Being August, can't seem to get hold of anyone.
Any idea how much it would cost to hang 8 interior doors in a "normal" 3 bed semi-d house? The doors themselves are quite inexpensive, but I could do with knowing roughly how much it would cost. I.e.., how long does it take for a skilled joiner to do one door x 8?
I can do most things, but this one is beyond me!
Barb
Err, *all* DIY tasks require these to do properly. Hanging a door requires pretty basic woodworking skills which aren't that difficult to learn. In the good old days you'd have learnt them at school.
There's more to door hanging than basic woodworking skills - there's definitely a knack and a few tricks you absolutely need to know. You also need specialised tools - take putting in a letterbox, for example. You'll need a router or jigsaw which can cut through 2 inches of Mahogany. You need to be able to cut a perfect square. This will be impossible for a beginner, even with "basic woodworking skills".
True, all DIY takes skill but hanging a door really is difficult and Mr Plowman is wrong in this case.
A friend at work had a go hanging a front door with his father and found it next to impossible (to quote him, reciting the tale in hindsight, "I looked at the door and thought, 'How hard can it be?'"). The carpenter I had in was very firm in stating that it really isn't a job for DIY, despite the fact he happily gave me advice on how to fit and cut skirting board and architrave (indicating he wasn't against DIY).
So, Barb, I realy wouldn't DIY in this case. Unless you want to get in Mr Plowman to give you a hand...?
As a reasonably skilled d-i-y-er, I reckon I could comfortably do 4 in a day - as long as they didn't need an excessive amount of adjustment to fit the frames.
A professional should be faster - but even then, If doubt if they would all get done in one day. My best guess is one and a half days at whatever daily rate applies in your area.
Rogar
Err, no you don't need these tools and in fact, the use of them can make life a damned site more difficult on some doors.
You need to be able to cut a perfect square. This will be
Err, you don't need to cut a perfect "square for a letter box - in fact that will make the opening rather large in one direction - try cutting an "oblong" and it doesn't need to be "perfect"
The simple hanging of a door is NOT difficult - the difficulty is getting it to fit properly with a neat edge and to get the lock/latch to work easily and Mr Plowman is correct in his assumption
The carpenter was protecting his livelyhood and anyway, he would make more money correcting others errors than fitting new himself.
A simpleton can fit basic skirting and architrave using mitres and "plain" moulding - the skill comes when fitting compund mitres and scribes to complicated mouldings - did he describe these?
The true answer is that you can fit your own timber interior doors with nothing more complicated tool wise than a saw, plane, a couple of different sized chisels, a 3/4" drill, a small set of screwdrivers, a straight edge and a lot of patience.
As I said, the skill comes in getting to fit properly and if you have a lot of patience and read a good DIY book, the average cheapie internal door is well within the scope of most DIY people.
By the way, I am a time served carpenter (five years apprenticeship in the
60's) I have hung more doors than I can remember and in all sorts of conditions and materials.Brian
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Barb,
The actual job is simple to do. I would suggest around £15 to £50 per door for a builder or self employed carpenter to do - it could be a lot more depending on area, condition of frames etc.
If the frames are in good condition and are reasonably square and not heavily undersized, then a good carpenter should be able to fit the lot in one day (8 - 10 hours).
If you are particularly handy, then I would suggest the reading of a good DIY book (complete with the all important diagrams) will give you a good idea on how to hang an internal door and to cut out for and fix a simple latch.
Brian
PS:
Sorry about the variation in price above but this is purely a guess as I have not seen the actual job.
Yup - especially in a newish house where the opening is square and of a standard size. You can also use the old door as a guide to how it's done - always assuming it was correctly fitted. ;-)
In an empty house with no distractions the time is 8 hours and the latches and handles another 8. (All materials on site and power available.) The second fix prices I last had were:
Hang each door (two hinges) = £10.50 Drill for latches = £4.00 Fit handles and catches etc and make good = £4.75.
You won't get someone to call around, set up and clean up at those prices in the day time but you might get it done piecemeal at nearly those rates if you know someone locally.
The firm sacked me as I was ill but I wouldn't go back there because they were useless. It's no good having fairly good rates and no back up -and their back-up was diabolical. It was near home though.
Pity that.
Had a go at hanging my first internal door today and was pleasently surprised with the result. Getting the door to fit wasn't so much the problem, I used a circular saw and a power planer, the bit that took the time was making the whole for a bathroom lock.
Would definitely say this is a job well within the scope of even a semi-accomplished diyer, although I may hesitate at having a go at a £300 front door.
HTH
Jim
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