Door installation and repair in Las Vegas

Door installation in Las Vegas covers two kinds of calls: a new door going into an opening, and an old door that no longer behaves. Both come down to the same thing. A door works when the frame is plumb, the hinges carry the weight, and the gap around the slab is even from top to bottom.

For a new interior door, the first choice is slab or pre-hung. A slab drops into your existing jamb and keeps the trim, but the new slab needs its height and width taken down, hinge pockets chiseled and the lock holes bored to line up with the old ones. A pre-hung unit arrives already hung in its own frame, which is the better route when the old jamb is split, twisted or out of square.

Most door repairs start at the top hinge. When its screws loosen in the jamb, the slab tips toward the latch side, rubs at the head and misses the strike plate. A long screw driven through the hinge into the stud behind the jamb often pulls it back. If the house has shifted, the strike plate gets moved or the latch side gets planed and resealed so bare wood is not left exposed.

Bottoms are the other trouble spot. New flooring or a thicker rug can leave a door dragging, and the fix is to take the slab off and trim the bottom edge, sealing the cut on an exterior or bathroom door. Doors that swing open or closed on their own are hanging out of plumb, which shimming a hinge or adjusting the jamb usually cures.

Building code has the most to say about the main entry door. Under the 2024 International Residential Code as amended for Clark County, at least one exit door has to be side-hinged (or pivoting), give 32 inches of clear width with the door open, and open from inside without a key or special effort. A double-keyed deadbolt on that door works against the last part, so we fit a thumb-turn inside.

Code treats the door from an attached garage into the house as a fire barrier. It calls for solid wood or steel at least 1 3/8 inches thick, or a 20-minute fire-rated door, fitted with a self-closing or automatic-closing device. A hollow-core bedroom door does not belong there, and spring hinges are the usual way to make it close on its own.

Outside, sun and dust do the damage. West-facing doors take the full afternoon heat, which dries out weatherstripping and opens gaps you can see daylight through. Fresh weatherstripping, a new sweep and a threshold set to meet it close those gaps.

Check the bottom of the jamb before blaming the door. Clark County's building code tables rate local subterranean termite risk as moderate to heavy, and on slab homes the bottom few inches of a wood jamb near an exterior door are where soft, hollow wood tends to show up. Damaged jamb sections can be cut out and spliced, but active termites call for a pest control company first.

Swapping a door in its existing opening is carpentry. Widening an opening, adding a new doorway or cutting into a bearing wall alters the structure, and that work goes through a building permit and inspection with Clark County or your city before it starts. We tell you which side of that line a job falls on when we look at it.