01/22/2026
What makes your doors special? Do you offer any guarantee ?
During the first year or so in the carriage door business, feeling it had great potential, I wanted to be the best at it. So, of course I did my research, & an opinion many woodworkers shared was that full mortise & tendon joints were the best joints for these doors. I could definitely understand that, it’s an advanced method often used in solid furniture. During this time, I had a number of jobs that was replacing old carriage doors with new ones. So, I’d take the old doors, dissect them,in order to see what I liked & didn’t like about them.
Something all these doors had in common ,even the ones with M&T joints,were that they were racked & dragging on the ground.They might have been 40 years old, but if they’ve been dragging on the ground for 20 years or more…I don’t consider that to be a success.
So, what did I figure out? A large entry door is 36” wide…these individual carriage doors range from 44” to 57” wide. Mortise & Tendon joints on standard size doors have worked out well for a long time, however on larger carriage doors, not so much. While they would keep the perpendicular board from cupping the weight of the door itself would loosen the joint in time. Even when glued, the glue would fail because of temperature changes overtime.
My solution…screws! But they would have to join the boards, not just secure the tendon. So, 2 3/8” hardwood dowels spaced apart replaced the tendon leaving room for 2 -2 1/2” impacted wood screws to the inside of the dowels. (See diagram)
This is why, buying my doors, despite costing significantly less than most others is absolutely the right decision.
Being aware that people take statements that rhyme more serious than ones that don’t , I offer my guarantee…Your doors will never SAG or DRAG. If they do, I will replace them. That’s for life, mine not yours….thats the best I can offer.
