A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
1 August 2022
This is a tale of two doors. The one you see here is new. It replaced a wooden paneled door that had come apart at the seams after many years.
The other door is the equivalent one at our place. We had to replace the original wooden paneled door, too, when termites got into it in 2015. We had a contractor take it out and expose the wall to make sure the destructive things were gone.
We'd originally specified a solid wooden door as the replacement but the contractor said the door supplier recommended against it. Put in a steel door, he had said. It costs a little more but will last a lot longer.
So we did.
And every year or so we sand it down and repaint the exterior side after it takes a beating from the salt air. And it looks good as new.
Now the wooden door you see here isn't nearly as old as our green steel door. It was installed only last year. But it's already shot. Moisture has seeped in through the unsealed bottom and warped it.
We think this story of two doors is a modern fable of some sort. But the moral escapes us.
It might just be that it pays to have expert advice. Or it's pound foolish in the long run to save a few shillings. Or a penny of prevention is worth a dollar of cure.
But as a photographer, you don't need a door to tell you that.