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Replacing apartment door
Jebus314
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Long story short the door and the door jam need to be replaced. Let's just say it's not a good idea to leave the door handle locked when you step outside to grab a fire extinguisher. Luckily everything else is fine besides the door which had to get knocked in. Which brings me to the thread title. I actually have a few questions I guess.
1) My renter's insurance claims they wont cover any damage not caused directly by the fire. I.e. if the door had burned down I would be fine, but apparently the fire department breaking in doesn't count. I'm looking through my policy and it does say that it will only cover fire damage but it doesn't explicitly say that it wont cover damage done by the fire department because of a fire, which a normal person would lump in with fire damage. As far as I can tell there's no direct wording like "only covers burn damage", it just says it only covers fire damage. I'm not exactly sure where to go with them at this point.
2) I talked to my landlord and their deductible is too high to get insurance so they are telling me I need to pay one way or the other. To that end they gave me a bill from the last time they had to replace a door and said that it would be the same to do it this time. The bill seems outrageously high ($1200) for a door replacement that isn't made out of a precious metal. I looked over the bill and it turns out it's only $350ish for the materials but the guy charges $40 per hour and apparently takes his time. Is this a reasonable price for this type of work or should I go hunting for a better quote? If I decide that I'd rather do this myself (I have some experience and my dad is a building contractor) how likely is it that my landlord is just going to say my work is not up to standards and keep my deposit anyway? How do I avoid that?
3) What do I need to do here to ensure I get most of my deposit back. I don't want to shell out $Texas for repairs just to have them keep my deposit anyway.
tl;dr I broke my apartment door and I'd like to figure out the cheapest way out of this situation.
1) My renter's insurance claims they wont cover any damage not caused directly by the fire. I.e. if the door had burned down I would be fine, but apparently the fire department breaking in doesn't count. I'm looking through my policy and it does say that it will only cover fire damage but it doesn't explicitly say that it wont cover damage done by the fire department because of a fire, which a normal person would lump in with fire damage. As far as I can tell there's no direct wording like "only covers burn damage", it just says it only covers fire damage. I'm not exactly sure where to go with them at this point.
2) I talked to my landlord and their deductible is too high to get insurance so they are telling me I need to pay one way or the other. To that end they gave me a bill from the last time they had to replace a door and said that it would be the same to do it this time. The bill seems outrageously high ($1200) for a door replacement that isn't made out of a precious metal. I looked over the bill and it turns out it's only $350ish for the materials but the guy charges $40 per hour and apparently takes his time. Is this a reasonable price for this type of work or should I go hunting for a better quote? If I decide that I'd rather do this myself (I have some experience and my dad is a building contractor) how likely is it that my landlord is just going to say my work is not up to standards and keep my deposit anyway? How do I avoid that?
3) What do I need to do here to ensure I get most of my deposit back. I don't want to shell out $Texas for repairs just to have them keep my deposit anyway.
tl;dr I broke my apartment door and I'd like to figure out the cheapest way out of this situation.
"The world is a mess, and I just need to rule it" - Dr Horrible
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Fire must not have been too bad if you are still living there. Lucky.
but they're listening to every word I say
Not only that, its an apartment. There was a fire - move out, or ask to be moved to a different unit. Do not pay anything past your deposit, and demand your deposit back.
Anything you do to replace the broken door must be up to code, so you need to check that the door you get to replace it is structurally correct, and that the door handle/latch and deadbolt are also the correct grade. Then you just need to fit the door, hang it, paint it, and fit the hardware. Be sure when you fit the door you don't make it too snug, because in moist weather, wood doors swell. One of my great uncles was a pattern-maker in the UK, and he custom-fitted all the doors and windowframes in his house so well, you could measure consistent clearances with feeler gauges. Then they all jammed shut in the first cold snap.
http://www.homewyse.com/costs/cost_of_replacement_entry_doors.html
That breaks it down for you to check out. If there's more than one apartment in this building, it's probably the standard size for prehung, like zepherin says. Ain't no way anyone wants to jamb up and build a door anymore than twice.
First thanks for the replies so far.
The door that's in there now is a prehung door. And this exact door was replaced in the past which is where the bill came from. So I have an actual bill paid to replace the door/frame and it says about $350 for materials and $800 for labor (20 hrs at $40/hr). The labor seems outrageous, but some of that may be the fact that you have to sand/stain the door prior to putting it in.
At any rate it sounds like doing this myself would be the best bet since labor is so expensive. Is there any sort of license required for this type of thing? Can my landlords keep my deposit for not having someone else come in and do it?
Edit - Related question. Is there a way for me to get the landlords to pay for this with my security deposit? I just have this sinking feeling they are going to try and keep it anyway so I don't want to throw more money at it just to lose both.
Unless, of course, you are a firestarter and in which case that's a civil case he should be suing you for, and using your security deposit in the meantime. Renter's insurance is considered "Contents Insurance" meaning anything that's damaged by the fire would be replaced.
This is why landlords carry their own separate insurance for their building, because a renter's insurance isn't going to cover building damage due to a fire. If they don't have coverage or the deductible is higher than $1500, well, motherfucking sucks to be them I guess, that's not your problem. If you want to be amicable, offer to split it with them, but that's more charitable than you need to be.
Also start keep meticulous records of the apartment. Damage, repairs, pictures of shit and video of you moving out, that'll help get your deposit back when you leave. Also make sure you do a walk through, and take pictures, and have both you and the landlord sign on it, and get a copy right then and there.