Door Repair in New Jersey
A door that sticks, sags, drafts, or rots is asking for a repair — not a $10,000 replacement project. We fix the hinge, the threshold, the frame, the seal: the part that actually failed.
replacement
Before
AfterA door has maybe six ways to fail.
All six are fixable.
Search "door repair near me" and the results skew the same way window searches do — toward companies whose real product is a new door. But a door is a simple machine: a slab, a frame, three hinges, a latch, a threshold, and a seal. When it misbehaves, one of those six has failed, and each one can be repaired on its own. Here is the whole diagnostic map, the one we run on every front door repair and every exterior door repair call in New Jersey.
1 · Sticking and sagging
The top corner scrapes the frame; the latch misses the strike; you lift the handle to close it. Ninety percent of the time this is hinge fatigue — screws loosened in old wood, letting the door drop out of square. We reset hinges with proper anchoring, shim the geometry true, and plane the binding edge only if the wood itself has moved. A sagging door is a one-visit repair, and fixing it early spares the latch, the weatherstripping, and the frame from years of misaligned force.
2 · Drafts and air leaks
If you feel winter around your door, the sealing system is spent: flattened weatherstripping, a worn sweep, or a door no longer meeting the stop evenly. We re-square first, then replace the weatherstripping and sweep so the door lands on a continuous gasket. It's modest work with outsized payback — comfort you feel the same evening.
3 · Thresholds
The threshold takes foot traffic above and water below, so it fails from both directions — cupped, cracked, loose, or soft. We repair or replace thresholds in oak and composite, flash the sill beneath, and set the height so the door seals without dragging.
4 · Rot in the frame and trim
The bottom foot of a door frame is one of the most rot-prone details on a house — splashback keeps it wet, and paint hides the decay until the wood gives under a thumb. This is signature RotGone territory: we cut out the decay, rebuild with conservation-grade epoxy or spliced matching wood, and close the water path that caused it. The dedicated page: rotten door frame & sill repair.
5 · Hardware
Locks that seize, knobs that spin, hinges that creak and stain, multi-point mechanisms that no longer throw. We service, adapt, or source hardware — including mortise locks and discontinued patio-door mechanisms that most locksmiths and handymen decline.
5½ · Weatherstripping, the part everyone forgets
Between hardware and slab sits the humblest component on the door: the compressible seal that does the actual weatherproofing. Weatherstripping is a wear item with a service life far shorter than the door's — it flattens, tears, and falls out of its kerf, and most homeowners never once replace it. We stock and fit kerf-in, surface-mount, and interlocking profiles for modern and vintage doors alike, and we fit them after correcting the door's geometry, because new foam on a sagging door seals nothing. It's the cheapest line on any door estimate and, per dollar, the one you feel most.
6 · The door itself
Split panels, loose joinery, veneer failure, rot at the bottom rail. Slab problems are wood problems, and wood is our trade — repaired in place or in the shop while a weathertight panel covers the opening. For glass in patio and French doors, including fogged units, see glass replacement; a dedicated patio-door glass page is on its way.
Four door types.
One crew that services all of them.
Entry & front doors
The hardest-working door in the house. Sagging hinges, worn thresholds, rot at the frame base, locks that fight you — all serviceable without touching the door itself.
French doors
Two leaves that must meet perfectly. We correct sag and racking, tune astragals and multi-point hardware, and rebuild rot at the sill where French doors always take water first.
Patio & sliding doors
Rollers wear flat, tracks pack with grit, and the bottom rail rots quietly behind the track. We restore the glide, seal the water path, and repair the wood beneath.
Storm & screen doors
Closers, hinges, sweeps, and bent frames — small parts that decide whether the door protects the entry behind it or bangs itself apart.
Interior doors that stick, swing, or won't latch? We handle those too — tell us what the door is doing.
Entry door replacement projects run five figures once the frame, sidelites, and finishing are counted — quoted for doors with one failed part.
A sound door in a dumpsterReset the hinges, rebuild the frame base, renew the seal — only what failed — with a 5-year workmanship warranty.
Same door, closing like newFrom "it sticks" to silent and sealed.
Describe or photograph it
Where it sticks, what you feel, what you see at the frame base. Same-day answer with a realistic range.
Same dayFull-door inspection
Hinges, frame, threshold, seal, hardware, and wood — checked as one system so nothing gets fixed twice.
Within 1–2 daysRepair & tune
Geometry corrected, rot rebuilt, seals renewed. The door swings quietly, latches cleanly, seals fully.
1–2 weeksPrefer the phone? (973) 564-0958 — Mon–Fri, 8 AM–6 PM. Serving Montclair, Millburn, Chatham, Livingston, Westfield & all of northern NJ from West Caldwell.
Asked at kitchen tables
all over Essex County.
My door sticks in summer and works fine in winter. Is that worth a service call?
Yes — because seasonal sticking is rarely just humidity. Wood swells in NJ summers, but a door with proper clearances absorbs that swing. Sticking usually means the clearances are already gone: hinges have loosened and let the door sag, the frame has shifted, or moisture is entering unfinished edges — the same path rot uses later. The fix is a tune, not a tear-out: hinges reset or shimmed, the binding edge planed and resealed, hardware realigned. It's among the least expensive calls we run, and it routinely prevents the most expensive one.
Can you fix a rotted door frame without replacing the door?
That's one of our core trades. Rot concentrates in the bottom foot of the frame and the threshold — where splashback and snow sit — while the door and the rest of the frame stay sound. We cut the decay back to good wood, rebuild with structural epoxy or a spliced-in section of matching lumber, and seal the joint that let water in. The full craft lives on our rotten door frame repair page. Typical cost: a fraction of the four-figure frame-and-door replacement a general contractor would quote, covered by our 5-year workmanship warranty.
How much does door repair cost compared with a new door?
A quality entry door, installed, is a four-figure project — and door replacement quotes in our area climb steeply from there once frames, sidelites, and finishing are counted. Repair prices scale with the failed component: hardware and weatherstripping at the low end, threshold and sag correction mid-range, structural rot repair at the top. Across the board the pattern matches the rest of our work — roughly 80% less than replacement. Your written estimate shows both numbers for your exact door, free, after an assessment within 1–2 days.
The gap under my door lets in cold air and light. What's the fix?
Usually a stack of small ones. A visible gap means the weatherstripping has flattened, the door sweep is worn, the threshold has settled or rotted, or the door has sagged out of square — often two or three of these at once. We correct the geometry first (hinges, then threshold), then fit fresh weatherstripping and sweep so the door closes against a continuous seal. Done in the right order it's a single visit, and the draft, the light line, and the bug highway under the door disappear together.
Do you repair old and historic doors, or only modern ones?
Both — and the old ones are the most rewarding. Pre-war doors in towns like Montclair, Glen Ridge, and Summit are solid old-growth wood, mortise-and-tenon joined, with hardware no catalog carries anymore. We rebuild loose joinery, splice rot, service mortise locks, and refinish — see historic door restoration for the full approach. A restored original outperforms its reputation and keeps the face of the house intact, which no stock replacement slab can do. Every restoration carries the same 5-year workmanship warranty as our modern-door work.
The door work, broken out.
Before the door becomes
a doorway project — call.
A photo of the door and its frame is enough. We'll tell you which of the six parts failed, and what fixing only that part costs.