Door refinishing · Falls Church, VA
Door Refinishing in Falls Church, VA
The City of Falls Church is small and old: 14,710 people, 6,585 housing units, only 2,406 of them detached single-family homes, and 49 percent of the whole stock built before 1970. Median home value is $1,055,600. Small, old and expensive is also a fair description of its front doors.
There are two clearly separate layers here. A Victorian-era core along East Broad Street, which the City covers with an official Victorian architectural styles walking tour, and then the 1920s to 50s Colonials, ramblers and split-levels of Broadmont, Virginia Forest, Westhampton and Raymondale. Six properties in the city are on the National Register, one of them a National Historic Landmark. Call (202) 979-9977.
Front Door Refinishing in Falls Church, VA: Two Eras of Doors
Oak Haven has been a community since 1893, Virginia Forest's houses date from 1941, Westhampton from 1949, and Raymondale is mid-1950s ramblers and split-levels. That gives us two very different doors. The Victorian and early-century stock along East Broad Street has tall four-panel doors, often with a transom over the top and an original rim lock, buried under decades of paint. The mid-century stock has 6'8" doors, frequently with diamond or three-light glazing, in fir or lauan, and very often behind an aluminum storm door that traps heat against the face on a sunny afternoon. In our experience that is the fastest way to blister a finish.
Falls Church City or a Falls Church Address? We Cover Both
This trips people up constantly. The independent City of Falls Church holds only 6,585 housing units, but many thousands more homes in Fairfax County carry a Falls Church mailing address, out through Idylwood, Seven Corners, Bailey's Crossroads and the blocks running toward Tysons and Annandale. If your tax bill says City of Falls Church you are in the city; if it says Fairfax County you are not, whatever the envelope says. It makes no difference to us, since we refinish doors across all of it. It matters a great deal when you are reading anything about local historic rules, which apply inside the city limits only.
Why Falls Church Front Doors Crack and Alligator
Wood moves and finish does not. Dulles normals give a typical annual temperature swing of about 62°F between the January low and the July high, and the extremes of record there run from −18°F to 105°F. Daily records for 1991 to 2020 work out to roughly 90 freeze-thaw cycles a year. Every one of those pushes the wood and pulls the coating sitting on it. On older Falls Church doors the result is paint built up far too thick over too many decades, and the National Park Service points out that thick paint fails at the weakest point of adhesion, the oldest layers next to the wood. That is why it lifts off in flakes instead of wearing thin.
Falls Church Neighborhoods We Refinish Doors In
Churchill, Broadmont, Virginia Forest, Nantucket, Westhampton, Oak Haven, Stockwell Manor, Raymondale, Ellison Heights and Chestnut Place make up most of our Falls Church work. All ten average north of $1.5 million and all ten have substantial front entries. We also work the East Broad Street Victorian blocks, the streets around the East Falls Church and West Falls Church Metro stations, and out along Route 7 into the Fairfax County side of the postal area. Most of these are single doors on 1940s and 50s houses, which is the quickest kind of job we do: one visit, one day, no return trip.
What a Falls Church Door Refinishing Job Involves
We come to you. Drop cloths down, glass and hardware masked, the storm door lifted off its pivots if it is in the way, and the entry door left hanging exactly where it is. The old finish comes off by hand, never by power-washing, which the National Park Service warns drives moisture into the surrounding wall and even into wall cavities. Then the wood is sanded back, checks and open joints are dealt with, the stain goes on and the coats build up. One day for most single doors. Single doors $550 to $1,400, doubles and French pairs $950 to $2,200, wood garage doors $1,200 to $3,200, one-year written warranty, 15+ years at it.
Neighborhoods We Serve in Falls Church
- Churchill
- Broadmont
- Virginia Forest
- Nantucket
- Westhampton
- Oak Haven
- Stockwell Manor
- Raymondale
- Ellison Heights
- Chestnut Place
Door Refinishing Services in Falls Church
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Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
My house has a Falls Church address but I'm told I'm in Fairfax County. Do you still cover me?
Yes, we work both sides of that line every week. The independent city holds only 6,585 housing units, while the Falls Church postal area reaches well into Fairfax County through Idylwood, Seven Corners and the corridor toward Tysons. The distinction matters for city permits and city historic rules, not for whether we will come out to you. Give us the address on the phone and we will tell you which jurisdiction you are actually in before you need to ask anyone else.
The paint on my 1940s door has cracked into little squares. What is that?
That is alligatoring, and it is a film-thickness problem rather than a wood problem. Decades of repainting have built a coating too thick and too brittle to move with the wood underneath, and the National Park Service notes that thick paint fails at the oldest layers next to the wood. Spot-scraping and repainting over the top buys you a season at best. The real fix is taking it back to sound wood, which on a Falls Church door of that era is usually good clear fir.
Can you strip a painted door back to a stained finish?
Sometimes, and we will tell you honestly before you commit to it. It depends entirely on what is under the paint. Older Falls Church doors are often solid fir or oak that takes stain beautifully. Others are lauan or a paint-grade slab with mismatched stiles and rails that was never meant to be seen, and staining one of those looks worse than a good paint job. We strip a test patch first so you can see the actual wood before you decide.
When is the best time of year to have this done in Falls Church?
April through October is the outdoor season here, and April, May, September and October are the best of it. Finish manufacturers set minimum application temperatures around 50 to 60°F that have to hold right through curing, not just while we are brushing. From December through February the average daily high in this area sits at 43 to 47°F with overnight lows below freezing. Summer works but humidity stretches the recoat times. Book spring work in late winter, because the calendar fills.
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