Hanging a door

[yellow]

Going to try and hang a door. What do you look for when purchasing the new door. Is it the same thickness and slightly wider and longer?

I've watched YouTube but cant see much on cutting the door down to size. Do you take the old door off them measure it next to new one?

I've got a circular saw, but do I need an electric planner (I've just got hand one).

All my internal doors have two hinges, shall I go three?

How do you know hinge side and top and which is the top of door?

[ayjay]

Doors are made in various standard sizes.

You need to measure the internal dimensions of the frame to ascertain what size door you need, (measure the width right at the top). Your door size will be about 3 or 4mm less than the measured width, assuming it's a standard size. The height could easily be as much as 25mm different - (i.e door is too long).

To fit the door to the lining or the frame you need to offer it up into the lining to see where it may need trimming.

If the lining was well fitted and you've adjusted the height correctly it will go in first time.

If you do need to adjust the height, make sure you fit the top of the door to the shape of the frame before you cut too much off of the bottom.

Lightweight doors will only have enough material on one side to fit a lock/latch - this is often stamped on the top of the door, *LOCK* but can also be discovered by tapping a couple of inches from the edge in the centre of the door, the lockblock is usually about 14" long, 7" either side of the centre point.
Lightweight doors only really need two hinges, full glass doors or heavier doors will benefit from having three.

Doors can be fitted just with handtools, (planes will need to be sharp and well adjusted) electric tools certainly make it quicker if there's much to plane off.

[yellow]

Thxs. Just wondering how you work out exactly how much to plane or cut off with a circular saw. Do you put 2mm spaces all around then offer it up?

When offering it up, I saw someone putting bolsters underneath to raise it up

[ayjay]

Thxs. Just wondering how you work out exactly how much to plane or cut off with a circular saw. Do you put 2mm spaces all around then offer it up?

When offering it up, I saw someone putting bolsters underneath to raise it up

Initially I wedge it tight to the top and tight to the hinge side of the frame and visually assess the gap that's left.

Whatever works for you is what holds it up, wedges, bolsters, an old chisel: a small flat crowbar is my weapon of choice.

I only ever use a circ saw to trim the bottom, I know track saws are also used now, but they weren't available when I learnt my stuff and I never found a need for one. I wouldn't trust a circ saw to cut square when you're only cutting a sliver off.

[dewaltdisney]

Just a point on sawing the bottom off the power saw can cause breakout and I used to hand cut about 6mm in on the exit side to prevent this. Hollow doors have only 25mm of inner frame at the bottom so bear this in mind when you cut it down as sometimes you have to chop this bit out and glue it in after you cut the faces down. I cut some wedges that I used to jack the door into position, it worked for me.

DWD

[yellow]

Thxs. Just wondering how you work out exactly how much to plane or cut off with a circular saw. Do you put 2mm spaces all around then offer it up?

When offering it up, I saw someone putting bolsters underneath to raise it up

Initially I wedge it tight to the top and tight to the hinge side of the frame and visually assess the gap that's left.

Whatever works for you is what holds it up, wedges, bolsters, an old chisel: a small flat crowbar is my weapon of choice.

I only ever use a circ saw to trim the bottom, I know track saws are also used now, but they weren't available when I learnt my stuff and I never found a need for one. I wouldn't trust a circ saw to cut square when you're only cutting a sliver off.

OK. So I did what you said and wedges the door into top and hinge side. . Still doesn't fit. Too big. So shall I just plane the handle side or both sides? Then offer it up and put on hinges . Shall i mark with pencil how much needs planing off? 2 mm spacers?

Chopping hinges in right place on door. Best to use a staff or 2mm spacer at top then line up door to where they're chopped in on lining?

[ayjay]

OK. So I did what you said and wedges the door into top and hinge side. . Still doesn't fit. Too big. So shall I just plane the handle side or both sides? Then offer it up and put on hinges . Shall i mark with pencil how much needs planing off? 2 mm spacers?

Chopping hinges in right place on door. Best to use a staff or 2mm spacer at top then line up door to where they're chopped in on lining?

If it's too big to even go in the hole then you need to initially cut it down enough to achieve that before you can calculate the final trimming.

Most lightweight internal doors only have a 6mm thick lipping on each side so be aware of that if there's quite a bit to take off. If it's a panelled door, then you definitely want to take off equal amounts from both edges, (although a couple of mm difference is unlikely to be noticeable).

If it's at all gappy on the hanging side, deal with that first, bearing in mind how much has to come off the other side.

By all means mark with a pencil how much needs to come off, it's whatever works for you, after 50 years and literally thousands of doors I don't find that necessary.

To mark out the hinges, stand the door in the frame at it's final height, a 2mm packer over the top is ideal. (I often use two oval nails laid on top of the door), if the hinge recesses are already cut into the frame, it makes sense to use those, line up the hinge with either the top or the bottom of the recess on the frame, (bottom is usually my choice) and carry the marks across to the door. A sharp 4H pencil makes a better job than an HB.

[yellow]

Seems like the bottom of door frame on another door is narrower at bottom to top (4mm ). I've been using my two hand planers. Not totally confident using them but been trying to get them just a smidgen proud of the bottom. I heard to try to get thin translucent strips of wood. Might buy an electric one? Arev they easy to use and safe?

Electric sander with low grit good ?


The door has writing on one end. I guess that's the top of the door. It also indicates the lock side

[ayjay]

Seems like the bottom of door frame on another door is narrower at bottom to top (4mm ). I've been using my two hand planers. Not totally confident using them but been trying to get them just a smidgen proud of the bottom. I heard to try to get thin translucent strips of wood. Might buy an electric one? Arev they easy to use and safe?

Electric sander with low grit good ?


The door has writing on one end. I guess that's the top of the door. It also indicates the lock side

It's by no means unusual for door frames to be narrower at the bottom, I always advise fitting a temporary brace when fitting the frame/liner so that that can't easily happen, but it takes a couple of minutes, which is time wasted on pricework as it's likely to be someone else's problem when doing the second fix. It's a bad place out there sometimes.

It sounds like you're on the right lines with the hand planes, by sighting along the sole plate you should be able to see the blade protruding slightly, they're not the easiest tools to use in that they do require considerable physical effort if there is much material to remove.

Electric planes are good, but you can do a lot of damage with one very quickly, definitely practice on some scrap timber first. Work out when to apply and release pressure from the front for making cuts to nothing - i.e. when you want 2mm off one end of the door but nothing in the middle.

If I was going to use a sander at all it would be a belt sander, but again, you can do a lot of damage very quickly with one.

The Lock Block is usually marked on the top of the door if it's marked at all.

[yellow]

Not sure if it's where I've put my hinges . They are slightly wonky at bottom. Anyhow, the door is rubbing on the door stop very slightly. Shall I move the door stood back a couple of mm?

Regarding chopping hinges out; I've got more doors to do. What little router would you recommend to do them?

[ayjay]

Not sure if it's where I've put my hinges . They are slightly wonky at bottom. Anyhow, the door is rubbing on the door stop very slightly. Shall I move the door stood back a couple of mm?

Regarding chopping hinges out; I've got more doors to do. What little router would you recommend to do them?

If the door is rubbing the stop then one of them has to move. If the door is flush with the frame, move the stop, if not then tweak the hinge out a bit - take out all but the bottom screw (loosen that one a couple of turns) wedge the door over and make a new starting hole for the top screw with a bradawl and put it back in, take the bottom screw out once the top screw is holding to allow the hinge to move over when the top screw is tightened, now budge the rest of screws over a touch using the same method.

Most people use a small trimming router for hinge recesses, a large one is OK on the doors but a bit of a handful on the frames. It's not the easiest thing to do freehand, I always chop the top and bottom lines with a chisel and mark the longer edge with an adapted (shaped and sharpened to be a knife blade) mortice gauge.

[fin]

i ended up having words with a so called joiner the other day... told me i had over charged the client for hanging doors. he reakoned the going rate was £20 - £25 a door.

if its a hollow door and it has to be reduced in height by quite a bit i try to do that the day before and put the off cut piece back in after planing it up and glueing and clamping over night. re use existing hinge mortises if possible. ya may find it helpful to plug up the old hinge screw holes with some small scrap timber sharpened to a point. i glue em in also...

[fin]

those pump up winbags are good i find for getting a door into position. rather than a bar or chisel or whatever