How To Replace And Repair Broken Door Jamb Kicked In Or Damaged | DIY Step By Step Tutorial Easy FIX

On this episode, I'm going to be showing you how to replace a broken door jamb, including how to replace the door strike plate. As you can see, this one's very, very loose. Also, how to replace that deadbolt plate. This one has a bunch of cracks, so we might as well replace it to a brand new one. So, stay tuned. Welcome to Fix This House. If you're new to the channel, please consider pressing the subscribe and notification bell, so you can always be in tuned on DIYs, how-to videos, and product reviews that I do within this channel. On this episode, you can see that my door jamb, the left side with all the strike plates and the plates that are attached with the deadbolt are all wearing out. It has a bunch of stress marks, a bunch of cracks on one side, including the upper area, but we're only going to change one side, okay? So, the very first thing that we need to do is take out all the weatherstripping. If yours doesn't have weatherstripping, then you're cleared for this step, but we'll take off the weatherstripping. In this case, I'm just taking off the whole thing, all around this door jamb, and I'm just going to replace it with a brand new one. So, just carefully take it out, and now we're going to be taking off all the hardware. Take off the deadbolt hardware, and we're also going to take off the door strike plate hardware, and make sure that after you take all this hardware off, make sure you save all these pieces. If not, you can just buy a brand new one, but why buy brand new when you can save these old ones, and we'll reuse it for later. We're also going to save all these other locks and latches, and I'm going to be taking off the security sensor. Now, we're going to pry off the old one. You can see this one is just very easy to take off, because it already has cracks on it, and I'm just using my screwdriver, which probably isn't the best tool, but we'll use the proper tool, which is the pry bar. Just using my rubber hammer and my pry bar to knock this one side of my door jam. I'm knocking out to one side, because I don't want to take out the door casing, as you can see on the outside. So, I'm going to save myself an extra step, and just knock it off from the side. Now, depending on what door jam you have, yours might be secured to your framing with nails. So, now I'm just going to be using my handheld hacksaw. Now, you can use this method, but it might take a little longer. It might take a little while for you to take off all those nails, depending on how many you have. So, to make the job a little bit faster, I'm going to be using my cobalt reciprocating saw with a bit that is designed to cut nails or any type of metal. Now, be very, very careful while using this, and also all the tools that I use in this video, I'll leave it in the description down below. As you can see, it cuts like butter. It made my job a little bit faster. Trying to see if I can pry off that door stop right there, that little piece of wood strips, if I can reuse it, but unfortunately, I don't think I can, because it's starting to actually tear apart. So, make sure that you vacuum and clean out all the voids. In this case, I'm cleaning out this half-inch void inside of my door jamb. The past owner who installed this actually put door shims to fill in those gaps, but I'm just going to fill it in with solid wood, okay? Half-inch wood that I'm just cutting with my table saw. Now that I have that cut, I'm just going to place it in. So, this is going to act as my filler, and I'm just going to screw it in. Make sure that you drill pilot holes first before you actually nail in the screws, because if you don't, you'll end up probably cracking the wood. What I'm using here is a two and a half inch screws, general purpose wood screws, and just screwing it from top to bottom, middle, and I'm also going to be attaching a top piece, because I didn't have any, you know, a whole piece I can do with this. So, I'm just using my scrap pieces just to save material, okay? So, the final piece that I'll be doing is that middle part, securing that final filler piece. Again, it doesn't have to look good, but make sure that it is nice and flush with your jar wall and the outside sidings. There you have it. It is finally installed. Now, it's time to measure out for the door jamb itself. Now, this is the old door jamb. As you can see, we tried to save this side, this door stop right here, the wooden door stop, but it's not going to work. So, I went to Lowe's and I got this two pieces of wood. This one is a half inch. Now, this one does have a notch cut already into it, just like what you see there. If you don't have one, it's very easy to do. You're just going to use your circular saw or any type of saw to cut that notch out, but this one, we're not going to need that notch because this is just a direct replacement. I'm using my square to measure up my measurement and just using my miter saw to cut off the excess, okay? Just like that. I don't need that notch. Now, we're going to test fit it onto that one side of my door jamb. As you can see, it fits perfectly. Just tap it in with your rubber mallet and then we're going to secure it with two and a half inch wood screws. Okay, we're going to drill the pilot holes first. Very important to prevent your wood from cracking and then we're just going to screw in those nails. Then, we're going to secure from the middle as well. Again, drill your pilot holes. Very important. As you can see that I'm actually drilling it right onto the middle area where the wooden door stop is going to be placed on top of it. So, it's going to be hidden. Place the screws on the top, one in the bottom, and two in the middle. So, it makes a total of four. Now, we're going to measure out for that wooden door stop to match the top frame. As you can see, this one is a half inch. Now, I've got my measurement, drew out my line using my square, and now we're just going to cut it off with my miter saw. And there you see on this one, you can see that there is a weatherstrip channel right there. This one's already made from the factory and it goes a half inch deep. As you can see, this one that we bought does not have it. So, we're going to have to make our own. So, not a lot of people show you this, but I will. So, this one we're going to make a notch right there using our table saw. Okay, so this is going to be half inch going in and it's going to be about a quarter inch down. So, depending on what you have, make sure you measure it before you cut it. We're going to set our depth on our table saw onto half inch deep. Just look what you see there and we're going to adjust it so that it sits perfectly on our mark. I'll be very, very careful cutting this. First, I'm just using a test piece to make sure that it is nice and where I want it. Don't use it on your first initial piece. Use a scrap piece first before doing it to your final one and test fit your weatherstripping. See if it fits on through that channel. Like what you see here, this one fits perfectly. It just snaps right in and it works good. So, now that it works really well, we're going to use it now and cut the initial piece that we're using. Now again, be very, very careful. Take your time and make sure that you use the proper tools to feed this through because it is, you know, very, very dangerous. If you slip, you might end up cutting yourself. As you can see, I'm using all these tools to prevent my hands from getting cut. Okay, so take your time and as you can see, it is cut right there. Now, we have the channels for the weatherstripping. Make sure it aligns up to the existing doorstop wooden area right there. It fits perfect. Now, I'm using my brad nailer. This one is the Nail Force by WORX. So, this is going to be an 18 gauge brad nails that I'll be using, two inches. I love this thing. It is super nice. It is not loud and it's just super handy. I'm just going to brad nail the top portion because it does, it is loose and I'm going to brad nail the sidings right here. Now, this one's okay because the initial one, we screwed it on. So, it's protected because that's the initial. This is just pretty much just to stop the door from swinging out to the other side and I placed about six brad nails on this to attach it to the stud. Very, very important, make sure you put your weatherstrip first before you measure out for your door knob holes because if you don't put this first, you're going to end up pushing this door further out and you're going to be marking the holes way too far and you're not going to gauge it right. So, here's a little trick. Make sure that you use your mechanical pencil and make sure you put out the lead as far as it can go, just like what you see here. So, you can actually reach between there and actually trace out that, you know, where the door knob is going to hit that strike and trace it out also on the where the deadbolt is going to be, you know, hitting on where it's going to go through that hole that you'll be making later. With that method, you can see that you can actually draw it out a lot better, more accurate so you don't make a mistake because you only got one try of doing this and you can't afford to make a mistake on this one. Okay, so now flip over your door strike and then just trace it out where it's going to be hitting. As you can see here, I'm just tracing out every single thing that I can trace out of where I'm going to be making those cuts. Alright, so this one is going to be my 5-8 spade bit. So, it's very easy to use. Just attach it with your impact drill and this one, you're going to be drilling a shallow one. You don't have to go all the way through because this one is not the deadbolt one. The deadbolt, you have to go all the way through. This one is just going to be for your regular door. Now, I'm going to be using my half-inch chisel. Okay, and then we're just going to chisel out the rest. Now, with your tracements, the trace, now with all the tracing that you did, make sure you just do a cutout. Take your time. This is actually a very fun part, doing this part, but I'm just doing it in fast motion for your friends because it will take a while if I did it on regular speed. Make sure you dry fit your door strike up against to see if it fits right well, and then we're going to trace out the door strike frame. Once again, I'm going to make it a little bit darker so I can see where I'm actually going to be cutting. Now, you can use a chisel to take this out, but in this case, I'm just going to be using my WORX oscillating tool. Now, this is very handy. Again, if you're not comfortable using this, just use the regular chisel, but this one, if you're very confident in using, then use an oscillating tool. You're only going to be going about about 1 16th deep, pretty much the thickness of your door strike. Just be very, very careful that you don't go too far in. Now, this takes a lot of careful, steady hand handling, so if you're not comfortable, again, with using this, just use your chisel. You can see how faster this is and a lot more accurate if you have the steady hand. Now, just place your door strike on there, and it should sit flush. Now, we're going to be using again our 3 30 seconds drill bit. Go ahead and right through there. Make sure you drill pilot holes first. If you don't do this, you're going to end up cracking the wood, and then we're going hardware, which came with the door strike. Now, the same thing we're going to do with the door deadbolt right here. This one went all the way deep because it has a longer arm that goes through there, so just repeat the process as you did with the door strike. It should be easy, and again, I'm just using my chisel now. I'm not using my oscillating tool for this because it is, you know, right on the middle. Okay, so if you found this video helpful, please hit that big thumbs up, subscribe, and notification bell, friends, so you can always be in tune on DIYs, how-to videos, and product reviews that I do within this channel. I hope you found this very helpful and how easy it is you can replace your broken door jamb. I'll see you next time.