Door Installation and Replacement in Manchester, NH

Slab, pre-hung or a new opening

A slab is just the door. No frame. It's the cheapest route when the old jamb is sound and you only want a different style, but the new slab has to be cut for hinges and a lockset in the same spots as the old one. In an old house that's fussier than it sounds. The original door may have been planed a dozen times to keep up with a moving frame.

A pre-hung unit arrives with its own jamb, hinges and stop already set. The old casing and jamb come out, the new unit gets shimmed plumb in the rough opening, and new casing goes on. More material, more trim work. It also fixes a sagging frame instead of fighting it.

Then there are jobs where the opening itself changes: widening a doorway, putting French doors where a wall used to be, moving an entry. That's framing first. If the wall carries weight from above, the header is sized by the building code, and sometimes by an engineer.

French doors, closet doors and entry doors

French doors are the ones people notice. Two leaves in one opening have to meet with an even gap from top to bottom and latch without rubbing. The photos on this page show a pair of white French doors with five frosted glass panels each, cased out and painted, in a hallway with grey-blue walls. Frosted glass passes light between rooms without putting either room on display.

Closet doors show sloppy work fast. Bifold tracks that jump, bypass doors that won't meet, a gap under the head casing. One photo here shows a closet with new grey panel doors under a small pine cabinet, finished in white casing and crown.

Exterior doors have a harder life. An entry door has to keep out drafts and sideways rain. It has to shed water at the sill. And it should lock without anybody leaning on it. A sill pan and a proper threshold matter more than the look of the slab. ENERGY STAR rates exterior doors for efficiency. Before you buy, check NHSaves (the state's utility-run efficiency program) for whatever rebates are current.

Old houses, old paint

Most of the houses Devin works in, by his own description, are older town-houses from the 1800s and 1900s. Doors, jambs and casings in those homes got painted over and over. If it's pre-1978, some of those coats may have lead in them.

Pull casing, plane a door edge, sand a jamb: you've disturbed it. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule says anyone paid to do that in a pre-1978 home must be certified and must work lead-safe. EPA's Renovate Right pamphlet lays out what you, the homeowner, should see happen. Ask whoever you hire how they'll handle it. Fair question. A good contractor won't dodge it.

What Crimson Maple Construction says about door work

In an August post the business wrote that "we install doors with precision so they look great and operate smoothly for years to come." A September reel described one finished job: "We framed a new wall, hung and finished the drywall, installed the French double doors, and got everything painted and trimmed out."

That's the frame-to-finish side of the business. Devin's own line is "I’m a General contractor that can do anything from frame to finish", and framing, drywall, trim and paint are all on his service list too.

What to send for a door quote

The business's own line is "Message us a photo — we’ll get you a number." For a door: both sides of it, a close shot of the jamb on the hinge side, and the floor at the threshold. Rough width and height too. Which way does it swing? Inside or outside door?

If it sticks, say where it rubs. For a new opening, a photo of the wall and whatever sits above it on the next floor helps. Estimates are free, per the company's own posts. Call (603) 722-3344.