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• Scrape away any loose paint with a putty knife or paint scraper to make it easier to see where you need to make the repairs. Poke around on the surface of the exterior door, using a sharp object like an awl or screwdriver, to identify where the wood has rotted. Pull off any damaged wood that you can to make the repair easier.

• Lower the window glass until you can access its track bolts through the holes in the door. Loosen the bolts with a wrench, pull the glass up by hand and tape it to the door in the up position. Disconnect the electrical connectors for the door and feed the wires through the door hole.

• Repair any holes in the door. For large holes in a paneled door, the best way to repair is to remove and replace the panel entirely. Remove the mouldings that hold the panel in place, using a claw hammer, and then replace the panel with another, restoring the mouldings to hold the new panel.

Repairing a natural or varnished wooden door is not quite so straight forward as any wood filler used would be visible. The best and quickest way to repair the crack is to force the two halves of the panel back together by hammering a dowel into the edge of the door. To do this, you need to: 1.

Before attempting to fix a hollow core door, remove any debris sticking out of the door and sand down any sharp edges you see. To make the repairs, start by filling the damaged area with paper towels and sealing the hole with spray foam insulation.

While the paper towels won’t make the door stronger or repair it, they are an easy and affordable way to hold the insulation foam in place while it dries. Bunch up a few paper towels and stuff them around the bottom and sides of the hole or crack you want to repair.

1 Set up your work area and protect your floors. Placed a towel or large clean rag on the floor near the door to lay out all the supplies. ... 2 Ensure the door is clean and dry. Do a quick clean of the door and its groves with a dust cloth. ... 3 Press wood putty into the hairline cracks. ... 4 Smooth and Wipe Excess Wood Putty. ...

• How to fix a stuck front door lock latch that won’t retract. Take a 2 liter coke bottle and cut out a strip about 2 inches wide and 4 inches long. Now, take that piece of plastic and try to insert it into the door from the outside directly where the latch is. If you’re lucky, this will force the latch back.

• Check the gap at the top of the door. If it’s wider at the doorknob side, remove the center screw at the top hinge and replace it with a predrilled 3-in. screw angled slightly toward the middle of the jamb (Photo 1). The screw will pull the jamb and door tighter to the framing and hopefully fix the problem.