Door Refinishing — Tower Grove
Door refinishing in Tower Grove.
Tower Grove's Victorian cottages and bungalows were built with old-growth fir as standard. Entry doors, interior door sets, and pocket doors — many Tower Grove homes have two or three sets of original sliding pocket doors still in their tracks. These doors are worth restoring. The wood has lasted this long for a reason.
Tower Grove's Victorian and bungalow woodwork
Tower Grove has a dual character. The east side — Tower Grove East historic district — runs toward the dense Victorian cottages and larger late-Victorian homes built from the 1880s through the early 1900s. The west side toward the park becomes more bungalow-heavy, with Craftsman construction from the 1910s and 1920s. The woodwork in both areas is old-growth fir throughout.
Tower Grove East is a City of St. Louis local historic district, which has helped maintain the original architectural features of these homes to a degree not always seen in comparable neighborhoods. Pocket doors, in particular, have survived here in numbers that are remarkable. Many Tower Grove homes have two or three sets of original sliding pocket doors in the primary living spaces — parlor to dining room, dining room to hallway — still in their original track hardware.
Pocket doors are a specialty within door refinishing. They cannot be sent to a dip tank without removing them entirely — and even then, the water-based chemicals damage old-growth fir. We handle pocket doors in place when possible, stripping the face and edges by hand and refinishing in sections. The hardware stays in place. The result is a set of pocket doors that work correctly and look the way they were designed to look.
Entry doors in Tower Grove Victorian homes are typically four-panel fir construction with original hardware — mortise locksets, cast escutcheons, sometimes original transom hardware above. Bungalow entries are simpler — single or two-panel fir, sometimes with a divided-lite glass panel. Both respond well to hand-strip refinishing and both have wood worth preserving.
Door work we do most in Tower Grove
Victorian cottage entry doors in fir
Tower Grove Victorian cottages typically have four-panel fir entry doors with original mortise locksets and cast hardware. These doors have been painted, varnished, painted again over a century of occupancy. The old-growth fir underneath is almost always structurally excellent. We remove the door, hand-strip it to bare wood, address any surface damage, and refinish it to a specification that works for the exterior exposure.
Pocket door refinishing
Pocket doors are among the most requested work we do in Tower Grove. We handle them in place when the track hardware allows it, stripping and refinishing the face and edges while the door remains in the pocket. For doors that can be fully removed, we work with the door on sawhorses and reinstall carefully. The original hardware — rollers, tracks, pulls — is preserved and left in place throughout.
Bungalow entry and interior doors
Bungalow entries in Tower Grove are simpler in profile than the Victorian cottages but built from the same old-growth fir. The matching interior door sets throughout the bungalow — two- to four-panel fir in every opening — have typically been painted at some point and represent a significant refinishing opportunity when restored as a set.
Historic district exterior refinishing
Tower Grove East's historic district status favors preservation of original architectural features. Refinishing an original entry door rather than replacing it is precisely what the designation supports. For exterior door work that intersects with permit requirements, we can discuss the specific considerations and what documentation the project requires.
Lead paint in Tower Grove homes — handled correctly
Tower Grove's Victorian and bungalow housing stock was built well before lead was banned from residential paint in 1978. The paint on your entry doors, pocket doors, and interior door sets almost certainly contains lead — particularly in the lower layers applied before the mid-20th century. This is standard for this era of construction and not a cause for alarm, but it does require a certified contractor.
Sue Wheeler is an EPA Certified Lead Removal contractor. All refinishing work on pre-1978 Tower Grove homes follows full EPA RRP protocol: containment of the work area, HEPA filtration, wet methods to suppress dust during stripping, and documented cleanup. The completion documentation is yours to keep with the property file.
"We have two sets of pocket doors in our Victorian on Arsenal — both original, both painted shut by a previous owner. Sue got them moving and looking beautiful. We had no idea how much the pocket doors would change the whole feeling of the main floor."
— Homeowner, Arsenal St., Tower Grove East
Common questions
Do you refinish doors in Tower Grove?
Yes. Tower Grove is a neighborhood we work in regularly. Entry doors, interior door sets, and pocket doors — the fir in these Victorian and bungalow homes is excellent and worth restoring. Call (314) 367-6054 for a free in-person estimate.
My Tower Grove home has original sliding pocket doors — how do those work in the refinishing process?
We handle pocket doors in place when the track hardware allows it — stripping and refinishing the face and edges while the door remains in the pocket. The original hardware stays in place throughout. For doors that can be fully removed, we work off-track and reinstall carefully. These are a specialty and a project we particularly enjoy.
Is Tower Grove East's historic district status relevant to door refinishing?
Generally, yes in a positive way — the district designation supports preserving original architectural features like entry doors rather than replacing them. Refinishing is exactly what the historic district guidelines favor. Sue can discuss the specific considerations for exterior work on your property.
Let's talk about your Tower Grove doors.
Free estimate. No obligation. Sue answers every call personally — (314) 367-6054.