Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
Therma-Tru Home Additions & ADU: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
If your Therma-Tru entry or patio door system needs attention before tackling a home addition or ADU project in Fort Lauderdale, here’s the straight answer: Mason Remodeling Co Fort Lauderdale stocks and installs Therma-Tru-compatible door components, with full addition and ADU builds ranging from $45,000 to $130,000. Most Therma-Tru part diagnostics take an hour on site, and we’ll tell you what we found, what it takes to fix it, and what it will cost before we touch a thing. Homeowners usually call us when a door has started dragging along the threshold, when the weather seal has gone hard and brittle from South Florida humidity, or when they’re planning an addition and realize the existing exterior doors need to match the new build’s spec.
We’re an independent service provider, not affiliated with Therma-Tru. What that means for you is we’re not tied to pushing one product line, we’re tied to getting your door right for a Fort Lauderdale climate that punishes cheap seals and soft hardware.
Which Therma-Tru Models This Applies To
Therma-Tru has built its name on fiberglass and steel entry systems, and the parts you’ll find in older Fort Lauderdale homes vary more than most people expect. The Classic-Craft and Smooth-Star lines are the two you’ll see most often in neighborhoods like Victoria Park, Rio Vista, and Coral Ridge. Classic-Craft doors use a multi-piece door slab with either a mahogany or oak grain, while Smooth-Star is exactly what it sounds like, a smooth-faced fiberglass slab. The hardware, weatherstripping, and sill kits are not always interchangeable between the two, and that’s one of the most common mistakes we see from handymen who try to make whatever part is on the truck work.
Identifying what you need starts with the hinge-side edge of the door slab. Therma-Tru stamps a manufacturing label there with the series, size code, and a date. If the label is gone or faded, which happens often on west-facing doors in Fort Lauderdale, we measure the slab, check the hinge spacing, and match the replacement parts from there. On the OEM versus aftermarket question, we’re honest about it: for weatherstripping and sills, a quality aftermarket kit that matches the original profile is often cheaper and lasts just as long in a salt-air environment. For the slab itself, we recommend OEM because the fiberglass layering and core density are what give Therma-Tru doors their rigidity and impact performance.
One Fort Lauderdale-specific gotcha: if your home was built after Hurricane Andrew code updates, the door may be an impact-rated unit with a reinforced core and specific mounting requirements. You can’t swap parts on those with standard components, and we check the label spec before we quote anything. We also work with KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone in case your addition or ADU project involves cabinetry and surfaces alongside the door work.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Therma-Tru Home Additions & ADU Is Failing
- Drag marks on the threshold or a door that scrapes when you open it. In South Florida, this usually means the sill has settled or the hinges have worn enough to let the slab drop a fraction. It’s not something to ignore because the scrape eats through the sill cap, which lets water in during a hard summer downpour.
- Visible daylight or a draft around the door edges. Weatherstripping on Therma-Tru doors is a compression fit. Once it flattens out or hardens, the seal fails. You’re not imagining it, your A/C bill is the proof. We’ve seen Fort Lauderdale electric bills drop measurably after a proper weather seal replacement.
- The door feels heavier than it used to, or you can hear a dragging sound when it swings. This is often a hinge issue on older installations. Therma-Tru door slabs are dense, and once a hinge starts to sag, the whole door shifts and stresses every other component.
- Soft spots or blistering in the frame or sill area. Salt air and high humidity in Fort Lauderdale are relentless on wood-frame components adjacent to concrete slabs. By the time you can see or feel a soft spot, the rot has spread further inside the jamb than the visible damage suggests.
- Visible cracking in the weatherstrip or crumbling at the sweep. The rubber compounds used in door sweeps degrade faster in South Florida than the manufacturer’s national average lifespan suggests. If the sweep flaked apart when you touched it, it has been failing for a while.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For standalone Therma-Tru part replacements in Fort Lauderdale, pricing generally runs from $400 to $1,800 depending on whether we’re replacing weatherstripping and a sweep or pulling the slab, rebuilding the jamb, and installing a new sill. For full home addition and ADU projects that include Therma-Tru doors, you’re looking at $45,000 to $130,000 for the addition, or $90,000 to $220,000 for a complete ADU build. Every quote we give is a written line-item price before work starts. No verbal estimates that grow on the final bill, no surprises after the wall is open.
What’s included in a door part replacement: the part itself, any dimensional shims or anchor hardware needed, removal and disposal of the old component, installation, and a walkthrough so you can see the door open and seal correctly before we leave. The work is covered by our 365-Day Done Right Promise. If something is not right within a year of completion, we make it right at no cost to you. That’s 365 days from the completion date, stated plainly.
For larger addition and ADU projects, permits are pulled, inspections are passed, and the same written-price and written-guarantee standards apply. Isaac Pruett runs these projects the way he’s run them for nearly two decades across Fort Lauderdale, direct answers, clean job sites, and no drama when something unexpected shows up behind the drywall.
DIY or Call Us?
There are two things you can safely check yourself. First, open and close the door a few times while watching the gap between the slab and the frame. If the gap changes as the door swings, the hinges need attention, not the weatherstripping. Second, run your hand along the sweep at the bottom, the part that touches the threshold when the door is closed. If it’s cracked, brittle, or missing pieces, it’s done.
What we don’t recommend is pulling a Therma-Tru sill on your own. The sill cap is sealed to the frame and the subfloor, and once you break that seal, you need to know how the original flashing ties into the Fort Lauderdale code-required water management system. Get it wrong and the next big storm puts water straight into your subfloor. That’s a $400 repair turning into a $4,000 rot remediation. If you’d rather skip the risk, call (754) 354-3720 and we’ll handle it.
FAQs
Realistically, expect 5 to 8 years from weatherstripping and 10 to 15 from a sill before salt air, humidity, and sun take their toll. If your door faces east or west without an overhang, cut those numbers by about a third. Call (754) 354-3720 for an inspection and we’ll tell you exactly where your components stand.
In most cases, yes. Door slabs, frames, sills, hinges, and weatherstripping are all individually replaceable. Full slab replacement is usually only necessary if the fiberglass itself is cracked or the core has absorbed water. We’ll show you the damage before we recommend any replacement.
Typical weatherstripping and sweep work is finished in under two hours. A full sill replacement runs half a day. A slab swap with hinge and jamb adjustments is a full day. For addition and ADU projects, we’ll give you a project timeline in writing before work starts.
We stock the common Therma-Tru weatherstripping profiles, sweeps, and hinge sets for Classic-Craft and Smooth-Star lines on the truck. Specialty-order slabs and custom sill sizes come direct from Therma-Tru or a vetted aftermarket supplier, and we’ll give you the lead time before you commit. Call (754) 354-3720 to check availability for your exact door model.
Written by Isaac Pruett, Owner, Mason Remodeling Co Fort Lauderdale at Mason Remodeling Co Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.
