Doors take a lot of abuse, but with a little imagination, damage to doors can be covered up, and broken doors can be repaired at a minimum of cost. The repaired door may not be as good as new, but it will function as it is supposed to, and only a critical eye could detect the repair work.
When the veneer of a hollow door is broken, for example, from bumping into a piece of furniture or from being bumped by a bicycle, you can glue a new layer on top of the old veneer and hide the hole completely. If the damage is on the side of the door that contacts the stops, the extra thickness would not permit the door to close. Simply cut the new veneer to leave a margin of about 2 to 6 inches all around it. The new veneer will then look like a decorative panel on the door. You might like it so much that you will want to glue a similar panel to the other side of the door. If only a small part of the door is damaged, use a patch of decorative veneer to cover it. Veneers are available in many colors and with a variety of designs. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to install the veneer, since some come with an adhesive backing.
A more serious problem is a broken stile on the hinge side of the door. This can happen to any door that is banged too hard, but storm doors are especially susceptible. If the door is only cracked, you can glue the parts together again. Pry open the crack, place a chisel or screwdriver near the bottom of the crack to hold the two surfaces apart. Coat the surfaces with adhesive. If the door is a storm door or other outside door, use waterproof glue or any of the new adhesives that can withstand the elements. Remove the chisel, and squeeze the two parts of the crack together. Tie strips of an old sheet around the door to hold the crack closed until the glue dries.
When a more durable repair job is required such as when a piece of the door is broken off completely, you can use dowels (wooden rods) to hold the two pieces together solidly. First, glue the two parts together by coating the surfaces of the breaks with glue. Now drill holes for dowels along the edge of the door, deep enough to penetrate the larger section about 2 inches. The diameter of the dowels depends on the thickness of the door. For thick doors use ½ inch dowels and drill ½ inch holes for them. For doors less than 1 inch thick, thinner dowels can be used. Cut the dowels to length so that they will extend at least 1-½ inches beyond the crack. Coat the dowels with glue, and then tap them in with a hammer so that the ends are flush with the edge of the door. When the glue on the dowels dries, the repaired door will be as sturdy as anew one. The only difficult part of this job is drilling the holes for the dowels straight without coming out the side of the door. If you stand astride the door as you drill, it is fairly simple to hold the drill parallel to the faces of the door.
If the split is under a hinge, you may want to move the hinge. Cut a new gain, as described in the next section, a few inches above or below the old mortise, and install the hinge there. The old gain can be covered with a scrap of wood that is cut to fit. Fasten the block with glue or brads, or both. Drive the head of each brad below the surface with a nail set and fill the hole with putty or wood filler. Also use filler in the cracks around the block if it is not an exact fit. When the block and jam are repainted, they will look like one solid piece.
