Door Repair Guide India: Fix Holes, Dents, Swelling, Hinges & Locks (2026)

Most door faults in an Indian home are not a reason to throw the door away. A hole punched in a hollow flush door, a strip of laminate lifting at the edge, a leaf that swells and sticks every monsoon, a hinge tearing loose, a lock that no longer turns cleanly — almost all of these have a quick stopgap, a proper repair, and a clear point at which replacement finally makes more sense than another fix. This guide is the fix-it reference: take each common problem in turn, tell you what it actually is, give you the cheap-and-fast version and the do-it-properly version, list the materials, and put an indicative rupee figure on it so you can decide with your wallet open.

It pairs with the broader door maintenance guide (which prevents most of these problems in the first place) and the focused fix-it spokes for the two commonest complaints — a sagging, binding door and a squeaky door. When a leaf is genuinely beyond saving, jump to the door replacement guide.

Problem-by-problem at a glance

Indicative 2026 figures, materials only unless stated; carpenter/fitting labour and 18% GST extra; varies by city and vendor.

Hole or dent in a hollow flush door

Most interior bedroom and bathroom doors in Indian flats are hollow-core flush doors — two thin plywood or HDF skins over a honeycomb or batten frame with mostly air inside (the difference is explained in solid vs hollow-core doors). A door handle slammed into a wall, a kick, or a moving-day knock punches straight through the thin skin and leaves a hole or a stoved-in dent.

Quick fix (₹100–400, DIY): for a small dent or knock, fill with two-part wood filler or epoxy putty, sand flush when hard, and touch up with paint. Good enough on a low-visibility utility or store-room door.

Proper repair (₹500–2,000): for an actual hole you need to give the filler something to grip, because behind the skin is hollow. Stuff the cavity with crumpled paper or expanding PU foam to back it, let it set, trim flush, then build up the surface with filler or a thin plywood patch glued and clamped in, skim, sand and refinish. A neater carpenter method is to cut a clean rectangle around the hole, glue in a tight-fitting plywood/HDF plug, fill the joint, and re-laminate or paint over the whole face so the repair disappears. On a laminate or membrane door you will usually need to re-skin the affected face to hide it.

Replace when: the skin is damaged across a large area, the door has been kicked through more than once, or it is a cheap hollow door anyway — a new flush door is ₹1,200–9,000 (flush door price) and often cheaper than a convincing repair.

Delaminated veneer or laminate edge

In Indian humidity and AC cycling, the edge banding or the veneer/laminate skin lifts — usually at a corner, the bottom, or around the lock where water and handling concentrate.

Quick fix (₹150–500): if the lifted piece is intact, work fresh adhesive (Fevicol SH for veneer/edge band; a contact adhesive like Fevicol SR for laminate) under it, press down, wipe squeeze-out, and clamp with a block and G-clamp — or weigh it down — overnight. Run a warm iron over a cloth on stubborn edge banding to reactivate hot-melt glue.

Proper repair (₹400–1,000): where the laminate has chipped away or bubbled, cut out the loose section cleanly, cut a matching patch (keep offcuts from any old job, or take a sample to the laminate shop — Merino, Greenlam, Century and Royale are widely stocked), bond it with contact adhesive, and trim the edge. Matching an aged finish exactly is hard, so on a visible door consider re-laminating the whole face for a uniform look.

Replace when: the skin is bubbling or peeling across most of the face (a sign the door has been soaked), the core has swelled, or it is delaminating because the door was the wrong type for a wet location — for a bathroom, switch to a WPC or FRP door that will not delaminate.

Cracked solid panel

On a panel door or wooden door, a panel can split along the grain from drying, shrinkage in low humidity, or impact.

Quick fix (₹200–600): for a clean split that still aligns, work PVA/Fevicol or epoxy into the crack, clamp it closed across the panel until set, scrape the squeeze-out, and refinish. A hairline crack can simply be filled and painted.

Proper repair (₹800–2,500): a carpenter can inject epoxy into a wider split, or strengthen a recurring crack with a hidden spline or butterfly (bow-tie) key let into the back face. On a quality teak or carved door this is well worth it — see teak wood doors and, for old/ornamental leaves, heritage door restoration.

Replace when: the panel is rotten, split right through, or the door is a thin pressed/moulded panel where the "panel" is just a skin — those do not take a structural repair well.

Swollen or sticking door (the monsoon classic)

Every Indian monsoon, doors that closed fine in summer start to bind, scrape the frame, or refuse to latch. Timber absorbs moisture and swells; the leaf grows just enough to jam. (Note: a door that suddenly binds may instead be sagging on a loose hinge — diagnose that first using the fix a sagging door guide before you reach for a plane, because planing a sagging door is the wrong fix.)

Quick fix (₹0–300): rub a candle/wax or dry soap on the rubbing edge to ease it; lubricate the hinges; tighten loose screws. Often the swelling subsides as the weather dries and you needn't cut anything.

Proper repair (₹300–1,500): if the same edge binds every year, mark where it rubs (slip paper or chalk the frame), take the door off, and plane the binding edge a millimetre or two — then, critically, seal the freshly planed raw timber with primer or sealer so it stops drinking moisture, which is why most monsoon swelling repeats. Always plane the latch/top edge in preference to the hinge edge. Persistent swelling on a bathroom or external door is really a material problem: a WPC, uPVC or FRP door is dimensionally stable and will not swell.

Replace when: the leaf has visibly warped/cupped, the skins are delaminating from being soaked, or it is a cheap flush door in a wet spot — repeated planing eventually ruins the fit and the door.

Loose or broken hinge

A door that droops, rubs at the top of the latch side, or whose hinge screws spin uselessly usually has stripped screw holes, not a bad hinge.

Quick fix (free–₹50): tighten the screws. If they spin, this is the single highest-value repair in the whole guide — back the screw out, tap glue-coated matchsticks or wooden toothpicks (or a proper wood plug) into the hole, let it set, and re-drive. Better, replace one screw per hinge with a 75 mm (3-inch) screw that reaches the wall stud or masonry behind the frame.

Proper repair (₹100–600): for a hinge that has bent, lost its pin, or whose mortise is chewed up, fit a new matching hinge — SS butt hinges run ₹40–250 each, soft-close/concealed ₹150–600 (see door hinges guide). If the mortise is shattered, a carpenter glues in a hardwood block, re-cuts the recess, and resets the hinge. For a squeak rather than looseness, see fix a squeaky door.

Replace the door when: the hinge edge of the leaf itself has crumbled or been over-cut so no fresh material is left to hold a hinge.

Worn or broken handle

Quick fix (₹0–150): a wobbly lever is usually a loose grub screw on the handle or loose rose screws — tighten them with the right Allen key/screwdriver and it firms up.

Proper repair (₹150–3,000): a snapped lever, stripped spindle or seized rose means replacing the handle, or the whole mortise lock + handle set if the lock is failing too (₹600–6,000 for Godrej/Yale/Dorset/Europa). Match the backset and door thickness so the new set drops into the existing cut-out — handles and locks are covered in door handles guide and mortise locks.

Replace when: never the door for this — a handle is always a hardware swap.

Worn, stiff or insecure lock

Quick fix (₹100–300): a sticky cylinder usually wants dry lubricant — graphite powder or a PTFE/dry spray, not oil (oil attracts dust and gums up). A bolt that no longer lines up with the strike is often a sagging door or a drifted strike plate: adjust or re-position the strike before condemning the lock.

Proper repair / upgrade (₹300–6,000): worn pins or a key that turns roughly mean replacing the cylinder or the whole lock body; a rim/night latch is ₹300–1,500, a good mortise lockset ₹600–6,000. If you are opening the door up anyway and security matters, this is the natural moment to move to a smart lock or check your main-door security checklist. Use the door cost calculator to sanity-check quotes.

Replace the door when: the lock body is failing because the timber around the mortise has split — then it is a door-edge or door problem, covered under the frame and replacement sections.

Damaged door frame (chowkat)

The frame takes the strike-side abuse and, near the floor, the moisture and termite attack. Fixing the leaf is pointless if the door frame is the real fault.

Quick fix (₹150–800): fill split timber with epoxy/wood filler and reinforce the strike with a box strike plate and 75 mm screws into the wall — the highest-value security and repair upgrade, detailed in door reinforcement.

Proper repair (₹1,000–6,000): a carpenter can splice in fresh timber where a section has rotted or splintered, re-anchor a loose frame with hold-fasts/grout into the reveal, and treat against termites. Document standards: timber frames follow IS 4021, steel frames IS 4351.

Replace when: the frame is rotten or termite-eaten through its section — patching a hollowed chowkat is false economy. See termite-proofing doors and consider a steel or WPC frame in damp, termite-prone zones.

Water-damaged bottom rail

The bottom of an external, balcony, bathroom or terrace door wicks up water — from mopping, rain blow-in, or a wet floor — and the bottom rail swells, blackens, delaminates or rots.

Quick fix (₹150–600): if caught early, dry it thoroughly, sand back the damage, seal the raw end-grain with primer/sealer, and fit a brush or door-bottom seal (₹150–600) to keep future water out — this also helps with weatherstripping.

Proper repair (₹800–3,000): a carpenter cuts away the rotten section and splices in a fresh hardwood block, glued and pinned, then refinishes — viable on a solid wooden door, not on a hollow flush door whose bottom is just air and skin.

Replace when: rot has climbed into the stiles, or it is a flush/laminate door soaking up water — in any wet location the durable answer is a WPC, uPVC or FRP door that ignores water entirely.

The big decision: repair or replace?

Use this quick logic, then sanity-check with the door material comparison and cost calculator.

Inline diagram: repair-or-replace decision

In plain words, repair when the core, stiles and frame are sound, it is a quality door (solid teak, a good carved leaf, a sound solid-core), the fix costs well under half a replacement, and the door type genuinely suits where it lives. Replace when the core or frame is rotten, termite-eaten or split through; when the repair approaches the cost of a new door; when the same fault keeps returning (chronic monsoon swelling, repeated delamination) because the door is simply the wrong type for the spot; or when you are upgrading for security, sound or accessibility anyway. A cheap hollow flush door rarely justifies an expensive repair; a teak or heritage leaf almost always does. When you do replace, the door replacement guide walks the removal and refit, and how to measure a door keeps the new leaf the right size.

Tools and materials worth keeping

A small home door-repair kit pays for itself: two-part wood filler/epoxy putty (₹100–300), Fevicol SH and SR adhesives, a few G-clamps, sandpaper, a screwdriver set and Allen keys, a pack of 75 mm screws, graphite/dry lock lubricant, primer/sealer and matching touch-up paint, plus a candle/wax block for sticking edges. Most quick fixes above come straight out of that kit; the proper repairs (planing, splicing, re-mortising, re-laminating a full face) are where a local carpenter — typically ₹400–1,000 a visit plus materials in most cities — earns their fee.

Frequently asked questions

Can I repair a hole in a hollow flush door myself, or must I replace it?

You can repair a small-to-medium hole yourself. Back the cavity with crumpled paper or PU foam so the filler has something to grip, build up with two-part filler or a glued plywood patch, sand flush, and refinish — re-laminating or repainting the whole face hides it best. Replace only if the skin is damaged over a large area or the cheap door isn't worth the effort.

My door swells and sticks every monsoon — what is the permanent fix?

First rule out a sagging hinge (tighten/lengthen the screws). If the leaf genuinely swells, plane the binding edge a millimetre or two and then seal the raw planed timber with primer so it stops absorbing moisture — unsealed timber is why swelling repeats. For a bathroom, balcony or external opening that swells chronically, the real fix is switching to a WPC, uPVC or FRP door that doesn't react to water.

How do I decide between repairing and replacing a door?

Repair if the core, stiles and frame are sound, it's a quality door, the fix costs well under half a new door, and the door type suits its location. Replace if the core or frame is rotten/termite-eaten/split through, the repair nears the cost of a new door, the same fault keeps recurring, or you're upgrading for security or accessibility. A cheap hollow door rarely justifies an expensive repair; teak or heritage doors almost always do.

How much does a carpenter charge to repair a door in India?

Indicatively, a carpenter visit is around ₹400–1,000 in most cities plus materials, with the total depending on the job: a filler-and-paint patch or hinge reset is at the low end, while planing and resealing, splicing a frame or bottom rail, or re-laminating a full face runs ₹1,000–6,000+. Get the leaf and frame condition assessed first — prices vary by city and vendor, and 18% GST applies on branded work.

What's the fix for a door handle or lock that has gone loose or stiff?

A wobbly handle is almost always a loose grub or rose screw — tighten it. A stiff lock usually wants dry graphite/PTFE lubricant, not oil, and a bolt that misses the strike often means a sagging door or drifted strike plate to adjust first. Only replace the cylinder, lockset or handle (₹150–6,000 depending on brand) if parts are genuinely worn, snapped or insecure.