Repairing Puppy Damage on Your Timber Door and Frame

Timber doors are sturdy and beautiful, but if you are on one side of the door and your lonely pup is on the other, your door may get scratched, chewed or damaged. Need to fix some side effects of puppy love on your timber door? Check out these tips:

1. Stain and hide small scratches.

If the damage to your timber doors is just a bit of shallow scratches, you can hide it pretty easily. Use a fine grit sandpaper to lightly sand the scratches. You are trying to efface the distinction between the scratches and the rest of the timber so that it is relatively smooth. Then, apply a bit of stain to match your timber door, and they should be hardly noticeable.

2. Fill and cover deep gouges.

If your timber door is saddled with deep scratches or gouges from dog bites, you need a bit of filler. Timber filler comes in a little jar, and it's like putty. Take some in your hands and smear it into the hole or scratch on your timber door. Let it dry, and gently sand away any excess.

Blow away any dust from the filler and apply stain. You can use this technique to repair issues with the timber door or its frame.

3. Reattach old wood and fill in the gaps.

In many cases, if dogs are trying to get out of a room and the door is closed, the frame takes quite a bit of the damage. Luckily, most parts of a door frame are repairable or replaceable.

If your dog has chewed on the door, try to find any large pieces of timber that have fallen off, and glue them back in place with wood glue. Then surround them with timber filler. Finally use a putty knife to push the filler in place and sand to smooth. When you are done, paint or stain the repair to match the rest of the frame.

4. Replace broken trim.

If the damage to the door frame is too extensive to use the above remedies, you may need to replace it. Use a putty knife to pull the damaged trim from the door frame. If the frame itself is damaged, pull that free from the wall using a knife designed for use on gypsum board.

You can buy the pieces designed to fit most standard timber door frames at a hardware store. Once you have the pieces, you nail them in place and stain to match your door.