A former customer in East Molesey got in touch because a tilt-and-turn bedroom door had become increasingly difficult to close and had finally reached the point where it simply would not shut.
The bottom corner on the handle side was hitting the frame and the top of the door was badly misaligned as well.
As soon as I moved the curtains out of the way and looked at the hinge side, the main problem became obvious. The bottom pivot hinge had worked loose and was sitting roughly half an inch away from the door.
My first thought was that a couple of longer screws would sort it quickly. Famous last words.
The timber around the bottom corner was rotten and there was no sound material left for a simple screw repair to hold. With the amount of weight and pulling force on a tilt-and-turn door, a five-minute fix would not have lasted.
At that point, the realistic alternatives were replacing the door, leaving it permanently shut, or attempting a structural repair with no guarantee of success.
I noticed that the tilt-and-turn locking mechanism travelled around most of the door and told the customer I was willing to attempt a repair if he understood that I could not promise the result.
A good few hours later, after epoxy, dowels and steel reinforcement plates, the damaged hinge area was solid enough to support the door again.
I rehung and adjusted the door, then tested the tilt-and-turn operation and locking mechanism. The door was back on its hinges and operational rather than being permanently closed or immediately replaced.
