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We saved all of the doors from our house renovation (colonial, circa 1920). They’re heavy wooden doors with tight graining; 5 panel and 1 panel. I hate to throw them out. They need stripping and refinishing or painting.
BUT, most of the doors have holes where dead bolts were added (the house was used as an office/commercial property by the state for about 40 years).
I was thinking of plugging the dead bolt holes with plugs made from the stiles of the doors that are no good – thus keeping the grain/wood/age of the plugs matching the doors.
But how will this really look? Has anyone done this successfully? Does it look too much like a patch which if you saw it, you’d say…”Look, there’s a plug in the door where a dead bolt used to be. Dumb.”
Another option I thought of is to find decorative hardware “covers” that would cover the holes (or use new deadbolts) but this adds more expense.
I hate to throw out the doors, but I also need to weigh the cost of getting them stripped, plugged, and restained or painted, and then hung in new jambs that have to be built, versus buying new pre-hung wooden/stainable or MDF/paintable doors.
By the way, the doors on the 1st and 2nd floor are 7’0″, while the 3rd
floor doors are 6’8″. And we have about 15 doors on the 3rd floor alone.
Your thoughts or comments are welcome!
Replies
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We saved all of the doors from our house renovation (colonial, circa 1920). They're heavy wooden doors with tight graining; 5 panel and 1 panel. I hate to throw them out. They need stripping and refinishing or painting.
BUT, most of the doors have holes where dead bolts were added (the house was used as an office/commercial property by the state for about 40 years).
I was thinking of plugging the dead bolt holes with plugs made from the stiles of the doors that are no good - thus keeping the grain/wood/age of the plugs matching the doors.
But how will this really look? Has anyone done this successfully? Does it look too much like a patch which if you saw it, you'd say..."Look, there's a plug in the door where a dead bolt used to be. Dumb."
Another option I thought of is to find decorative hardware "covers" that would cover the holes (or use new deadbolts) but this adds more expense.
I hate to throw out the doors, but I also need to weigh the cost of getting them stripped, plugged, and restained or painted, and then hung in new jambs that have to be built, versus buying new pre-hung wooden/stainable or MDF/paintable doors.
By the way, the doors on the 1st and 2nd floor are 7'0", while the 3rd
floor doors are 6'8". And we have about 15 doors on the 3rd floor alone.
Your thoughts or comments are welcome!