Hanging a reclaimed front door (on opposite side!)

[Ben Micklem]

I'm looking for a reclaimed 1930's panelled front door (three tall below, glazed above), and the one we've chosen is unfortunately cut for hinges and locks on the wrong sides.

It has a mortis lock (with both ordinary bolt and deadbolt, so quite a chunk removed from the door), and a Yale-style rim lock. The mortis is mounted at the same level as the cross beam below the glass.

How compromised would the strength of such a door be if I were to slot a piece of wood into where the mortis lock was (screwed in place maybe?), fill the old rim lock hole and hinge slots, and hang on the side where the old locks were? I was planning on having just a good rim lock on the new side (e.g. Yale XBS2).

Or should I keep looking until I find a door hung the right way (which never seems to be the case with doors which will fit our frame!).

Thanks,

Ben

[Chris Bacon]

Is an old door much cheaper than a new one? There are lots of designs for new doors, including traditional ones.

Ah. A dead bold. That explains the "mortis".

Locks shouldn't really be put there. You could dowel the rail, and use polyester filler to glue the lot together, I suppose, but you're always going to see a trace of where you've filled, whatever you use. It'd be OK, I'm sure - you should use a pair and a half of hinges, you could use two pairs...

Depends on what *you* want!

[Ben Micklem]

in article 43feeaaf$ [e-mail], Chris Bacon at [e-mail] wrote on 24/2/06 11:11:

Thanks for your post. Unfortunately, new ones don't quite fit the style I'm after (1930's doors look a bit down-market compared to Victorian ones, in most peoples' eyes). The only new door I could find with the panel arrangement that would suit was priced over £400, unglazed. A 1930's one with nice original leaded panel can be had for £250, and fits style of house better- and is less likely to warp. But its probably weaker, if I have to bodge one that has been hung the other way...

[Fitz]

What proportion split between glass and panel is it. If about

60(panel):40(glass) and the glass is divided into 6 panes then that's exactly what was fitted as original on the 1930's houses in our road. We found a new door that matched this made from hemlock which is a hard wood apparently - can't say I'd ever heard of it before buying the door. We got ours from Howarth Timber in York (they have branches all over the place), but as you don't say where you are that may not be very useful. Probably worth noting it was made by another company and sold on by Howarths so other suppliers may also sell them. Cost about =A390 delivered - unglazed, unpainted. The glass was about... err I can't remember actually but it was laminated and not much at all. It needed painting in our opinion (varnish would have been doable but not ideal).

To be honest I'm not sure how strong most doors are anyway. One heft of the old battering ram by the police sees most frames split even if the door stays intact. So the question is what level of attack do you want to protect against? I think the simple answer is that yes - removing part of the body of the door will compromise the strength but whether that actually matters is another question?

--=20 Steve F

[Chris Bacon]

It probably won't be a problem, especially if you hang it using two pairs of hinges for extra strength, if you're worried, that's what I'd do...

[Rob Morley]

My front door is a similar construction and the cross-piece has a double tenon - if yours is the same then the lock mortice probably won't have removed much of the joint and simply gluing in a snug-fitting piece of wood will restore most of the structure. Similarly fill the hinge rebates by gluing in bits of wood after cleaning up the surfaces with a chisel.

[Mary Fisher]

We changed several of the doors (just like yours) in our house to hang from the other side. We simply turned them the other way round, since they were the same 'back' and 'front', the strength wasn't compromised at all.

Holes were made good and painted, new mortices made..

Sorted!

Mary

[meow2222]

This should sort you out: