|
Home Owner Maintenance Tip
We enjoy trying to make sure that your home stays your most valuable asset. One of the best ways we know to help, is to pass along some simple maintenance tips that most people don’t know could save thousands of dollars. Door Problems Functional problems with doors include damage to the door material (rotted wood, buckled metal, etc). Door hinges which are damaged or poorly secured make doors difficult to open and close and, if not corrected will lead to the damage of the door and frame. Latching mechanisms that do not work properly impair security. If the door is not properly weather-stripped, unnecessary heat loss occurs. Frames which are damaged or out of square, result in heat loss. Doors may become difficult to open and close. Door thresholds which are loose or damaged are unsafe and should be repaired or replaced when necessary. Sliding glass doors often suffer hardware damage or the track becomes dirty and the doors will not operate easily. If an older metal sash sliding doors is damaged the effect on the building interior floor level can be significant. The result is condensation and ice build up. The absence of a thermal break in the metal frame leads to a very cold interior metal surface. The cold metal connects with warm moist air in the house. As the moist air is cooled, condensation develops as droplets on the metal frame. The water runs onto the floor, or forms ice temporarily and than melts and runs onto the floor. This damages the door sill, floor boards, sub floor, and in severe cases, the joists and the header below. Providing an additional sliding door on the exterior will minimize the problem, although this creates a door opening which requires a number of motions to open and close. The best option is to replace the sliding door system. The hardware is often ready to be replaced anyhow. Damage to the frame is common on sliding doors. This is often caused by excessive force used in opening and closing the door, often necessitated by damaged or poorly adjusted hardware, or a dirty track. Where the guides or rollers have been mechanically damaged, the door will not ride freely. Ideally, all doors should have at least a six inch step up from the outdoors to the door sill. This is often omitted on sliding doors leading onto a deck. Where this step is not present snow can leak through the bottom of the door system readily. Where there is no six inch step-up, good inspection practices and regular maintenance (including snow clearing) are necessary to prevent water damage. The loss of a seal between double glazed panes on a sliding door is common. This results in a clouding of the glass which may be permanent. Because of the large panes of glass usually involved, this is a relatively expensive problem. Replacement is not a high priority as only a very small loss in energy efficiency is suffered. Replacement is usually done because of the unsightly appearance of clouded glass. Some door sashes are arranged so that they can be dismantled. Others are manufactured in such a way that this cannot be done. Then replacement is of course more expensive. As you can see doors can have a multitude of concerns that need your attention and maintenance. Please feel free to forward this maintenance tip to your friends and/or family members so they too can maintain their real estate investment.
Lem McSpadden and Brian McSpadden "Your Property Consultants for Life"
|
