can supply the doors. ~ The Midnight Gardener A. Good for you. Your current front doors date to before the 1976 designation of the Capitol Hill Historic District when homeowners were hatin’ Victorian. People with glorious original front doors embraced a little rot at the bottom as an opportunity to “modernize.” Maybe that’s what happened to your doors. Now you’re stuck with finding appropriate doors. Not easy. Some things to consider... Style Think of your house in fashion terms. Granny would look silly in Jimmy Choos as would your 4-year-old niece. Jeans, however fashionable and/or expensive with those raggedy holes, are fine for clubbing but not for the office. 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 they weren’t here. Eschew them. 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 not make it good. Or appropriate. Those doors are the blue jeans of our neighborhood, applied willy-nilly, everyone for every occasion. a clean house a clean mind a cleaning service, inc. satisfaction guaranteed 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 carefully. Construction, including doors, was not standardized in the 19th century. 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 add-ons. 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 find you need new bottom rails anyway since that’s where doors typically rot. Old doors and windows were generally assembled with mortise and tenon joints, pegged together. A craftsperson can both disassemble the bottom of a door and replace a piece. 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. Don’t forget to get a building permit. 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 high-Victorian door that you’d need a personal bailout to afford new even if anyone were making them, which they’re not. Also, I’ll lay money that a hundred-year-old door will last longer than a brand new 2009 door. The old growth thing again. Options that occur to me in order of cost, from maybe economical in dollars but not time to possibly quite expensive in money: Try Community Forklift. (www.communityforklift.com, see my Hill 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 door stock. (301-985-5180). The Forklift folks want building materials reused, so they are not jealously protective of their particular effort but make recommendations of other reuse groups in the area who might have what you need. One is the Habitat ReStore (www.restorenova.org) 703360-6700. Try other salvage/reuse sources, antique stores to the Forklift’s thrift store. A venerable local one is The Brass Knob Back Door Warehouse (www.thebrassknob.com) 202-265-0587. You can go further afield to places like Architectural Old House Parts Inc. in Front Royal (www.oldhouseparts.net) 540-631-8906. A few years ago I happened by and was 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 into the countryside. You may have to invest in a roof rack for the Volvo to bring the door(s) home. Consider new doors. Smoot Lumber in Alexandria is a really fine Bathroom & Kitchen Renovations Interior & Exterior Painting | Tile Cabinets | Plumbing | Electric Phred Pham office 202 491-4473 freeestimate@phixit.net Licensed in DC DEBORAH J. BRAUN CONTRACTOR Renovations and Remodeling, including Custom Kitchens, Baths and Cabinetry 202.744.4684 www.dbrauncontracting.com A.A. Est. 1974 Lic. #9360 ROOFING CO. ROOFING Shingles • Metal • Slate Slag • Rubber GUTTER REPAIR & REPLACEMENT Aluminum • Copper Galvanized Prices too high? Give AA a try! $100 OFF ANY NEW ROOF (301) 736-8987 aaroofingco@aol.com FREE ESTIMATES • ESTABLISHED 1971 124 ★ HillRag | June 2009 lumberyard from whom you 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 affordable amount of money. Door style SD-201 Somerset is the kind of plain glass door that could be appropriate to your house. If you went with the four-panel doors, I’d recommend Bolection molding to bring the molding up off the surface of the door. (Somerset calls Bolection molding “Applied Raised Mould.”) Stroll west on A Street, and you’ll see versions of that door style. The cost of off-the-shelf doors can vary hugely with the cost of custom-made doors also varying hugely at a magnitude greater. Wood species can make all the difference in replacement doors. Go for mahogany or southern yellow pine, although we’ve had good luck with fir. You might study the Capitol Hill Restoration Society Design Guideline on doors “Entrance – When A Door is More Than a Door.” Call the Society at 202-543-0425. It has more detail, and I’m not recommending it just because I’m the author. Considering how much attention is required to get replacement doors right, it’s easy to understand why so many replacement front doors on Capitol Hill are so wrong. You may even begin to understand the temptation to go to the lumberyard, pick up one of what they have, shrink the opening to fit the new door, slam on some hardware and be done. Especially if you have a full-time job besides replacing your front door. But, you’ve lived with your not-right doors for 25 years, so maybe some time on new doors is worth it. Good luck! Judith Capen, of Ask Judith, is a registered architect, Hill resident and historic preservation scold. ★ Why Cover Radiators? f 10% orfe 3 or mo - Stylish, Sophisticated & Cozy - Child Safety - Shelf Space - Improve Heat Distribution - Increase Property Value Lloyd’s Custom Cabinetry 301.599.1616 www.lloydpitts.com HR0609 HandymanMastersLLC.com Over 20 years experience in fine homes like yours. Expert Painting on the Hill since 1976 HandyMan • Bathrooms • Kitchens • Roofing Our Master Craftsman performs all our work-One project at a time. Roger Tresolini 202.546.3194 Interior & Exterior and all related repairs • Color Consulting • Wallpapering • Roof Painting • Light Carpentry & Masonry • Pressure Washing Licensed–Bonded–Insured • Reasonable Rates 202-528-0621 Consistently rated 9/10 in overall customer satisfaction year after year. 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