There is no cost effective way to fix that door. Especially without removing it.

thanks handy mac.

Vermeer laminated doors are a pain to repair , you can strip and laminate a Vermeer skin available at any Home Depot or Lowe's , however you can replace with a better grade door much more cost effectively Bud !

hey, yeah this belongs to a church i do grounds keeping for. like i said in the OP, i'd like to keep the door in place. it looks like it is more involved than just swapping doors.

As to repairs. As advised you would have to strip to a level of uncompromised laminate . Then reapply a strip of pine , birch or mahogany verneer . Then stain or clear coat to seal the outer skin . 2-4 hr job if handy and have a belt sander , brad nailer , pint of epoxy base glue . That,s about it Bud !

300ft,"keeping door in place" could mean different things. Are you saying you don't want to take the door off and lay it on sawhorses for repair or that you don't want to replace the door?

hi klem, i may be being overcautious, but i'd hate to remove the door and find it won't go back! so when i say leave the door in place i mean leave it hung. this is something i may have to tackle by myself.

Adding a 1/4" sheet of anything on the exterior will change the hinge mounting. Hinge mortises will need to be moved to compensate. As will the door latch striker.

It swing's out Mac. Strike and hinge positions will not change.

thanks for the idea's guys. if i take the door down i could contact cement a skin on it., or use some kind of vinyl material. i still haven't measured the door, i have a couple building material salvage yards in my area that might have a replacement but fitting a used door in a existing frame can pose problems. i'm thinking about securing some vertical slats just to hold the peeling layers in place and painting? i know "pretty cheesy". if i do anything i'd like to do it before the weather turns on me,

thanks again for the input.

If it's a solid core door, just replace it. I'm sure you can get a new identical slab for about three-fiddy.

Casey

You could glue kitchen tiles on the door, or use the metal ceiling to cover the door.....or just find an artist to paint art on the door. Do you have any artists in your church?

My dad repaired several church doors. He used sheet metal, just the silver colored stuff, screwed it on several doors about the last 2 ft. from the bottom & then painted the whole thing, looked decent , Couple of doors were bad all the way up so he just screwed on more sheet metal & painted, be sure to primer. Don't trust the all in 1 paints. I think when I helped him I used alcohol 70% like from 99 cent store, used to clean things like license sticker place so new sticker stays on. Anyway use a rag to apply all over & don't touch & then primer when it's dry so no oils to cause paint failure. Some of the doors had rotted out some or lost veneer, church didn't have a lot of money to spend & doors were very heavy,he even did inside of 1 door that went outside in backas kids often went out there. once painted it serves it's purpose again without splinters, wood falling off etc. Less likely to try to break in when it looks like a sturdy door. GoodLuck!

sunnyca, would you please post some photos of those doors? Thanks.

Sorry but that church was sold & I don't have access to it. Think about some of the screen doors that folks added a sheet of metal to to keep their dogs from damaging it. That should give you idea of what it looked like. Most of them back home weren't painted. If he can't get sheet metal they used to sell large fancy grill pieces width of door & almost square, that would help a lot itf the whole thing was painted to keep the veneer from getting worse but we knew at church doors get heavy use so wanted solid metal, might get it in aluminum but I think that would dent a lot easier! Someome mentioned ceiling tile in metal but I don't know if it's heavy enough for outdoor use & how it would hold up. Son just bought apiece 6x8 I think from camper place, 1 sheet as the plastic piece broke under where the bed area is on his 5th wheeler & he wanted it "fixed right" so he screwed that in. That's only place I know of that you can get that large a sheet of it. But not sureif aluminum or sheet metal. I guess i would try looking on the computer for 6 ft sheet metal to find out where you get it.

hi , interesting ideas. home depot has 36x36 sheets of alumninum that sound like something that might work. can be snipped with basic cutters.

Sounds like 2 pieces of the 36x36 would work, I would put decorative piece where they join at center as not as likely for anyone to try to pry it apart, I think they have pieces to add to screen doors or if had old 1 might be able to just take piece from it.