I have a small old stone outbuilding in the garden which I am slowly making warm and dry. It might be used as an office, or a workshop or a teenagers' vice den. The door is a rotten old ill fitting ledge and brace affair which I want to retain so the outside is unchanged. I want to hang a second, inward opening door on the inside of the door frame which will be draught proof, well insulated for sound and heat and let in the maximum of light so I can open the outer door and get the light through the inner door.
So I need a simple, modern, single pane, double glazed odd size door to go in an existing wood frame. I know about joinery and one option is to make a plain wooden door, but I don't know about aluminium, upvc, or even plain glass. What are the alternatives to wood?
It's easy enough to get an aluminium or uPVC door made up to your own dimensions, but these would normally come complete with a frame designed to fit into an aperture in brickwork. A uPVC frame - in particular - needs to be firmly attached to brickwork to give it the necessary rigidity. I don't think that you can easily fit aluminium or uPVC doors into an existing wooden frame.
I don't quite understand how your suggestion is going to work anyway. How deep is the frame - is there room for *another* door in addition to the existing one? Are the doors going to be virtually touching each other? What about space for handles/knobs etc. (i.e. inner handle on existing door and outer handle on new door)?
They have to fit. They're normally designed to replace the wooden frame, so they're now going to need to be a couple of inches smaller all round. Made to measure isn't a problem, but I always like to recycle for sheds (i.e. skip-dive!)
The frame they're attached to has to be rigid, certainly for uPVC, especially if they're three-point locking. uPVC is quite flexible, yet it's designed to fit very precisely with tiny clearance, so any flex in the supporting frame causes trouble with jamming and locks that won't. Wooden frames are OK, but not rotten wooden frames, or small, loose screws.
On the whole, I'd probably take the existing door off, repair it, replace the existing frame if it's less than perfect, and then replace the original and refurbished door.
Refurbishment is likely to involve screwing every board to the bracing, rather than relying on nails (nails flex). You can also hang PIR insulation on the inside, which will still be less obvious than a second door. The new frame can either have deep rebates, or else new strips nailed to the old frame for the same effect, and a foam rubber compression gasket for draughtproofing. You can also refurb the bottom edge - my shed door (similar construction) used to have a half inch gap, probably for draining the shed. The floor inside was an inch or two higher. It still has the old gap at the bottom of the boards above the outside yard, but it now has another brace inside, with a brush draught seal in it that seats on the floor (or you could add a raised threshold strip).
Thanks, I wondered if that might be so. I could attach an alu frame inside the existing.
The existing timber door frame is 3" x 5" softwood in good shape, so yes there is just enough space, I might need to add a bit to it and I will need to make sure the handles don't clash.
They have to fit. They're normally designed to replace the wooden frame, so they're now going to need to be a couple of inches smaller all round. Made to measure isn't a problem, but I always like to recycle for sheds (i.e. skip-dive!)
That's interesting, ta. Given the existing frame is sound and is a full 3" thick (eg 3x5 timber hand planed one side) could I attach a new alu door frame to the inside face of it? I wouldn't want to reduce the opening. It is
33" in the rebates now so I would have trouble getting furniture in there if it is cut down to 28"ish.
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