Door Repair & Replacement in Park City, UT: Slab Swaps, Old Town Doors, Condo Entries & Rentals

Door & Cabinet Adjustments · Park City, UT

Park City is hard on doors

Park City sits around 7,000 feet, and the air up here is thin, dry and cold for most of the year. Wood doors and frames lose moisture all winter and take some back in the short, wet spring, so a door that closed with a soft click in September can rub at the top corner by January and refuse to latch by March. Add houses built on steep hillsides, decades of snow load and a steady stream of guests hauling skis through the entry, and you get a town full of doors that need a little help.

The fix depends a lot on what kind of home you're in. A door in a hundred-year-old miner's house on Woodside Avenue has very different problems from a fire-rated entry door in a Prospector condo or a nine-foot alder door in Deer Valley, so here's how we approach each.

Old Town miner's houses

Many of the small historic homes on Park Avenue, Woodside, Norfolk and the streets above Main were built in the mining boom, on lots so steep the back of the house is a full story higher than the front. Over a century they've settled, been jacked up, been added onto and been re-leveled, sometimes more than once. Almost nothing in them is square anymore. Typical problems:

Doors that bind on one corner because the frame has racked as the house settled. We plane and re-hang the door to fit the opening it has now, rather than the one it had in 1900.
Old mortise locks and glass knobs that no longer reach the strike plate. We move or shim strikes, free up worn latches and, where you want to keep the original hardware, work with it instead of replacing it.
Stripped hinge screws in old softwood jambs. Longer screws into the framing or filled and re-drilled holes stop the sag.
Thin, drafty exterior doors with gaps you can see daylight through. New weatherstripping, sweeps and threshold adjustments make a big difference without changing the look.

Old Town is a historic district, and exterior changes to historic homes, including replacing front doors, can need approval from Park City Planning. Repairs that keep the existing door in place are usually the simplest path. If you're thinking about replacing an original door, check with the city first. Older homes can also have lead paint on doors and trim, so we keep sanding and planing on old painted surfaces to a minimum and recommend testing before any bigger work.

Condo and townhome entry doors

From Park Meadows to Prospector and the condos near the resort bases, a lot of Park City homes open onto a shared hallway or breezeway. Those unit entry doors are often fire-rated, with self-closing hinges or a closer, and they usually belong to the HOA, not the owner. We can adjust a closer that slams or won't latch, tighten hinges, align a deadbolt that's started to drag and replace a worn sweep where the HOA allows it. We don't cut down, drill through or add hardware to fire-rated doors in ways that would change their rating. When a door needs that kind of change, we'll tell you so you can take it to your HOA or property manager.

Balcony and deck doors in condos get their own set of problems: snow drifted against the threshold, ice in the track and seals that have been beaten flat. Our sliding door guide covers those.

Big doors in Deer Valley and the newer neighborhoods

Larger homes in Deer Valley, Empire Pass, Old Ranch Road and around the golf courses often have oversized solid wood entry doors, double doors and pivot doors. Those are heavy, and heavy doors slowly pull their hinges, crush their weatherstripping and push their bottoms out of line with the threshold. We tighten and reinforce hinges, adjust double-door astragals and flush bolts so both leaves seal, and reset strikes and thresholds. Pivot door hardware and full door replacements go to the door's maker or a door company, and we'll say so before you spend a visit on it.

Nightly rentals and second homes

Rental doors take more abuse in one ski season than most family doors see in five years. The usual list: keypad locks that misread because the deadbolt drags, ski-boot kicks at the bottom of interior doors, handles punched through drywall where a door stop went missing, bathroom privacy locks that jam and sliding closet doors off their tracks. We fix those between bookings, send photos to owners who are out of town and note anything that needs a locksmith or another trade. Before the season starts, it's worth pairing door work with the rest of our ski-season rental checklist, and between guests see rental turnovers in Park City.

Replacing a door in Park City: repair, slab swap or prehung?

Quick answer: Kamas Valley Handyman repairs doors and replaces many interior doors in Park City, either as a new slab hung in your existing frame or as a prehung interior unit. Exterior door replacement that involves a new frame, sill, flashing or structural changes goes to a door company or contractor. Call or text (435) 321-2591 with a photo of the door and frame.

Plenty of people searching for door installation or door replacement in Park City do not actually need a whole new door. Here is how we sort it out:

Repair: if the slab is solid and the problem is rubbing, sagging, a latch that misses or drafts, adjusting, planing, new hinges, a moved strike or new weatherstripping is usually the simplest and fastest fix. This covers most of the doors we see.
Slab swap: if the door itself is cracked, punched through, warped or just ugly, but the frame is square and sound, a new slab can be fitted to the existing jamb. We transfer hinge locations, cut hinge mortises, drill for the lockset and trim the slab to the opening. This is common for hollow-core bedroom and bathroom doors in rentals, and it keeps the existing casing and paint intact.
Prehung interior door: when the frame is damaged or badly out of square, a prehung interior unit (door already hung in a new frame) can replace the whole assembly. That means removing casing, setting and shimming the new frame plumb, and re-trimming. In Old Town houses that have settled, the rough opening may need adjustment, and we will tell you if it is more than a handyman job.
Exterior door replacement: front doors, patio doors and garage-to-house doors involve sills, flashing, weather sealing, sometimes structure, and in condos often the HOA. Fire-rated doors must be replaced with rated assemblies. Those jobs go to a door company or contractor, and Old Town historic homes may need city approval first.

Matching an existing door in an older home is often the hardest part. Old Town doors can be odd sizes, so new slabs may need trimming or a custom order, and five-panel or plank styles rarely come in stock sizes. Bring us measurements or a photo and we will help you figure out what to buy, or we can measure before you order.

What we fix and what we hand off

Sticking, sagging and rubbing doors: planing, shimming, re-hanging and hinge repairs
Latches, strikes, deadbolts and keypad locks that don't line up
Weatherstripping, door sweeps, thresholds and storm door closers
Interior, closet, pocket and bifold doors, door stops and hardware
Garage-to-house doors that won't close on their own
Interior door slab swaps and many prehung interior door replacements

Rekeying and lock replacements on commercial or master-key systems go to a locksmith, overhead garage door springs and openers go to a garage door company, and a rotted or badly out-of-square frame is usually a job for a door company. For drafts, start with our guide to drafty doors and weatherstripping, and if a storm door is getting thrown open by the wind, see storm doors in windy towns. We also fix doors in Kamas and Coalville, and around Park City in Jeremy Ranch and Kimball Junction and Silver Creek and Promontory.

Book in Park City

Call or text (435) 321-2591 with your neighborhood, a short description and a photo or two. You can also message us on Instagram at @kamasvalleyhandyman. Got other small jobs around the house? Send the whole list so we can plan one visit.

Call or text (435) 321-2591 Message us on Instagram

Door repair in Park City: FAQ

Why do doors in my Old Town Park City house stick?

Most historic Old Town homes have settled and been re-leveled over a century, so the frames are no longer square, and the dry winter air shrinks wood doors. Planing, shimming and re-hanging the door to fit the opening it has now usually fixes it.

Can I replace the front door on a historic Old Town home?

Exterior changes in the historic district, including some door replacements, can need approval from Park City Planning. Repairing the existing door is usually simpler. Check with the city before replacing an original door.

Can you fix my condo's entry door closer?

Usually, yes. We adjust closers and self-closing hinges, align deadbolts and replace sweeps where the HOA allows it. We won't modify fire-rated doors in ways that change their rating, and we'll tell you if a fix needs HOA approval.

My rental's keypad lock keeps failing. Is it the lock?

Often it's the door. If the deadbolt drags on the strike, the motor struggles and drains the battery. Aligning the strike and door, then putting in fresh batteries, fixes a lot of keypad problems.

How do I book door repair in Park City?

Call or text (435) 321-2591, or message @kamasvalleyhandyman on Instagram, with your neighborhood and a short video of the door opening and closing.

Do you replace doors in Park City?

Yes, interior doors. We fit new slabs into existing frames and replace damaged interior doors with prehung units. Exterior door replacement with a new frame, sill or flashing goes to a door company or contractor.

What is the difference between a slab swap and a prehung door?

A slab swap replaces only the door and reuses the existing frame and hinge locations, which works when the frame is square and sound. A prehung door comes already hung in a new frame and replaces the whole assembly when the frame is damaged or out of square.

We focus on general handyman work and are not a licensed electrical, plumbing or general contracting company. For jobs that need a licensed trade, we'll tell you upfront and point you in the right direction.

Door repair in Park City