Question: My husband and I want to have new doors installed for the bedrooms, bathrooms and closets of our 50-plus-year-old Montecito home, and we just read an advertised special sale at a big box hardware store for pre-hung doors for $60 each with another special offer for the installation.

Is this a good deal, and what all is involved with replacing our doors?

Your Handyman: New quality doors that are correctly installed would be a nice upgrade for your home, and you are wise to do a little research before making the purchase.

The two most basic categories of interior doors are hollow core doors and solid core doors.

The door that you see on the big box store promotion is more than likely a hollow core door, which is simply a wood frame with a thin sheet of wood veneer or masonite on the front and back, and the interior of a hollow core door is usually filled with corrugated cardboard baffles.

A hollow core door will be your least expensive option but will provide very little sound insulation for a bathroom or bedroom, and is easily cracked or broken if kicked or pounded on by an angry youngster.

A popular style of hollow core door is faced with six or more molded masonite panels with a stamped wood grain to simulate real wood.

A solid core door is not made from solid wood but, like the hollow core door, is a frame with a veneer or masonite facing. The interior of the door is typically filled with a solid particle board material, giving it much more strength, insulation and weight.

A solid core door will provide good sound insulation, will have a more substantial feel to it, and should survive even the most vigorous tantrum by a child or grandchild.

Both types of doors can be purchased either as either just a loose (slab) door or pre-hung.  Pre-hung means the door comes with hinges already installed that attach it to a new door jamb and that a hole is already bored in the door for the new lockset.

The door jamb is the three-sided wood frame that cases and supports a door with one vertical side having the hinges and the other vertical side having the strike plate and hole for the latch.

To install a pre-hung door, the existing wood casement trim that frames the jamb on the old door will have to be removed from both sides in order for the old door and jamb to be removed by the carpenter. Then new casement trim will need to be installed after the new door and jamb are installed.

If your existing door jambs and casement trim are in good shape and you don’t want the extra work of replacing and painting them, then the old door can be unscrewed from the hinges. The carpenter then will size a new slab door to match the old door, and just screw it onto the existing jamb using new hinges.

The same is true for your locksets, which can be disassembled off the old doors and then easily installed onto the new doors if money is not in the budget for new locksets.

I personally think you will be much happier in the long run if you spend the extra money for solid core doors, or maybe just switch out a couple of doors at a time rather than do the whole house at once. Most people appreciate the extra privacy and durability afforded by a solid door.

Finish carpenters pride themselves in their ability to correctly hang a door. It is a skill that is only acquired with much practice, and you want to be sure that you hire an experienced carpenter to hang your new doors, whether they are pre-hung or loose.

If you decide to opt for the installation special at the big box hardware store, make sure that you meet the contractor who will actually hang your doors, request references for recent similar jobs, and take the time to call a couple of references.

When it comes to installation services, the big box store is more playing the role of a referral service rather than a local general contractor, and the people who do the actual work often are based in communities far away from Santa Barbara.

Contractors live or die by their reputation, and a good rule of thumb is to hire local when possible. Santa Barbara has no shortage of highly skilled carpenters who can expertly hang any type of door, and it will be much easier to work out any problems that may occur with a local contractor as opposed to someone based out of town.

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Question: Our home has a wood balcony outside a pair of French doors off the second-floor master bedroom. My wife has tended numerous potted plants on the balcony for years, and we now just recently have discovered that the wood boards under the plants are rotting from the regular watering the plants receive.

To make things worse, a wood post that supports the roof above the balcony has quite a lot of water damage, which also was concealed by the plants.

What needs to be done at this point to repair and protect our deck?

Your Handyman: We have worked on many wood decks and balconies that have suffered varying degrees of water damage from vines and potted plants, which in one case led to the front six feet or so of the deck having to be completely removed.

Flowering potted plants and vines can add beauty to a deck but can also keep deck boards constantly moist from water seeping out of the pots, and vines and untrimmed trees can shade areas of a deck so that it is very slow to dry out in foggy or wet weather.

Even the most expensive clear redwood decking, or pressure treated lumber will start to rot in the presence of prolonged moisture and, over time, will get to the point of needing to be replaced.

Once wood starts to rot, a fungus commonly called dry rot will take hold, which will continue to grow and damage the wood even after the wood is completely dried out.

Your first step is to remove all the potted plants from the deck so that the wood can dry out and the extent of the water damage can be accessed.

More than likely the wood post will need to be removed and replaced along with the affected decking boards.

If the horizontal wood beams that support the deck are showing signs of damage, then they, too, will need to be replaced, which may involve having to open up the wall of the house in order to provide support for the new beams.

This project is probably going to exceed the abilities of most do-it-yourself homeowners, and a contractor with decking experience will need to be hired.

In my opinion, no potted plants should be on a wood deck, even if they are sitting in a plastic saucer, and any vines or trees should be pruned back to allow direct sunlight and free movement of air around the deck surfaces.

Also, try to keep the spaces between the deck boards clear of leaves and twigs that could hold moisture and eventually lead to water damage.