Replacing Hollow doors with solid wood doors????

[steve]

Can I hang a new solid wood door in the existing hollow door jamb?

I have to replace a broken hollow door and I saw a 6 panel door at HD for $60. not as smooth a finish as the $170 door but good enough to be painted. I'm considering replaceing all the bedroom doors with the solid wood doors.

HOW WOULD I ALIGN THE HINGES on the new door and the old Jamb????

ps. I had tried to fix the old hollow door by filling the loose hinge holes and redrilling and remounting the hinges. I screwed it up and the door doesnt close right. It binds. I realize I should have repaired one hole in the hinge at a time and used the others to maintan alignment. This door also is cracked so I want to replace it.

Thanks for any info.

Steve

[cm]

Steve,

Here is what we do when replacing a door.

1. With the hinge still on the old door scribe a line on the hinge at the edge of the door - right where the hinge over hangs the edge of the door. This will be your guide for hinge placement on the new door.

1. Lay the new door next to the old door - top to top, hinge side to hinge side, etc. Use a square and pencil to transfer the top and bottom locations of each hinge to the new door.

2. Now take the hinge you scribed the line on from step one and lay it between the lines you transfered from the old door. Slide the hinge back so the line you scribed on the hinge is even with the edge of the door and trace the outline of the hinge on the door with your pencil.

This will give you the proper hinge placement with no measuring. It is a very simple process that I teach all my guys.

You will also have to cut the door to the same size as the old one. The striker edge of the door should be slightly beveled.

Hope this helps,

AZCRAIG

[willshak]

On 11/21/2004 8:31 AM US(ET), cm took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

What a coinkidink with your site... I just saw a program on the History Channel (?) yesterday about antique and custom made travel trailers. They had a segment about those teardrop trailers.

[Chief Ahole]

You might run into a problem where the new solid door is a 2 heavy for the exisiting jamb. You could reinforce at the hinge if its a problem.

"I'm back and bad as ever" :)

[Childfree Scott]

Use the old door as a template for where to put the hinges on the new door. If your going to get new "solid" doors (actually solid particleboard on the inside, but still way better than a hollow door) then consider staining and varnishing instead of painting.

Check out this web page wth a how to including pics (uses a router to mortise the hinge):

You should learn something from that webpage.

[George E. Cawthon]

I also would have concerns if the new is heavy. A solid panel door may be ok but a smooth solid core would definitely be too heavy for 2 hinges. In any case with a solid panel door I would use three hinges.

The third hinge would go between the other two, but could look a bit funny depending on the original placement of the two hinges.

[Childfree Scott]

My house has solid wood interior doors (oak, I think). All of them have only two hinges and have been in place since 1950 with what looks like the original hinges. Exactly why do I need 3 hinges on these interior doors?