A door is a piece of machinery that happens to look like a panel. It has to swing on two or three hinges, seal against a frame, latch into a keep, clear a floor that is rarely level, and do it several thousand times a year in a climate that expands it in August and shrinks it in February. When it stops doing that, the whole house notices.
At Fitout | Renovation Dubai we carry out door repair Dubai homeowners, landlords, offices and hotels call for: doors that stick, drag, sag or refuse to latch; failed hinges, locks, handles and cylinders; warped, swollen and water-damaged doors; sliding, wardrobe and pocket door tracks; damaged frames, architraves and thresholds; door closers, seals and thresholds; and automatic gate motors and access hardware. We repair rather than replace wherever repair is the honest answer, and we make the replacement part in our own workshop when it is not.
Since 1984 our joiners have made and hung doors across Dubai, which is exactly why we are good at fixing them: most door faults are not about the door at all, but about the frame, the fixings or the floor beneath it. This page explains what goes wrong here, what we charge in 2026, and how to tell a five-minute adjustment from a genuine replacement.
Almost everything we are called out to falls into five causes, and knowing which one you have tells you whether this is a cheap fix or a real job.
Movement from humidity. A door absorbs moisture in the humid months and gives it back in the dry air-conditioned ones. A door that was fitted with a tight margin in February binds along the top edge in August. The fix is not to plane it down in summer — that leaves a gaping gap by winter — but to set correct margins, seal the edges so movement slows, and adjust the hinges.
Hinge and fixing failure. Heavy solid doors are often hung on screws driven into plugs, plaster or foam rather than solid timber. Over a few thousand openings the screws pull, the door drops, and it starts catching the frame at the latch corner. This is the single most common fault we see, and it is usually repairable in an hour or two by re-forming the hinge housings into solid material.
Water. Bathroom thresholds, cleaning water, air-conditioning condensation and terrace doors let water into the bottom edge and the frame leg. Solid timber can be cut back and repaired; a hollow-core or particleboard door that has swollen cannot, and we will say so.
Frames, not doors. Frames fitted to uneven walls, or fixed only through the architrave, move as the building settles or as someone leans on the door. A door that will not latch is very often a frame that is no longer square.
Hardware at the end of its life. Cylinders wear, latches lose their spring, closers leak oil, handles work loose, sliding rollers flat-spot, and cheap plated fixings corrode in coastal air. Replacing the hardware properly is usually far cheaper than replacing the door.
We handle everything from a ten-minute hinge adjustment to rebuilding a warped entrance door and its frame. The images below illustrate the type of work rather than particular client jobs.
The most common call. We check the frame for square, the hinges for wear and the fixings for pull-out, then re-form hinge housings into solid material, pack or re-set the frame where needed, and re-cut margins so the door closes with an even gap all round. Where the floor has been raised by new tiles or flooring, we trim and re-seal the bottom edge properly rather than just shaving it.
Replacement of mortice locks, tubular latches, multipoint locks on entrance doors, euro cylinders, handles, roses and escutcheons; re-aligning strike plates and keeps; fitting and adjusting overhead and concealed door closers; and upgrading to smart locks and keypads. Coastal properties get corrosion-resistant hardware as standard.
Bottom edges rebuilt in matched timber, water-damaged frame legs spliced, swollen edges cut back and re-sealed, and warped leaves either corrected where the construction allows or replaced with a like-for-like door made in our workshop. We also seal all six faces properly, which is what stops it happening again.
Rollers, guides and tracks replaced or cleaned; doors re-hung and re-aligned so they run silently; bottom guides re-fitted; pocket door carriages replaced; and soft-close systems retrofitted. Sand and dust in the track is the usual cause, and we clean and adjust rather than replace where the track is sound.
Frames re-fixed into solid material and re-squared, damaged frame legs spliced, architraves and skirting repaired or replaced, new thresholds and weather bars fitted, and perimeter, brush and drop seals installed to cut dust, noise and air-conditioning loss — an upgrade most Dubai villas benefit from immediately.
A repair is only as good as the part that goes into it. We carry quality stock rather than the cheapest equivalent, because a failed hinge or cylinder means a second visit that costs everyone more.
| Part | Used For | Notes for UAE Homes |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy-duty adjustable hinges | Solid and fire-rated doors | Three-way adjustable so the door can be re-set later without re-cutting |
| Concealed hinges | Flush and designer doors | Adjustable in three planes; keeps a clean edge line |
| Mortice locks and tubular latches | Interior doors | Quiet latches for bedrooms; higher grades for high-traffic doors |
| Multipoint locks | Entrance doors | Locks at three or more points; keeps a heavy leaf pulled straight |
| 316 stainless and PVD hardware | Coastal and external doors | Plated hardware bleeds rust within a season near the sea |
| Overhead and concealed closers | Fire, entrance and office doors | Adjustable closing and latching speed; concealed types stay invisible |
| Sliding rollers, tracks and guides | Wardrobe, pocket and patio doors | Sealed bearings resist dust far better than open rollers |
| Perimeter, brush and drop seals | All doors | Cuts dust, noise and cooled-air loss; a cheap, high-value upgrade |
| Matched solid timber and veneers | Splices, bottom rails, frame legs | Selected for grain and colour so repairs disappear |
| Intumescent seals and certified parts | Fire-rated door sets | Only certified components; a non-certified part voids the rating |
Doors here live through a bigger annual cycle than most people realise. Indoor humidity can sit at 35 per cent in a February afternoon and hit 70 per cent when a door to the garden is opened in August, and an entrance door has one face at 55°C while the other sits at 22°C. That gradient pulls moisture through the leaf and is precisely what warps doors that were never sealed on all six faces.
Sand and dust are the second problem, and they are almost always what kills a sliding door. Fine sand settles in the bottom track, is ground into the rollers, and the door goes from silent to grinding within a season. Cleaning the track and replacing sealed-bearing rollers restores it; ignoring it destroys the track itself.
Salt air is the third. Within a few kilometres of the coast, plated hinges, handles and closer arms corrode, seize and bleed rust marks down the door face. We fit 316 stainless or PVD hardware in those areas as standard.
And the fourth is simply construction practice: frames fixed through architraves, hinges screwed into plugs, and no seal on the top and bottom edges — all common, all cheap to do properly at the repair stage, and all guaranteed to bring us back if left alone.
A structural repair that looks like a repair is only half a job. Where we splice a frame leg or rebuild a bottom rail we select timber for grain direction and colour, then build the finish back in layers — stain and dye to the base tone, grain drawn in by hand where a joint crosses a visible line, and a topcoat matched to the sheen of the surrounding surface.
On painted doors we fill, prime and spray or brush to match the existing surface rather than leaving a patch, and we will often re-finish a whole face rather than a corner, because an even face reads better than a perfect patch. On veneered doors we patch with matched veneer stock; on solid doors we splice in the same species.
Where a client wants an upgrade rather than a repair, we can also re-finish tired doors completely — stripping, colour-changing, or painting a whole house of doors and frames in a weekend, which is one of the cheapest ways to make an older villa feel renovated.
Most door problems do not need a long process. This is ours.
Most door repairs are small jobs, and we price them so that having several doors seen to in one visit costs far less per door. The ranges below are indicative 2026 figures, excluding VAT, and include the call-out within Dubai when two or more items are booked.
| Work | Typical Scope | Indicative Price (AED) |
|---|---|---|
| Door adjustment and alignment | Re-set hinges, adjust margins, ease and re-latch | 150 – 400 / door |
| Hinge replacement | Two or three hinges, housings re-formed | 250 – 700 / door |
| Sagging door repair | Fixings into solid material, frame packed and re-squared | 350 – 900 / door |
| Mortice lock or latch replacement | Supply and fit, strike plate re-aligned | 250 – 800 |
| Euro cylinder replacement | Supply and fit, keyed alike optional | 180 – 600 |
| Multipoint lock repair or replacement | Entrance door, alignment included | 900 – 3,500 |
| Handle set replacement | Supply and fit per door | 150 – 900 |
| Door closer supply and fit | Overhead or concealed, adjusted | 450 – 1,800 |
| Sliding or wardrobe track service | Clean, replace rollers and guides, re-align | 300 – 1,200 / door |
| Pocket door carriage replacement | Includes removing and re-hanging the leaf | 800 – 2,400 |
| Bottom edge rebuild after water damage | Matched timber, sealed and finished | 600 – 2,200 |
| Frame leg splice and re-fix | Matched timber, colour matched | 700 – 2,600 |
| Seals and threshold upgrade | Perimeter, brush or drop seal per door | 200 – 700 |
| Door and frame refinishing | Strip or prepare, spray or hand finish | 700 – 2,500 / door |
| Like-for-like replacement door | Made in our workshop, hung and finished | 1,800 – 9,000+ |
| Automatic gate motor service | Service, alignment, safety sensor check | 600 – 2,500 |
| Situation | Repair | Refinish | Replace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Door sticks or sags | Yes — usually one visit | Not needed | No |
| Hardware failed | Yes — new parts | Not needed | No |
| Solid door, damaged bottom edge | Yes — rebuild in timber | Usually with it | No |
| Hollow-core door, swollen | No | No | Yes |
| Particleboard door, water damage | No | No | Yes |
| Solid door, tired finish only | Minor | Yes — best value | No |
| Warped solid door | Sometimes | With repair | If badly twisted |
| Frame out of square | Yes — re-fix and re-square | Optional | Rarely |
The short version: solid timber doors are nearly always worth repairing, hollow-core and particleboard doors that have taken water are not, and a whole house of tired but sound doors is usually best dealt with by refinishing rather than replacing — it costs a fraction and takes days rather than weeks.
Doors reward a few minutes of attention a year. Tighten hinge screws once a year — a loose screw caught early prevents the sag that causes most of our call-outs — and put a drop of light machine oil on hinge pins and lock mechanisms at the same time, never WD-40 on a cylinder, which strips the graphite it needs. Vacuum sliding and wardrobe tracks every few months; sand in the track is the single biggest cause of sliding door failure here. Do not hang heavy bags or ironing boards on the back of a door, and do not let children swing on handles: both pull the top hinge out of the frame. Keep water away from bottom edges — squeeze the mop out before cleaning near a bathroom door — and check the bottom edge of terrace and utility doors once a year for swelling. If a door starts catching, book it in rather than forcing it; a door that is forced for months damages the frame and turns a AED 200 adjustment into a AED 2,000 repair. And after the shamal season, check external gate hinges, motors and seals for sand and grit.
Villa owners whose developer doors have dropped or stopped latching; families whose wardrobe or sliding doors have started grinding; homeowners after a leak or an air-conditioning failure; landlords and property managers who need a whole unit’s doors, locks and handles put right between tenancies; residents who have lost keys or need cylinders changed on moving in; owners upgrading to smart locks; offices, clinics and retail units needing closers, fire-door hardware and daily-use doors maintained; and hotels and serviced apartments with rolling maintenance programmes where doors must work silently and be repaired out of hours.
Our workshop is in Ras Al Khor Industrial Area and our repair teams cover Jumeirah, Umm Suqeim, Al Barsha, Arabian Ranches, Emirates Hills, Dubai Hills Estate, DAMAC Hills, Jumeirah Golf Estates, Jumeirah Park, Al Furjan, Mohammed Bin Rashid City, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Marina, JLT, Downtown, Business Bay, Mirdif, Al Warqa, Nad Al Sheba, Town Square and Villanova, with visits to Sharjah, Ajman, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah on request. Apartment work is arranged around building rules and permitted hours, and commercial doors can be repaired out of trading hours.
If repair turns into replacement, or the job is bigger than a door: wooden doors, gates and frames made to measure; wardrobes and cabinets when wardrobe doors and tracks are beyond adjustment; furniture repair and restoration for the pieces damaged by the same leak; wooden flooring when a new floor has changed every door clearance in the house; and the home carpentry hub, which lists every joinery service we offer.
Adjustments start around AED 150 per door, hinge replacement AED 250–700, sagging door repair AED 350–900, and lock work AED 180–800 depending on the type. Several doors in one visit costs far less per door.
Nine times out of ten a hinge screw has pulled out of the frame and the door has dropped a few millimetres at the latch corner. It is usually an hour of work: re-form the housings into solid material and re-set the door.
A solid timber door, yes — we cut back and rebuild the bottom edge in matched timber and seal all faces. A hollow-core or particleboard door that has swollen cannot be saved, and we will tell you so rather than charge for a temporary fix.
Yes — cleaning tracks, replacing rollers, guides and soft-close systems, and re-aligning so the doors run silently. Sand in the bottom track is the usual cause, and we service rather than replace where the track is sound.
Yes — mortice locks, tubular latches, euro cylinders, multipoint locks and handle sets, including keyed-alike sets so one key works several doors. We also fit and set up smart locks and keypads.
Normally within the same week across Dubai, and we try to fit urgent security issues such as a failed entrance lock in sooner. Tell us what the door is doing so we bring the right parts first time.
Humidity. The leaf takes up moisture and grows fractionally. The right fix is to set correct margins and seal the edges, not to plane it heavily in August — which leaves a visible gap all winter.
Yes. New tiles or wood raise the floor and doors start to drag. We trim the bottom edge cleanly, re-seal it so it does not absorb water, and re-adjust the hinges and any drop seal.
Yes, using certified components only — intumescent seals, rated hinges and closers. We will not fit a non-certified part into a rated door set, because it voids the certification.
Sometimes, depending on the construction and how far it has moved. We assess it on site and are honest: if it is badly twisted, a like-for-like replacement door made in our workshop is the better spend.
Yes — motors, tracks, alignment, remotes, keypads and safety sensors on sliding and swing gates, plus the timber repairs that usually go with them.
Yes. Our workmanship and the parts we supply are covered by a written warranty, with the terms stated on your quote. Doors we make as replacements carry our full workshop warranty.
Dubai’s single-source fit-out and renovation specialists since 1984. 25+ in-house trades delivering residential and commercial interiors across all seven emirates.