Home Repair Light – Broken Doors

I came home tonight (Friday night) ready to kick back and relax at the end of another work week. My eldest son was kind enough to empty the dishwasher upon request but accidentally broke a new thermos. I went for the vacuum to clean up the shards of class insulation that shattered. They key to the closet door would not work. I fumbled with the keys for a few minutes before I notice the door was smashed in several degrees beyond where it was supposed to be. I could see the molding the door rests against was smashed back into the door frame. Several good tugs and the door snapped back into position, and then I was able to unlock and open it.

The molding for the door was smashed in and all the nails had been pulled out. It looks like it rested on heavy duty staples to keep in place. I was quite upset about the door, and asked my eldest son if he knew what had happened. He did not but said he noticed it a few days ago. I asked if he was aware of any other broken doors and he motioned to the door below the kitchen sink.


Sure enough that was broken too, as if someone had kicked it in. The recessed part of the door frame had been punched out the back take the sturdier wood that surrounded it with it.

I vacuumed first.

Then I managed to pull the closet door back into place. I used nails that were comparable in length to what was there, but I don’t believe they were nails intended for wood. Still the door if functional and the nails won’t be seen by human eyes. The frame is fixed but if you look you can tell it’s not quite where it was and a small amount of unstained wood is visible.


The kitchen door under the sink was much more difficult. The wood itself was shattered, cracked and damaged. I took the door off and was able to push the recessed piece of wood back into place with some effort. The shattered wood is glued back on. It would have been smart to hold it together with clamps overnight, but I can not find our clamps. I secured it under something heavy for about 30 minutes (the remainder of my patience for the evening the reattached the door. From the outside the door looks ok, but it’s quite stress and damaged. Although no one knows how it was damaged, clearly it will not withstand a second blow of the same force.


My eldest son and I agreed that there are only three people in the house with the strength to damage doors in this manner; his mother, him and me. We agreed that we would both be extra careful about the force we use when opening and closing doors. We also agreed they would not be closed by kicking them ever again.