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Hey,
We've got some lovely looking doors, which do look like solid oak. Turns out they're veneered Chipboard. And the door handles are starting to fail.
I went to replace one today, and it's a total mess underneath. There's no way I'm going to be able to replace the handle, as any screws won't bite - with the state of the MDF underneath. I'm actually confused as to how anyone fitted the handles in the first place straight into the Chipboard!
I'm resigned to having to replace the door, but I really don't want to. Everything elsw about the doors are mint condition, but these chuffing handles and the shoddy fitting...
Any ideas on if I can salvage them?!
Ricks
You could place a piece of 9mm mdf over the area(both sides) glued on and screw through that. By painting the board it might help it blend in a bit better.
Gluing on you'll need to sand the area the patch will fit(to about 5mm from the edge) to allow the glue to get a better grip.
Buy handles with a much bigger fixing area, MDF further out from that hole should be in better condition.
Or use small Hollow wall fixings, or similar.
M3 or M4 bolts right through?
Disc of 3mm ply glued on?
Fill the whole lot with Repair Care resin using the wood conditioner, re drill the hole for the spindle and re fix handles. Not a cheap product but cheaper than a new door. I use it for restoring ancient sliding sash windows and can guarantee it will work.
The hole looks 25 mm diameter if so you can use lever on rose handles that come supplied ith long bolts that adjust to size of door and bolt through handles, and then get covered by a pull off facia cover or a screw on one.
Otherwise use lever latch back plate handles use 30mm x 3,5 screws dip them in pva glue or silicon first and screw them into the chipboard core and allow to dry overnight before yanking on them.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/smith-locke-cadenza-fire-rated-lever-on-rose-door-handles-pair-polished-chrome/6875p
https://www.screwfix.com/p/carlisle-brass-victorian-scroll-latch-lever-on-backplate-latch-door-handles-pair-polished-nickel/7415p
Managed to get a couple of small coach bolts through and pull both handles together.
There was much swearing involved.
Only another 10 doors in the house left to go 😬
Just wait till the weight of them pulls the screws out of the hinges, hope they have 3 x 75 mm or bigger hinges per door and frames are not made from MDF.
As above look for m3 or m4 though bolts that bolt both sides of the handles together.
Do the handles have grub screws into the spindle as using handles that do can help as it puts some of the pull force through onto the oppersite handle rather that the screws
I'd go for the resin route tbh. Can you remove the door and then lay it flat? Remove the mechanism and then blank off the void. Then use epoxy to soak into the wood. It might take a couple of of soakings to do each side. You should then be able to refit the original handles and mechanism.
@rickon - Think the taking them all off to fill with epoxy and the drill out the latches again is a bit OTT potentially. Risks blowing the wood if they aren’t that stable anymore.
I had to repair similarly shonky doors when when we bought our house.
Could you paint the crumbling bits around the hole and old screw holes with rapid cure 2-part epoxy then use a long drill bit to go through the full width? Then similar these bolt through fittings.
Did 5 doors in under a couple of hours, solid for a few years now and my other half is not gentle on them 😂