Shop Our Online Parts Store Find More Product Details Download our entranceways brochure to view more information about Andersen residential entry doors, including available sizes and shapes, sidelights and transoms, wood species, brickmould, interior casing, hardware, art glass and grilles.HISTORIC WOOD DOOR RESTORATION AND PRESERVATION BY OLEK LEJBZON FOR LANDMARK BUILDINGS Olek restores and preserves historic wood door in the worst imaginable condition. We use existing sound wood, and replicate any rotten components of the doors, and insert functionally sound Dutchman inlays, using original joinery techniques to last for many decades or centuries of use. We make minimal use of epoxy, as that hastens deterioration of the door over surprisingly few years. An historic restored door should last well over 50 years with finish maintenance, before next needing restoration. Typically, the doors we restore are part of Landmarked or National Register properties, often in Brownstone buildings of the 19th century or in historic buildings on College campuses, residences or Churches.

Any replication work, including moldings is done to precisely match the existing profiles. We custom cut shaper knives to fabricate moldings. Our hand carvings match any carvers hand, to recreate original details indistinguishable from the original. Epoxy is not used as though it might look nice initially, it has the following flaws: •  It traps moisture when put over underlying "soft", spongy wood (read that "rotten" wood with high humidity content), allowing rot to continue below. Statements that epoxy "pushes out the water or humidity" are baseless, without foundation in fact. •  Incompatible with the underlying wood as it swells and contracts with humidity changes, popping off in surprisingly few seasons •  Once it pops and breaks the paint, it traps rain beneath the paint surface, so once the water gets in, it doesn't get out. Cheap application of epoxy consolidant by semi-skilled labor is not a reason to accept it. Epoxy is usually the difference between a restoration lasting 5 -10 years before being necessary again, and lasting 50 or more years.

Nothing is better for the longevity of your door restoration than fine cabinetmakers skilled in installing Dutchman inlays. Our fine European craftsmen take not much longer to install wood Dutchmen than typical restorers doing epoxy consolidation. Olek and all its craftsmen are proud of the quality of every job we do. We look forward to taking fine care of your project. DOOR PRESERVATION AT PRINCETON RESTORATION OF THE MAGNIFICENT DOORS OF McCosh Hall at Priceton University Olek restored all of the doors of Princeton's Mc Cosh Hall (ca. 1875) around 2002 when the building was being restored. Every entry door to this building is unique, and deserving of fine preservation efforts. The doors, made in 1875, were made with a 1/4" white oak veneer over pine or fir stave core. The pine stave core was less rot resistant than the white oak, and often rotted inside the core of the door, retaining moisture and eventually rotting the white oak veneer as well. To repair these doors, it was necessary to remove the weakened veneer over rotten cores, and to replace the veneer after Dutchman inlays into the stave core substrate.

After pulling off the original 1/4" thick rot-weakened veneer easily, the rotten stave core was visible beneath. The construction is not very different than the 1/8" veneer over lumber staves or "engineered" core accepted by AWI today. home depot door trim packInstead of lasting 100 years, todays' construction more typically lasts 20 years. price andersen french doorsSolid white oak with mortise-and-tenon construction should last well over 200 years with some finish maint.glass door repair langley See this door restored below, installed into a grueling Southern exposure, nine years later:automatic garage doors warrington

Nine years post-completion with no maintenance, all the Dutchman inlays are intact After stave core repair with original and inlaid replacement quartered white oak veneerwooden door sill suppliers Door after restoration, finishing and reinstallation, and nine years aging with no maintenance. garage door opener slack chainLeaded glass replaced by Olek.9 x 8 garage door rough opening 1st Church of Christ Scientist, NYC                             Persian Doors, ca. 11th century 106 Pierrepont Street                                                 Light Horse Inn Cooper Hewitt Museum                                                 Jersey City State College

Victorian Door Preservation                                                 Brownstone Door Preservation Carved Oak Door Refinishing                           Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Victorian Brownstone Home : About Us : Links : Furniture Restoration : Modern Furniture : Antique Furniture : Testimonials : Blog : Policy : Site Map : Contact Us This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License When a young family happened upon a neoclassical 1910 Brooklyn brownstone in unusually good shape four years ago, they knew they had found something special. “Even more unusual,” says the owner, “it had scarcely been altered in its first 100 years.” The brownstone’s previous owner purchased the property in 1964 before passing it on to her son, a stenographer who lived in the house until his death in 2011. He entrusted the sale to a neighbor of 25 years, who declared that the ideal inhabitants “would be interested in maintaining or restoring the house as opposed to gut renovating it.”

The young family that purchased the 4,100-square-foot home “felt a real pressure to maintain the sensibility and weight of the house as we found it.” (Take a look at this Slideshow of the house before its renovation, via WSJ.) Though they loved the home’s “intactness,” it presented some challenges–”vividly illustrated the day we moved in, when we found one of our three children handily turning on a gas light fixture.” They turned to close friend and architect Gerry Smith–a member of the Remodelista Architect/Designer Directory–to lead the charge. A modern kitchen with a wet bar for entertaining (the couple are avid entertainers). A fully equipped laundry room for a family of five (plus dog). A utility room for yard work. An extra powder room in proximity to all the action. But most importantly, said the client, “We wanted these new areas–while not in any sense historically accurate–to remain in keeping with the rest of the house.” Luckily, the existing layout worked well, so dramatic functional overhauls were not needed.

Instead, said Smith, the question became: “How do we provide a more modernized kitchen and utility room that still feels like an appropriate extension of the rest of turn-of-the-century house?” Gerry Smith is available for the next 48 hours to answer any and all questions about the project. Use the commenting tool below and ask away! Photography by Samuel Morgan Photography. Above: One of Smith’s priorities was to transform the dark parlor floor by adding light–”physically and metaphorically,” in the words of his clients. He added a skylight directly above the kitchen to open it up to views of the sky. This opening, along with several others (see below), are “each oriented in different cardinal directions so the natural light in the kitchen changes constantly. On many days, the owners can work in the kitchen without any artificial light until well into the twilight hours.” Above: Smith enlarged an existing window opening to accommodate a new pair of steel French doors sourced from A&S Window Associates, based in Glendale, New York. 

The wall lights above the single-slab black walnut countertop are Navire Jib Sconces from LA-based Atelier de Troupe. The pantry door, with existing brass hardware, was original to the house. Above: Smith consulted with color expert Eve Ashcraft on the interior paint colors; she chose Deep Silver from Benjamin Moore for the custom wood cabinets. Except for the pantry handle mentioned above, all kitchen hardware is new. The floor tile is Ann Sacks Luxor Grey, and the range hood was custom fabricated by Superstrata and installed with custom unlacquered brass brackets. The hood is coated in colored plaster to match the kitchen walls, in a very light gray with mica flakes added for shimmer. “We limited ourselves to materials that could plausibly have been in use when the house was built,” said the client. Above: Ashcraft’s paint-picking prowess extended to the kitchen drawer interiors, which are painted in Benjamin Moore Teal. Photograph by Jonas Everets. Above: The kitchen counter and backsplash is Bianco Carrara marble.

The chalkboard wall is a 3/4-inch slate stone slab with a chalk rail made of unlacquered brass. “The weekly family dinner menu, chosen by democratic voting methods, is usually displayed on the chalkboard,” says Smith. Above: The shelving above the bar is blackened steel, and the bar counter and integral sink are made of zinc. The stairwell off to the right gave Smith another opportunity to bring light into the space. He replaced a solid wall and door with new glazing, which abuts a bay window in the dining room. “This new opening has a nice dialogue with the dining room,” he says. Above: Smith swapped in a solid wall for steel windows and a door on the basement level. “This was probably the most transformative change; we opened up one of the darkest, most cramped spaces in the house and flooded that space with natural light,” he says. Above: A secondary wall oven is slotted into the lower half of the staircase, which is made almost entirely of cabinetry. The basement level can quickly become catering headquarters for large parties;

the cabinetry surrounding the oven is filled with extra wine glasses, silverware, and other overflow entertaining essentials. Above: The new stairwell glazing brings ample light into the laundry and utility rooms, so there’s rarely the need for artificial light during the daytime. The utility room sink is made of marine black phyllite, which is similar in appearance to soapstone. The custom wood cabinets are painted in Kendall Charcoal by Benjamin Moore, and the flooring is French terracotta tile by Ann Sacks in Antique Dark. All the hardware in the basement utility and laundry rooms is new. Above: The powder room door and hardware is original to the house. The wallpaper is a custom colorway from Brooklyn-based GrowHouseGrow, in a pattern called That Highly Intelligent Clam. The floor is a single slab of Bianco Dolomiti stone from Italy. Above: The former kitchen, looking onto the backyard. (The blue tape on the floor shows the design mockup before the renovation began.)