Jeff in North Carolina needs some help repairing a door. Tell us about the problem.
JEFF: Well, new doors and windows from a company that has since gone out of business. They offered the lifetime warranty, of course, but it’s a heavy backslider and it’s got a barrel system.
TOM: OK.
JEFF: It’s like a plastic barrel that runs underneath the door. And those barrels started popping out a while ago and I have not been able to: number one – get the door out to even look at the bottom of it; and I’ve been over to my Lowe’s hardware and a couple of other places and nobody seems to – they sell, for lighter doors, a disk roller type system – in other words it sits on the track and it’s like a little – but nobody seems to know anything about these barrels and I was wondering if you know any way or any kind of kit that I can get to repair these doors or if you can even …
TOM: You don’t know what the manufacturer of the door is or was the door company that you hired to do this, they were the manufacturer?
JEFF: They were supposedly the manufacturer. (inaudible)
TOM: Yeah. Problem is that with those types of companies that hardware that they were using to build those doors is generally not available over the counter, so to speak. It’s – you know, I mean it’s out there but it’s bought individually by manufacturers like that. To try to find it as a replacement is something that’s near impossible most of the time.
JEFF: OK, so I’m pretty much looking at a replacement door then.
TOM: Yeah, I think you are and I would encourage you to use a really good-quality door because these are the situations that you get into when you work with one that’s not a good-quality door and a lot of these companies that are local companies promise lifetime warranties. The question is who’s lifetime. (chuckling) You know? I mean …
JEFF: Yeah. Found that out.
TOM: … you know, is this the lifetime of an insect or, you know, the life of the house? Because if they go out of business what good is it to you?
JEFF: Right.
TOM: I’ll tell you one company I would suggest that you check out and it’s Therma-Tru. ThermaTru.com. Therma-Tru actually invented the fiberglass door and they make these incredible sliding doors and entry doors made out of fiberglass that look just like real wood and they’re amazing. They’re really energy efficient and they’re super strong and they can really take a lot of weather.
JEFF: Alrighty. I’ll definitely look them up then.
TOM: And they’re also sold at Lowe’s, by the way.
JEFF: OK. Oh, I think I’ve seen them. Yeah.
TOM: Yeah. They’re good doors.
JEFF: Oh, Alrighty. Alright, then. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
