My house (built in the early 60s) has short doors inside! I was measuring because I want to replace all the interior doors as these ones are crappy and one is warped. Anyway, the doors themselves are 78
1/4" high. Not 80" ! Will I even be able to FIND such a door or will I have to tear out my doorways and rebuild? :-( I'm frowning.
You should be able to find doors which will suit your taste which you could trim down to that length.
If the top and bottom sections of the new doors are solid wood it should be a no brainer.
If they are hollow core doors you might have to glue in some filler strips if the ones in them aren't "tall" enough take sawing an inch off the top and bottom of the door.
HTH,
Jeff
You can have doors made to whatever size you want. Hollow core doors aren't at too big of a premium. You could also cut down a hollow core door, or a solid core for that matter, fairly easily. You'd have to get a door blank and mortise for the hinges and drill for the lockset yourself as the heights would be off if you cut it down.
R
Could they be 80" doors that have been trimmed to clear thick carpeting or throw rugs? Can you trim an 80" door that much and still have it look right? With flush doors, that would be easy enough, but a paneled door may look cut with a thinner bottom.
sounds like they were trimmed to clear carpet and pad, probably for the shag rug era.
It is true that you can cut many doors to fit your current opening, but I would consider enlarging your openings. This is very simple because they are interior doors so you won't have to mess with siding and brick. Also, because you are making your openings larger and not smaller, you won't have to mess with adding and finishing drywall. Also, your trim pieces will be much easier to find already pre-cut to fit. Your re-sale value will alsom improve because a savvy homebuyer is going to be a little deterred by having small door openings
Details please. Given the way a door opening is framed with headers and such, how do you propose he makes the cuts so simply?
I am a bit curious how snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com is going to raise the headers that should be at the tops of the door rough openings. I'm not saying it is not the right thing to do. I am saying that if you head down this path, you will be drywalling, taping, texturing, and painting. The header should have been set 81 or 82 inches off finish floor. Is there a large gap at the bottoms of the existing doors? Does it appear that there is heavy carpet and pad? As others have said, I imagine the original doors were 6-8's and have been cut down for some reason. It would be nice to know why before ordering a full set of doors. The top and bottom rails in the doors can only be trimmed a limited amount or major work is required to reset the rails. Take one of your doors off the hinge and look at the bottom. Please tell us if they are hollow core doors (if you aren't wishing you had 2 guys to work with the door, it is hollow), panel doors, or solid core. Has the bottom rail been replaced / glued / worked with in an obvious manner? If it is a solid core flush door, does it have a wood rail at the bottom of the door or visible particle board? Is the finish veneer chipped or ragged on either face of the bottom of the door? Are your doors painted or stained?
Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net
wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
If there is 2" of space above the door frame, you can buy pre-hung interior doors at the borg. If not, just look for doors/lumber your local yellow pages. They'll be places that will make custom doors for you.
Sounds like mobile home doors.
My panel doors have 8" from bottom of door to panel and 4" from top of door to panel, so cutting
2" from the bottom wouldn't look funny. But one would need to be concerned about where the ended up with a panel door and one would certainly would need to buy doors without hinge and latch cutouts. Best bet would likely be to cut 1" from the top and 1" from the bottom and 3/4" from the top.Home Depot still sells them.
I was wondering the same thing. Just because you're gonna make it bigger, not smaller, doesn't mean you're not in for a big project. In fact, making it smaller could be easier, as you can just pad out the header, etc.
So you want to put in doors almost two inches larger than what is there. Where are you going to find that 2 inches" I would guess you don't have a gap at the top, so is there a gap at the bottom?
Assuming there is a gap at the bottom, I would not put a larger door in there to cover the gap. Likely the gap is there as part of the air return for the HVAC.
I have recently purchased several 78 inch high doors. They are a standard size. They don't stock them, you have to order them. Much easier just to buy the right size in the first place.
Where? Certainly not in the part of the country where I live. Were not standard 30 years ago or
40 years ago either. I haven't seen any 78" doors at HD, must be a custom order item. Sure you aren't talking about mobile home or trailer doors?The doors appear to have an air gap at the bottom to clear (and then some) the carpet, so maybe HVAC was a concern. I appears possible that
80" doors would fit my doorways IF I had tile instead of carpet plus pad. Whoever suggested that the house used to have shag is correct. It DID used to, but not anymore. I'm a little worried about having to chop the bottom off a pre-made panelled door, as the bottom usually contains a crossmember support.Oh well, I'll add this to my list of oddities about this old house...
If you need to cut 1" or less off the bottom, I wouldn't worry about the cross member because it will wider than that. Just be sure that you use a good circular saw with a good blade. As for the HVAC air requirement, I wouldn't know if that is true or not, but how much you leave the doors open would dictate what you need to do. In my house, the doors are fully open or have a gap (nearly closed) most of the time. I wouldn't want to live in a house that had a big gap at the bottom of the door and never have lived in such a house regardless of the type of central heating and a/c. In fact, I have never been in a regular house that had such doors. Uggh.
"Where? Certainly not in the part of the country where I live. Were not standard 30 years ago or 40 years ago either. I haven't seen any
78" doors at HD, must be a custom order item. Sure you aren't talking about mobile home or trailer doors?"I said in my post that I had to order them. Now that I think about it, I did order them at Lowes, but I could have ordered them at Home Depot just the same. You have to go to the desk in the door area to order them. They will not be in stock, even in the Home Depot is in a neighborhood like mine where they would be in demand. And yes every house in my neighborhood (built in 1950's) has 78 inch high door everywhere.
Not by a lot. On some of the hollow core doors I've been reworking recently the bottom frame rail is just over an inch. Apparently they don't design the door with site modifications in mind.
If the rail is under 1/2" after cutting the door down (drill a hole to determine it's depth), I'll knock it loose and replace it with a more substantial piece.
RHomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.