Moving Out of Your NYC Apartment? Replace That Busted Door Before Your Landlord Bills You.

Every month somebody walks into the shop with the same story: they moved out, handed over the keys, and the security deposit came back a few hundred dollars light. The deduction letter says something like "replace damaged interior door." For a door that sells for about eighty bucks.

If you're moving out of an NYC apartment with a cracked, punched, water-swollen, or flat-out missing interior door, fix it before the final walk-through. Here's how we help renters do exactly that — often in a single day.

The math your landlord is counting on

Landlords and management companies commonly deduct $300 to $500 — often more — for a damaged or missing interior door at move-out. That number bundles the door, the handyman, the trip charge, and a healthy cushion, and once it comes off your deposit it is very hard to claw back.

Now the other side of the ledger. A primed 6-panel hollow-core door at our counter starts at $79.99; a hollow-core flush is $82.99. We deliver same or next day anywhere in Manhattan, delivery is free over $100, and we can cut the door to fit, paint it to match, and haul the dead one away. Handling your own apartment door replacement before move-out usually costs a fraction of the deduction — and you keep control of the outcome.

Step 1: Check your lease

Before you buy anything, read your lease. Some NYC leases say repairs or alterations need the landlord's written consent, or must be done by the building's people. If yours does, send a quick email — "I'd like to replace the damaged bedroom door with a matching new one before I move out" — and keep the reply. Most landlords would much rather get the apartment back whole than argue about a door.

Step 2: Photograph everything

Shoot the damaged door, the frame, and the rest of the room — with timestamps if your phone does that. Then photograph the new door once it's hung and painted. If a deduction shows up on your deposit anyway, dated photos of a sound, properly hung, freshly painted door are your best defense.

Step 3: Measure the door properly

Measure the door slab itself, not the opening. Width first, then height: run the tape across the face of the door edge to edge, then top to bottom. Nearly every apartment door is 80" tall; widths typically run from 18" up to 36" — bedroom doors are often 30" or 32", closet doors narrower. Check the thickness too; 1-3/8" is the residential standard.

Then note the hinge side. Stand so the door swings toward you: hinges on your left means a left-hand door, hinges on your right means right-hand. Write it all down along with which room it's for. If the door is missing entirely, measure the opening inside the frame — width and height — and bring us those numbers instead.

One more Manhattan reality: if you're in a prewar building, the frame has been settling for the better part of a century and probably isn't square anymore. Don't sweat it. We trim doors to fit out-of-square prewar frames all day long — bring the measurements and we cut it before it ships.

Step 4: Order by 9 AM for same-day delivery

We deliver Monday through Friday across Manhattan. Order by 9 AM on a weekday and your door goes out the same day; order later and it arrives the next business day. So if your walk-through is Thursday, don't order Wednesday night and pray — order by 9 AM Wednesday, or better, Tuesday, and give yourself a day to hang it.

Painted to match, old door gone

Every door we stock comes primed and paint-ready, and because we're an authorized Benjamin Moore dealer with an in-house paint shop, we can paint your new door — both sides — in any Benjamin Moore color before it leaves the store. It shows up matching the rest of the apartment's trim the day it arrives. Add old-door haul-away and the broken one disappears too: no wrestling a dead door down five flights, no leaving it in the basement for the super to find.

Don't donate your deposit

A busted interior door is one of the easiest move-out problems to fix and one of the most expensive to ignore. Check the lease, take the photos, measure width and height, note the hinge side, and get the order in by 9 AM. We cut it, we paint it, we deliver it, and we haul the old one away.

See our in-stock interior doors with same and next-day NYC delivery — or come talk it through at the counter. New York Paint & Hardware, 1668 1st Ave (between 87th & 88th), New York, NY 10128 • 212-249-1614.