Water Proofing Repair Project Using Plast-Aid Repair Product - Door Repairs Are Part Of A Locksmiths Repertoire

Being a locksmith is not my only offering. It is the vocation I am most experienced in, with about 35 years experience across 4 continents. I am lucky to have worked with many different professional locksmith tradespeople all over the world and have learned and continue to learn old and new tips, tricks and methods that will one day benefit customers I come into contact with.

Unlike some other locksmith tradespeople and businesses, I choose to believe that locksmiths dont just choose to work on locks and locking products or access control systems. I choose to believe that a locksmith is a person who will work on anything that opens and closes, with particular emphasis on doors. They can be entry doors (swing, sliding, roll top etc), safes (combination, digital, keyed etc), vehicles (cars, trucks, boats, aeroplanes etc), even appliances (cabinets, cupboards, refrigerators etc).

Often I am called upon by various customers to effect repairs to frames and hinges on swinging doors, rollers on sliding doors, safe combination servicing, even repairing vehicle ignition and door access control systems. Just yesterday I performed 3 separate and different types of jobs. One was installing a new replacement Baldwin mortise lock that was warrantied (unknown to the client) by the manufacturer for life. I had serviced the same client a number of times for different projects over the last 4 years, repairing and rekeying locks and doors as their needs arose.

The second job yesterday, was repairing a door closer on a shopfront. The client was concerned that they required a new closer to replace their aging model on their shopfront entry door, that had started to slam and not close slowly enough. Their worry was that the glass window might break and they would be unsecure. We simply adjusted the closing speed and latching action on their existing product, saving them hundreds of dollars in replacement parts and comforting them with the knowledge that they continue to be secure..

The third project was a little more complicated...

We were called by a client who had read some of our reviews on Thumbtack, a lead generation service for professional tradespeople that offers alternative leads services to Angies List, Home Advisor, Porch, Amazon Home Services among others. Having been a longtime member of the Home Advisor network (formerly Service Magic) and enjoying 350+ reviews there averaging 4.79/5 stars and also Thumbtack, with about 37 reviews to date averaging 4.9/5 stars, we are pleased that customers in our service region continue to be impressed with our offerings and bless us with many good natured positive reviews .

The project we completed yesterday took 5 hours to complete to satisfaction. The required repair was on a 75 year old home, where the basement walkout door was a custom built door installed when the house was built, but was suffering from the very common issue of water damage. The home owners were selling their property and moving out of state and a condition of the sale was to improve/repair the back basement walkout door. They had already contacted a number of contractors who had all determined that replacing the custom door would have been the best suggestion. The average estimated cost for supplying and installing a new custom door and frame in that location was ~$3500.00.

We decided to offer an alternative repair....

Plast-Aid is a product we have been using for about 7 years now. We found out about this brilliant product while researching PVC repair products and were delighted to learn about the other uses for the product. The Plast-Aid video below explains the uses of this product and how easy it is to use.



In the above video, they hint at other projects where Plast-Aid can be used successfully. We decided that the benefits of water-proofing would benefit our customer because the repair would mean they would not have to replace their door and frame.

 In the first image above (my foot), you can see that the client had already attempted to effect repairs using standard caulk and just filling in where the water rotted gaps were appearing.
The caulk did not dry correctly and the result was not suitable enough for painting, while not actually repairing the water damage within and preventing additional water damage.

 The next image shows the hole where i dug out the old caulk.
The amount of caulk used was far too much and didnt do anything to cure the water damage. It simply was an attempt to cover up and hide the damaged area.

This next image shows me digging out the vast amounts of caulk and dirt that had creeped into the water damaged hole beneath the old door frame.

We must have pulled out almost a quarter cubic yard caulk, mud and other garbage from this hole.

The next image shows how much material we had to cut out, of the water damaged wood, before we could begin the actual repairs.

You can see the Plast-Aid that we used to fill the base of the hole, left by the water damaged frame.

We actually used 3 separate containers of the Plast-Aid product to make enough material to fill in the base. This is designed to create a water-proof base with which to build upon.

The next image shows the entire filled portion where Plast-Aid was used to provide the filler.

Plast-Aid is great because it dries and "cures" quickly to enable you to build upon each layer of repair reasonably quickly. The product takes about 10-15 minutes to cure to a state where it can be molded into a soft putty and then be inserted into the application, without it dripping everywhere and making a huge mess.

 The last 2 images show the completed Plast-Aid repair, where we used the Plast-Aid to provide a water-proof barrier for the future. We cleaned up the looks using our Makita 3/8" belt sander that we use as a power file. This fixed the water damaged frame to the point where the customer can now use wood filler to patch over the top, sand and paint.

We are not painters and would never claim to be. We advise our clients prior to any repairs that we suggest they may want to contact a professional painter to put the finishing touches on important ambience of a project.

Purchasing Plast-Aid through their website is the better idea than through online market places, in my opinion. See the source below for a link to the Plast-Aid home page, which also shows many other applications for this fabulous product.

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