Problems,renewing internal doors/sizes etc...

[tarquinlinbin]

Hi all,

Our home is about 20 years old and still has the original cheapo sapele print internal doors. We have redecorated and improved the house over the years but have retained these doors. Now it is time for them to go. There are lots of them and it looks like it will be an expensive job. The major problem at the moment is that they seem to be non standard sizes. There are eight doors to be replaced of these two are of one size and seven are of another size.

I have measured as accurately as i can ,the internal aperture of the door frame which should correspond to the size of door required.

Two doors are approx:

80 inches x 32 3/4 inches

The other seven doors are approx

80 inches x 28 3/4 inches

Having looked at a fair few internet sites for door manufacturers including STP,joinery Ltd and a few others including a trip to B & Q ,it is obvious that we have a problem becuase non of the doors listed by any of these suppliers are close to an exact fit.

The problem also is that we want pine panelled doors the two larger ones having glass panels and the seven smaller ones having four wooden panels (no glass)

If we buy oversized doors and cut them down then it seems we will have to cut too much off and there may be insufficient room for the door catch mortice and also the door may look a bit odd/out of proportion.

If we buy doors which are undersized,would i be right in saying that a joiner would add a packing piece to the inner edge of the existing door frame to "pad it out " ?.

I know this is a diy page but i am considering hiring a skilled joiner to do this as i dont have the time to fit all these doors myself!!.

The trouble is finding a good quality skilled joiner,,anyone know one in Stockport or surrounds?. What might it cost per door for fitting??

Thanks for any info

Joe

[BigWallop]

We live in an old tenement and all the doors were weird sizes compared to modern ones, so we had to make our own.

The main panel of the doors is an 18mm sheet of plywood and the we made them into panel effect by gluing 10mm plywood in strips around the edges and across the centre, just like an old panelled door. As you see, they are all

38mm thick and just fitted nicely with the old stops, but they could have been made any thickness really by gluing on thinner strips of ply.

When we had gone out and priced up the job of buying doors of the sizes we needed, we found we would have been paying about three or four times ad much as making our own, so it saved us quite a bit of money. Everyone, including a couple of joiner friends, said they looked great, so we were pleased at how they've turned out. Made to measure, at a quarter of the cost of buying new, and they're easily made solid doors.

Just a suggestion that might be of help.

[Reestit Mutton]

I know of a very good joiner in Edinburgh and he tells me that he can make up a panelled door in a matter of a few hours by using solid core with an appropriate veneer and adding the panelling surrounds on top of this. He tells me that the materials would be about £30-£40 per door and his labour is costed at £12 per hour.

So, if £100 per door is not too expensive for you, you could bespoke exactly the doors you want - good luck with finding a decent joiner though - unfortunately, they don't grow on trees.

RM