 The best kind of doors are the doors you have to explain. All right, welcome, welcome to Unhinge with the DoorDork where door hardware nerds get together, we knock and we slam on different doorfills. We learn, we laugh and sometimes we even cry because we can't stomach some of these installs. But most importantly, we learn a little bit but have some fun while we joke around with some doors. Today, we do have a very special nerd joining us, Mr. Joel Becker, hopefully it's okay that I called you a nerd. Well, Joel, welcome. Thanks for joining us on the show today. Why don't you introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about what you do and a fun fact, we would love to hear more about who this nerd is. Well, excellent. My name's Joel Becker. I've been doing this since the mid to early 90s, started off sweeping floors and grinding frames for a small, small distributor in Michigan and then throughout the past 30 years or so, I've hopped around the country a little bit, worked for some of the biggies and some of the smallies. Now currently in the vice president at Allegheny Commercial Doors. And as for what I do, I think anybody who's a Dorn Harbor nerd knows I do what we all do, solve problems. I get yelled at and then I call and yell at other people and then vice versa. And that kind of seems to be my job. I try not to yell every once in a while, let it slip. But for the most part, a problem solver I'd like to say I am. I like that, I like that. Yeah, I think that's a better description than like jerk or guy who won't get you your hinges fast enough. That's a fun fact about me. And I said a little previously, I have two fun facts. One goes back to an episode you guys had before about Legos. So I understand that Mia is a Lego nerd as well. Well, my 10-year-old and I are both Lego nerds. And had I not been in my hotel, I would be presenting my wares. I have a replica of the University of Michigan Stadium, which I am alumni for. And it's some 3,500 pieces of the stadium itself. It's beautiful. The other one that I keep on my desk all times of the day is my remote-controlled Tectic car. And that's another 2,000 pieces and every once in a while, I'll set it down on the floor and drive it around. We're currently doing Hogwarts cast. Ooh, that was fun, that was fun. It should be fun. So glad to know that I'm with Mia as a Lego nerd as well. Welcome, welcome. Yeah, so going back to one of my previous comments about University of Michigan, I also was born raised on University of Michigan's campus. And I'm also a University of Michigan volleyball player or was before I graduated. Most people when I meet them, they say, man, he's only 5'10", how's that possible? And he's fact, well, I was a little skinnier 25 years ago and used to jump a lot higher. So I played indoor volleyball for the University of Michigan and then I subsequently toured for close to 30 years playing different competitive tournaments around the country. I still do tournaments. Really? Yes. I still play. In fact, the best win I had in the past few years is I won bronze at the Georgia Games, beating out the Georgia Tech team. And it's really fun when you're 48 years old and you beat out a bunch of 21-year-olds. Almost sounds cruel, but it was actually fun. So I enjoyed it. We made the nationals that year and then COVID hit. So nationals were canceled. Wow, wow. I had no idea, Joel. That's fantastic. I played club volleyball in high school, but it sounds like you were on a whole nother level. So... Well, I enjoyed it. It became a fun thing to do in the 90s. You know, if you think sun, bikinis, volleyball, I enjoyed the 90s very much. And you wore a lot of bikinis? Yes, all the time. I have some pictures. We can share those later. Oh, please do. Please do. Oh, I'm so glad you're here. I love this. Thank you. And thank you again for having me. Of course, yeah, yeah. Any nerd is welcome. And as always, you know her. You love her. She's on my screen, is right above me, but this is Mia Merrill. Why don't you jump on and say hi? I think you've got another fun fact for us. Yeah, so welcome to this episode. I also played volleyball in high school. It's my favorite sport, but I was not great. I mean, I was okay, but not good enough to play in college. But my fun fact for today is a little bit about behind the scenes for Unhinged. I don't know if everybody knows that when we come into these episodes, I am just as unprepared as our guests. So Benji doesn't let me see anything ahead of time. So just in case anybody is wondering, I don't know what we're gonna see today or any other day for that matter. Well, happy to add onto that, Mia. Every time we're called out to a job site, we don't know what we're gonna see. Hey, I've got this thing I want you to see. And you get there and sometimes it's, oh, you need a doorstop. And other times it's, whoa, gotta take a picture and send it to someone. The industry as a whole, right? Is a bunch of surprises, gifts really. It is. Well, a fun fact. Oh, I actually had this one prepared for last episode, but we went the whole Halloween phase. So many of you guys know that I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan. I read all the books when I was a kid, but little did I know that marry a Lord of the Rings dork. Like, I thought I was a nerd with Lord of the Rings until I met my wife. So this fun fact's more about her, I guess. In high school, she would write secret notes to her friends in Elvish as like a whole another level. That is a level up. When we started dating, guys, she actually got me, it's hard to see, Sterling. Nice. Ring of power as like a promise ring, I guess. So does the opposite happen? If you take it off, you'll disappear? No, okay. Well, I'm hoping this episode gets the most viewpoints possible. I don't know what to do about that or how to fake that or anything, but I'm gonna be pushing to get this to happen. I know some people in the electoral process that can help us out. Oh, good. Love it, love it, let's make it happen. So for those who don't know how the show works, I'm gonna share my screen of some sort of different doorfell, install, code violation, and we're going to knock and slam on slash react to it. Throw out any helpful tips or hints or tricks to the trade that might help viewers better understand what's going on. And then we'll give it a knocking score. One being not too knocking bad, like it's not that terrible, but it might be interesting and that's why we're talking about it. 10 being very knocking bad, like let's call the AHA, let's get authorities in there, let's write these people up. That's life safety, security, all of the above, it's painful to look at. This could be painful. Hey, are we ready? Ready, wow. What do we have going on here? Got a nice mail slot on the side of the door, bunch of different preps for different things, nice residential, discussion and lever on there. Pretty nice. I don't know what's next, anti pry bar on the lever side. Man, this is just a, I don't even know what they're doing here. Is that just a straight? Yeah, that's an atom's right, straight. But you're right, this is a residential lock and it appears to be upside down as well. That would explain why I'm having a hard time reading the brand. Yeah, I'm trying to pinch and zoom. I don't know about you, but I probably wouldn't want my locksmith logo, maybe I should have that number right there, right next to this job. I wouldn't want people to know that I did this, this was my work. Well, you know, along those lines, can we call that phone number, see if we can get them on the line to talk about it while we're live? Sorry, I may take that to a different level, but we can ask them what their plan was. That might be a fun little series there. We might have to do a different show on that one. So are you saying you can see an electric strike in that picture? I know. There could be, but my guess is, this is just like one of those residential like sliding doors almost where it has a hook bolt, which would make sense why there was the atom's right strike here. Cause that probably used to be over here. And so they just took it off to help reinforce the door. I don't know. Yeah, that's what I was trying to figure out is what's on the handle side of the discussion. Is that's an electric strike? No, it's just a strike plate. But like, there's only one screw. So it's not even, how is it reinforcing anything? Or are they using it as a washer for whatever is on the other side? It almost appears there's a gap right there. So I think maybe they took the old lock out that was right there, probably an atom's right dead latch or dead bolt or something right there. It appears that they're using that as a cover plate because if you look closely, right there. Filler. And that's probably just cover the hole. Yeah. So they threw this residential sliding door, glass door lock and then took the strike out because it no longer works with that lock and then used it as the cover plate. Nice. And good matching of colors here. I like the gold. We've seen worse mixed finishes before. But like what's going on down here? Like there's a lot to take in here. I feel like you can through here and unlock this door, right? I mean, Joel said a mail slot, but is it a mail slot? What is the function of that? It's a mail slot turned sideways. You shove your mail in there, but you're right. It's close enough to lock. If there's a thumb turn inside and someone has a five-year-old kid with them, they could shove their arm in there and turn it to lock it or just someone with really skinny arms. But good news, it's protected by rank. So we're all good. We're fine here. Oh, excellent. That's good. Okay. Any other comments, concerns? I would almost recommend just replacing this door. I think this is a redo, either that or they've got to need some kind of special wrap around that too. They've definitely done enough configurations on that door that it's time to just move on and get something new. This is the last stand, I think. Do you think the holes in the bottom were for just the padlock? To me, it looks like- Yeah, that looks like a hasp. Yeah. Four holes for a hasp on the other side, the other side of the hasp. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like that's maybe how they had it locked before. Good point, Mia. I was thinking it was a door pull, but there's nothing up above. So yeah, it definitely looks like a hasp for me. I also didn't know that that was called a hasp. So thank you, Joel. Let's give it a knocking score. Joel, what do you think? Well, since I don't have a particular rating system in mind, I'm going to go with a few things. Fire code. I don't think we're violating any fire code from what we can see right here. There might be something on the inside that may prevent it. So I think it's clear that way. Do I think it functions? Yeah. I'm guessing that they get the functionality out of this that they need for the maximum amount of money they probably spent on this. So it all comes down to aesthetics at this point. So it's aesthetics as well as that mail slot that could leave it unsecure. So I've seen much worse. But I've obviously seen much better. So I'm going to give them a five. They're right in the middle of the road of ugly, maybe not functional, but still, you know, it could be a safe door. It could keep that business from being broken into. Yeah, I agree. Depending on what the business is, because if it was like a convenience store, it may never close. So do they really need the security? But yeah, it's definitely just a kind of a middle of the road. Probably not a lot of life safety issues, mostly security. Yeah, and I can tell you, I'm a novice lock picker, but that residential lock right there would be easy for someone to pick if they didn't just reach in and unlock the door from there. So I'm with you guys from a life safety concern. I don't think there's any issues. We can't see it from the inside. Maybe it's always locked or something like that where there's no free grass or something. But from a security standpoint, I think there's some issues. And aesthetically, it's hard to look at. Yes, of course. And you brought up a point there. If it does have a latch like aluminum door hardware like a MS 1850, you know, it's protruding into there. It is secure. No one's gonna be able to pick and get into it. Well, anybody can pick, but I mean, no one's gonna be able to use a credit card or a screwdriver to get in there. But if it is a latch like a residential opening, the old credit card trick might just work on this one. So I'm gonna have to take this down to a four because I don't quite know. I'm glad that actually the locksmith journal, they're quality guys, they know what they're doing. And so I'm sure they're gonna fix this right up. Of course. Kay, you ready for the next one? Yes. If you wanna be featured on a future episode of Unhinged or if you have a photo to submit, leave a comment down below.