Episode Details

Your door installer just wrapped up the job, shook your hand, and drove away. Three months later, that beautiful new entry door whistles in the winter wind. Six months down the line, your custom closet shelves bow under the weight of folded sweaters. You trusted the work was done right, but something clearly went wrong—and now you're stuck with it.

The truth about door and closet installation is that most problems don't show up during the final walkthrough. They reveal themselves slowly, after the contractor has collected payment and moved on to the next job. By the time you realize your door frame wasn't shimmed properly or your closet system missed the wall studs entirely, fixing it becomes a headache and an expense.

Here's what actually matters when installation crews show up at your home, straight from professionals who've seen every shortcut in the book.

Start with the basics that everyone overlooks. When a door hangs in its frame, the gaps around all four sides should look roughly equal. Not perfect—older homes don't allow for perfection—but consistent enough that you're not seeing a wide gap at the top and the door scraping the floor at the bottom. Those uneven spaces tell you the installer either didn't check level or didn't care enough to fix it.

Open and close the door ten times, not just once. Feel how it moves through the full swing. A properly hung door glides smoothly without catching, scraping, or requiring you to lift the handle slightly to clear the threshold. If the door swings open or closed on its own when you leave it halfway, the frame sits crooked. That's not something that gets better with time—it gets worse as the house settles and the seasons change.

Hardware reveals more than most people realize. Turn the doorknob and feel whether it operates easily or fights against something. Quality installation means handles sit flush, locks engage smoothly, and hinges fit perfectly into their cutouts without gaps or wobbles. When installers rush through hardware, they leave loose connections that fail within months.

For exterior doors, weatherstripping makes the difference between comfortable rooms and drafty ones. Close a piece of paper in the door at different spots around the frame, then try to pull it out. Proper weatherstripping grips firmly enough that the paper resists or tears rather than sliding free. If the paper slips out easily, you're paying to heat or cool the outdoors.

Closet systems hide their quality issues until weight exposes them. Run your hand along every shelf and feel whether it's made from solid wood, quality plywood, or substantial engineered material. Thin particleboard might look acceptable during installation, but it bows and breaks once you actually use it. Check how pieces connect at corners and joints—tight fits without visible gaps show precision, while loose connections signal rushed work that won't last.

Pull every drawer completely out and push it back in. Quality slides operate silently and smoothly, supporting full weight without binding or tilting. Cheap slides scrape, stick, and eventually fail under normal use. Load a few shelves with reasonably heavy items during your inspection, because that's when weak brackets and poor anchoring reveal themselves.

Here's the detail that catches homeowners by surprise later: wall attachment matters more than anything else in closet systems. Installers who only screw into drywall without hitting studs create disasters waiting to happen. Over time, weight pulls those fasteners straight through soft drywall, and entire systems collapse. Professional crews locate studs carefully and use proper anchors when studs don't align with mounting points. You can't see this behind the finished installation, but you can ask to watch where they're drilling and what fasteners they're using.

The space between your door bottom and floor deserves attention too. Measure the gap at seve