I recently became locked out of my own apartment in an emergency
situation and had to break in through the front door.  Here are the
details of the damage:  The door is fine.  The lock in the door handle
was the only one locked (as opposed to a deadbolt), so it could have
been worse.  The door was kicked in from the outside, breaking out
part of the door frame on the inside.  The metal bracket came out
along with the screws that held it in, some of the wood in the wall
was broken/splintered, and the trim on the inside of the door frame
was pulled out.  To fix this, the doorway will need to be glued,
nailed, plastered, etc. back together and the metal bracket will have
to be re-attached.  I have not yet contacted my apartment complex
because I want to know first how much it would cost for a carpenter to
fix it (I am reasonably sure the apartment complex will charge me an
outrageous amount if I inform them of what happened).  I live in
northern Fort Lauderdale, Florida (zip 33309).  I've been trying to
find a carpenter to fix it, but I don't know which ones do this type
of work, and I would prefer to get some kind of estimate before I
agree to have the work done.  So my question has two parts:  a) Who in
Fort Lauderdale can fix this type of damage?  (Preferably businesses
that can give a rough estimate of the cost first--I can provide a
photograph if that makes it easier)  b) What sort of cost am I looking
at, roughly?  (Answering part 'a' would be enough, answering both
parts would be wonderful!)

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Request for Question Clarification by easterangel-ga on 13 Apr 2004 23:15 PDT

Hi!

I can only answer letter a) or your first question. 

I was able to find a list of 20+ carpentry companies you can call in
Fort Lauderdale but not in the zipcode you specified. You can just
call them and tell them about your concerns and ask them if they can
help you with your problem.

Will you accept this as an answer? 

Thanks!

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Clarification of Question by centered-ga on 14 Apr 2004 11:09 PDT

I'm sorry, but I'm really looking for businesses that can definitely
fix this particular problem...not just carpenters.  That's why I tried
to be as descriptive as possible and offered to provide a photograph. 
I was hoping a Google Researcher might have some resources at their
disposal beyond what I can do (enter my city and "carpenters" in
Google Local).  As far as the zip code goes, they don't necessarily
have to be in 33309--I only offered that in order to help narrow down
the search.

Good carpenters really are expensive.

And scarce!

Let the 'apartment complex' do the work; at least, they will know
someone that they can rely on.