Doors & hardware
Door, Lock & Hardware Repair
Doors that stick, latches that miss, hinges that sag, locks that bind — diagnosed properly and adjusted rather than replaced by default.
The honest version
What this actually involves
A door that will not close correctly is the most reported item on almost every list we receive, and it is also the one most often fixed the expensive way. The instinct is to replace the lockset. The actual cause is almost always geometry: the door, the jamb or the frame has moved, and the latch and strike no longer line up.
Houses move. Wood-framed homes move seasonally with humidity. Foundations settle for years. A jamb that was perfectly plumb at closing can be out by a sixteenth of an inch a decade later, and a sixteenth of an inch is the difference between a door that latches with a satisfying click and one you have to shoulder.
The fix is usually adjustment — shimming a hinge, moving a strike plate, replacing short hinge screws with long ones that reach the framing behind the jamb. That last one alone resolves a remarkable share of sagging doors, and most people have never heard of it.
Send us these photos and we can usually answer without a visit
- The door closed, from several feet back, showing the whole gap around it
- A close-up of the latch and strike plate
- The hinges, all of them
- Any rub marks on the jamb, floor or threshold
- For hardware replacement, a photo of the existing set and a note on whether it is keyed
Most single-door adjustments are well under an hour. A house full of doors is comfortably a half day. Slab replacements and hardware boring take longer.
In scope
What's included
Specific enough that you can check your own list against it before you send anything.
- Doors that stick, rub or dragDiagnosing whether the cause is the hinge, the jamb, the slab or the floor, then adjusting, shimming, planing or rehanging as the actual cause requires.
- Latch and strike alignmentMoving, shimming or enlarging strike plates so the latch seats properly. The correct fix for the majority of 'my door will not stay shut' complaints.
- Hinge repair and replacementSagging hinges, stripped hinge screws, worn pins and mismatched hardware. Stripped screw holes get repaired properly rather than stuffed with toothpicks.
- Lock and deadbolt serviceBinding deadbolts, sticky cylinders, loose handlesets, and like-for-like replacement of knobs, levers and deadbolts. Keyed-alike sets on request.
- Interior door replacementSwapping slabs in existing jambs, including mortising hinges and boring for hardware where the new slab is not pre-bored.
- Closet, bifold and sliding doorsTrack repair, roller replacement, realignment, and the pivot hardware on bifolds that is almost always what has actually failed.
- Storm and screen doorsClosers, hardware, latches, screen panel repair and adjustment on storm doors that have started slamming or refusing to catch.
- Weatherstripping and door sweepsExterior door seals, sweeps and thresholds that have gone hard and stopped sealing — usually a visible daylight gap and a noticeable draft.
- Cabinet doors and drawersHinge adjustment, soft-close hardware, drawer slides, alignment and the door that has hung crooked since the kitchen was installed.
Out of scope
What we won’t do, and why we say it up front.
Every list has at least one item that belongs to somebody else. Naming it early costs you nothing. Finding out after the work has started costs you a second contractor, a second schedule and sometimes a second repair to undo the first one.
There is also an insurance dimension people underestimate. Unlicensed work in a licensed category can give a carrier grounds to deny a claim later. That risk is yours, not ours, which is exactly why we will not quietly take the job.
- Exterior door and frame replacement requiring structural opening modification or a permit
- Garage door spring, cable and opener repair — torsion springs are genuinely dangerous and belong to a garage door specialist
- Fire-rated door assemblies in commercial buildings where a rated assembly cannot be modified
- Automatic door operators and commercial access control systems
- Rekeying or high-security cylinder work that requires a licensed locksmith in your jurisdiction
- Structural repair to a rotted or failed door frame requiring framing work
How it runs
From your photos to a finished job
You should know where you stand by step two, before any money is involved.
Show us the gap
Photograph the door closed, from a couple of feet back, so we can see the reveal all the way around. That gap pattern tells us more than a description ever will.
We diagnose the geometry
An even gap that has simply drifted is one problem. A wedge-shaped gap wider at the top means the door is sagging. A tight spot only in summer is humidity. Different causes, different fixes.
Adjust first, replace second
We try the cheap correct fix before the expensive one. Long hinge screws, a shimmed hinge, a moved strike plate — these solve a large share of complaints for the cost of hardware.
Test through the full swing
Opened, closed, latched, locked, checked for rub through the entire arc, and rechecked after any adjustment.
What drives cost
We can't quote a number here. We can tell you what moves it.
Anyone publishing a flat price for this category is either padding it heavily or about to revise it on site. Here is what actually changes the figure.
- Most door complaints are adjustment jobs and price accordingly. Replacement is the exception, not the default.
- Batching is worth real money here. If four doors in the house are annoying you, doing all four at once shares the setup and the tools.
- Hardware you supply is fine and often preferable — finish, brand and backset are personal, and matching an existing set matters.
- Older homes take longer. Non-standard sizes, hand-cut mortises, painted-over hinges and jambs that have moved for eighty years are all real time.
Travel and setup are charged once whether we do one item or nine. If there is anything else on your mind, add it to the list — the marginal cost of item two is a fraction of item one.
We stop and tell you before doing anything else, and you decide. We do not expand a job on the fly and hand you a revised invoice at the end.
Field notes
Four ways this gets done wrong
Mostly these are things we get called out to repair after somebody else — or a well-meaning weekend — got there first.
Replacing the lockset when the strike is misaligned
New hardware in a misaligned frame produces the same problem with a shinier knob. Check the strike alignment first. It is a five-minute diagnosis.
Toothpicks and glue in stripped screw holes
It works for about a year. The proper repair is a hardwood dowel or a purpose-made plug glued in and re-drilled, which restores real holding power in the original location.
Planing the door instead of fixing the sag
Planing a sagging door makes it fit today and leaves you with a permanently oversized gap once the sag is corrected — or worse, a door that has to be replaced. Fix the hinge geometry first.
Ignoring the seasonal pattern
If a door only sticks in August, it is humidity in a wood door and it will free up in October. Aggressively trimming it in summer produces a drafty, rattling door all winter.
Questions
Doors & Hardware — common questions
My door only sticks in the summer. Is that fixable?
Can you make all my locks use the same key?
Do you fix garage doors?
The hinge screws just spin. Is the door ruined?
Can you replace an interior door with a different style?
My exterior door lets in a draft. Is that a door problem?
Where we do this
Doors & Hardware across the Lake Norman region
Each of these pages covers what's different about this work in that specific town — housing eras, permitting authority, and what we actually see there.
Doors & Hardware in Statesville
Home base. Same-week scheduling is usually realistic here.
Doors & Hardware in Mooresville
Core service area. We are in Mooresville most weeks.
Doors & Hardware in Denver
Core service area across east Lincoln County.
Doors & Hardware in Troutman
Core service area, minutes from home base.
Doors & Hardware in Lake Norman
All four shoreline counties. Waterfront access details matter — tell us up front.
- Doors & Hardware in Cornelius, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Davidson, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Huntersville, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Sherrills Ford, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Terrell, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Mount Mourne, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Lincolnton, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Hickory, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Newton, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Conover, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Catawba, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Claremont, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Maiden, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Iron Station, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Stanley, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Harmony, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Union Grove, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Olin, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Cleveland, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Barium Springs, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Stony Point, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Taylorsville, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Kannapolis, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Concord, NC
- Doors & Hardware in Salisbury, NC
- Doors & Hardware in China Grove, NC
Usually sent together
Related work people add to the same list
Handyman Repairs
General handyman repair for the accumulated list — hardware, trim, mounting, adjustments and the small fixes that make a house feel unfinished.
Drywall Repair
Drywall patching that disappears — nail pops, anchor holes, door dings, water-damaged sections and texture matching that actually matches.
Punch Lists
Inspection repair addendums, pre-listing punch lists, builder walkthrough items and turnover lists worked through and closed out as one project.
Caulk & Touch-Up
Failed caulk removed and replaced properly, plus honest advice on when touch-up paint will work and when it will look worse.
Next step
Have doors & hardware on your list? Send it with everything else.
Photos, notes, an inspection report, a screenshot of your notes app — whatever you have. We read every one and reply with a straight answer, including the parts we're not the right fit for.