Wood Doors

Door restoration & Fabrication

Simply put, we handle questions of detail and process in regards to door fabrication and installation in traditional ways.

Our doors are hung on solid brass hinges, generally to the historic jamb. Fitting a reproduction door to a 100 year old jamb is a real test of a carpenter’s skill. Our doors are fit to interlocking polished bronze thresholds and are sealed with bronze weather stripping. We prefer mortise locks with integral latches and locks.

*This sequence is an example of the work that doors undergo during the restoration process. The Georgetown handmade door shown above nearly fell apart when the paint was stripped.*

We can fabricate, pre-finish, and install doors of any period design. Our doors are usually 2-1/4" with full mortise and tenon joinery. Every single detail can be specified — angle and reach of raised panels and beveled glass, the profile and proportion of the moldings, sticking and astragal, the proportions of the rails and stile and the relationships of the door, jamb and casing.

Stability, solidity, mass and beauty — qualities that a fine door should express. Having built over a thousand doors, nearly every single one has unique characteristics, and we have developed a very effective construction technique to accomplish these goals. While we won't necessarily make public the process here, rest assured your door from The Craftsmen Group will be exceptional in a way that meets the hand and eye and intangible ways, also.

The doors structure is built, taken to site, and fit without glass or finish in place. With fitment complete, the door returns to The Craftsmen Group for glazing, hardware, and finishes. The doors are then finished on a rotisserie. We offer traditional oil, stain, and spar varnish, catalyzed varnish and lacquer, acrylic and high gloss oil finishes. Favored brands include Sutherland Welles Tung Oil, Epithanes varnish, Campbell lacquer, Benjamin Moore Acrylics, and Fine Paints of Europe oil paint.

We do not know how to do this work any better. There is a sound to the latch of a well fit door that is not easily achieved, but enjoyed by all those who use it.

Examples of Doors

Below are shown examples of door restoration treatments and fabrications from the past 10 years. It is a condensed representation of the different institutional and residential work done in a wide variety of historic buildings around Washington D.C.

Capitol Hill

These parts are from a Capitol Hill row house in beautiful, original condition — a testament to sound joinery. The door made it to 100 years without glue — a very odd phenomenon. We disassembled the door and we glued it for the next 100 years.

Dupont Circle

Detail of damage to door.

P Street, Georgetown

Handmade, when stripped of paint, it nearly fell apart.

P Street, Georgetown

We reglued all joinery and repaired as required. Exterior finish was FPE paint and interior was stained and oiled. It was very satisfying for us and the homeowners to see this humble piece of millwork carry on.

Historic Door

Historic door adapted for modern hardware for the U.S. Congress at the Cannon House Office Building.

Naval Academy

Informal shop drawings for balcony doors at the Naval Academy. The originals had been cut for air conditioners.

Rayburn House Office Building

This is simplicity made complex. These American black walnut doors had one flush face and the other face with raised panels and Bolection molding. We built this for the temporary offices for Congress while the Cannon Building was renewed. These doors are stave core with thick sawn veneers on their face. This veneer is made here with a large re-saw. It is not available in the marketplace.

Rayburn House Office Building

1850s House, Georgetown

This pair of doors are pre-Industrial Revolution. Through tenons and just an 1 1/8" thick they were perfect for an 1850s house in Georgetown, but they were too short. Jake stands next to the full scale drawing and you can see the contrasting wood tones describing new and old material. Making a door wider is one thing, making it taller is ridiculous. We accomplished our goal, but this is about twice as difficult as just making a reproduction door to start with.

1850s House, Georgetown

Dupont Circle

Carriage House

Carriage House doors left unfinished per client request. This is Spanish cedar about seven years in the weather.

Oak

This is a reproduction door in solid oak based on the neighbor's door. We used Sutherland Welles tung oil which requires reapplication at least twice a year. This door went five years without maintenance. We have moved to using Epifanes marine varnish, five coats minimum, for any exterior clear finish now.

P Street, Georgetown

We used this macintosh motif throughout the house. Note the narrow stiles and rails creating more light and delicacy.

Balcony Door

The Cremone bolt works perfectly here. The two doors work as one. One single device operates both.

Dupont Circle

18th Century Door

This door was designed from photos from the 1920s when the original 1790s door was still present. Millwork from this period (1760–1830) is delicate by Victorian standards. This door is robust in proportion and relief for the time it harkens to. It is solid mahogany with a tung oil finish – an easy to maintain option. At the time of the photo, the door is 10 years old, and its patina is enriched by simple bi-annual applications of oil.

P Street, Georgetown

This original 1830s door was leaking and fitting badly.

Dupont Circle

Fine Paints of Europe

This door on the north side of P Street is c. 1830. Extensive restoration and preparation readied it for an FPE finish. Some panel movement is evident and we worried the primitive door might not do well with a painted exterior and stained and oiled interior finish. Gratefully, all is well. The following images describe the extensive restoration for this door.

N Street door, Georgetown

Historic door before renovation treatment

Georgetown door renovated and installed

This door is really a copy of the original version of a c. 1850s Georgetown row house entry. The door and paint here are from 2016, like the other Fine Paints of Europe doors still in very good condition. This paint is very difficult to apply, but through our own use we have now proved its value. One of the more common mistakes in Georgetown façades is the presence of six-panel doors. Glad we can correct a few.

Cleveland Park

Nice oak door. Iron work designed by client and The Craftsmen Group.

N Street. Georgetown

Door appearance before intervention

Door restored and installed on N Street, Georgetown

Solid mahogany, fabricated here, interpretive reproduction. A part of a whole façade restoration. This door on N Street received brush-applied Fine Paints of Europe oil paint in 2015. Again, color and gloss retention is remarkable.

Fine Paints of Europe

Hoya blue per client’s request, here, an expression of the best gloss retention in a single part paint that is available. This P Street door was brush-painted with Fine Paints of Europe gloss oil, 12 years before this picture was taken. Still basically unblemished. Door fabrication c. 2006.

N Street, Georgetown

The door on the left is our reproduction of the adjacent door to the right. It was carefully reproduced in every detail

N Street, Georgetown

Before the doors were painted.

Georgetown

Another side-by-side reproduction in Georgetown. Left doors are by the Craftsmen Group, and right doors, original architecture.

Dupont Circle

The back sloping canopy drained badly and in 100 years destroyed most of the millwork in this portico. With approval from L'Enfant Trust, we fabricated these quarter sawn oak reproductions. Hardware was sound and restored.

N Street, Georgetown

I built these doors in 1985 in my basement for a then renown interior designer, Anthony Brown.

N Street, Georgetown

This photo was taken with film camera and tripod on a timer, 1985. Exhausted, but happy - the most challenging project I’ve done to date. Leaded glass by another artisan in Adams Morgan.

Conservatory in Georgetown

This series of doors is for a conservatory in Georgetown. Muntin style was based on original window profiles.

The Old Tabard Inn

The good ol’ Tabard Inn. These doors are form the early ‘90s. Reproductions of the original in solid mahogany.

Townhouse and Estate Entry

There are many doors like this throughout Washington. These are reproductions where we were able to reuse the original beveled glass, finished with Marine Spar varnish. If maintained they will outlast the originals. Note the sill at base of the glass — an important detail which connects these doors to the originals.

Concealed Door

Concealed door for private client. This fake worked perfectly and has done so for 20 years now. All of those books are 1" deep. We sawed the binders off real books.

Concealed Door

The hardware is from France.

Carriage House Door

Circa 1996. Blacksmith Phil Heath and myself out front of the original carriage house shop. This door was built in the basement shop. It pockets into the masonry wall, solid mahogany, 30 years in and it’s still beautiful.