Sidelight, Transom and Door Frame Refinishing

What sidelight, transom and frame refinishing covers

The full opening includes more parts than people count: the side and head jambs, the stop, the exterior brickmould or casing, the mullions between the door and each sidelight, the sidelight sash and its panel, the transom above, the sill and the threshold. All of it gets the same treatment as the door: strip the failed finish, repair checking and water damage, sand to a clean surface, color match, and rebuild with UV-stable topcoats. Glass is masked and cleaned. Where a glazing bead or a putty line has failed and water is getting into the frame, we deal with that too, because coating over an open joint is a waste of the coating.

Why the door frame fails before the door

Geometry, mostly. The door hangs vertically and sheds water; the sill and the horizontal ledges of the frame collect it. The National Park Service, in Preservation Brief 47, points out that southern and western exposures weather faster than northern or eastern ones, and on a frame the worst-hit face is often the one that also catches splash-back off the stoop. Then there is end grain: jamb legs and mullions are cut across the grain at the bottom, which drinks water like a straw. With about 118 separate rain events a year at Dulles (NOAA NCEI) and roughly 90 freeze-thaw cycles derived from NOAA daily records for 1991-2020, the bottom eight inches of a jamb takes the punishment for the whole entry.

Refinishing sidelights without damaging the glass

Sidelights are narrow, fully glazed and often original, which means the work is careful and slow rather than heavy. Nothing abrasive gets run against the glass. We mask the panes, work the stiles, rails and muntins by hand, and take the finish off the glazing beads without disturbing the seal. Leaded, beveled, caming and stained glass all handle this fine because the glass itself is never touched by anything harder than a cloth. Where a bead is loose or a putty line has failed, it is re-bedded before the finish goes on. Interior faces of sidelights are usually in far better condition and can be left or included.

Rotted door frame, sill and threshold repair

Frame rot is the single most common repair we make on an entry, and it is nearly always at the bottom of a jamb leg or at the sill. Sound wood above it means we can cut back to solid material, splice in matching stock, rebuild the profile and seal the end grain properly so the same thing does not happen again. Thresholds and sills that have gone soft or lost their pitch are replaced rather than patched, because a sill that no longer sheds water will destroy whatever you put on it. Weatherstripping and sweeps that have hardened, torn or compressed flat are replaced at the same time.

Sidelight, transom and frame refinishing cost

These are priced as separate lines rather than folded into the door, because entries vary so much. A single entry door is $550 to $1,400 on its own; adding two sidelights, a transom and the frame turns it into a full-entry project that behaves more like our $950 to $2,200 double-door work and can go above it where there is significant rot or complex glazing. Frame repair, sill or threshold replacement and weatherstripping are itemized separately. You see every line before anyone starts. For most people the frame is the line they nearly skipped and are gladdest they did not.

How long a refinished entry frame lasts

A frame that has been repaired properly, with its end grain sealed and its sill shedding water, lasts as long as the door does and sometimes longer, because it is not being opened and slammed. The horizontal surfaces stay the weak point. The National Park Service recommends inspecting exterior doors every six months, and the same walk-around should take in the sill, the bottom of each jamb leg and the transom ledge. Any dark spot or lifted edge there is a five-minute fix caught early and a carpentry job left a year. That inspection is part of what our maintenance recoat visits are for.

Related Services

• Front Door Refinishing
• Door Refinishing Cost
• Door Maintenance & Recoating

Areas We Serve

• McLean, VA
• Great Falls, VA
• Vienna, VA
• Arlington, VA
• Alexandria, VA
• Falls Church, VA
• Bethesda, MD
• Potomac, MD
• Chevy Chase, MD
• Georgetown, DC
• Silver Spring, MD
• Fairfax, VA
• Ashburn, VA
• Leesburg, VA
• Reston, VA
• Herndon, VA
• Oakton, VA
• Burke, VA
• Springfield, VA
• Capitol Hill, DC
• Kalorama, DC
• Spring Valley, DC
• Cleveland Park, DC
• Rockville, MD
• Annapolis, MD
• Middleburg, VA
• Tysons, VA
• Annandale, VA
• Centreville, VA
• Chantilly, VA
• Sterling, VA
• Manassas, VA
• Woodbridge, VA
• Gainesville, VA
• Haymarket, VA
• Brambleton, VA
• Aldie, VA
• Wesley Heights, DC
• Chevy Chase DC, DC
• Woodley Park, DC
• Massachusetts Avenue Heights, DC
• Kensington, MD
• Cabin John, MD
• Glen Echo, MD
• North Bethesda, MD
• Gaithersburg, MD
• Germantown, MD
• Olney, MD
• Clarksville, MD
• Columbia, MD
• Ellicott City, MD
• Fulton, MD
• Laurel, MD
• Bowie, MD
• College Park, MD
• Frederick, MD
• Hyattsville, MD
• National Harbor, MD
• Upper Marlboro, MD
• Fort Washington, MD
• Waldorf, MD