When I cut the door.

[Richard]

Last week I hung a new internal door. Had longer and shorter panels. Of course longer panels should be on the upperside and shorter panels towards the lower half when the door is hung.

I had to cut about 15-20mm (from memory) off from length. I sawed the end on the longer panel side of the door.

Problem occured: Basically I cut out the wood on the end. I had to glue it back in. Why was the amount I could cut away from the end of the door so small before I cut out the wood end? Should I have been cutting the bottom of the door?

[Jeff Gaines]

I hung mine with the smaller panels at the top, they're the same here in my current flat.

You got pressed hardboard doors, they only have a thin frame all round.

[John MacLeod]

You normally expect the deeper rail to be on the lower edge of the door. After all, that's where shortening must often be done years after the initial installation due to changes in floor covering etc. And if the door were a genuine four or six panel door, the exposed bottom rail has got to be deeper for aesthetic purposes, otherwise the door would look top-heavy.

I'm not sure what you mean when you describe it as having panels but then go on to say that you cut out the wood on the end. I assume you must be referring to a psuedo-panelled door with moulded hardboard "panels". Such a door might well have a top "rail" only about an inch deep. These doors rely for their strength on the glue bond between the covering and the "frame". Having said all that, even the bottom rail isn't all that deep on some of those doors and it's very normal to glue in a replacement rail when a door is significantly shortened.

[MM]

I've just checked my doors and this is indeed the case.

But why? I have never noticed this before! Is this a rule of carpentry?

MM

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not the usual way. The lock and handle goes midway between the panels, and that would situate it much higher than the norm.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's more normal to trim the door equally all round.

[Jeff Gaines]

I'll have to keep an eye out, don't remember ever seeing one with small panels at the bottom.

[John MacLeod]

Handles should come readily to hand. In a traditional door the middle rail was at a level where a lock with a considerable backset could be mounted.

Handle heights (if we can ignore the fashion of the 1930s for high-set handles) tell you something about the average height of people at the time of construction of the building -- Georgian and even Victorian handles were rather lower.

In Andrew Carnegie's Skibo Castle, all the internal doors are constructed so that the middle rail is lower than average -- he was a very short and and wanted the handles at a convenient height for him.

[Jeff Gaines]

That's interesting. I have now noticed that my kitchen ad bedroom doors have the longer panels at the top, I have to reach down to the handles. The lounge and front door have the long panels at the bottom which puts the handles at a comfortable height for me.

[Tinkerer]

Am I misunderstanding the descriptions. My parents house was built in the

1930's and all doors had the large square panel at the top and the three long panels below. The door handles were approx one third of the way down from the top as per the one in the top right picture on this site.

[soup]

Probably the same idea as the hinges not being the same distance from top or bottom, As looking down foreshortens the distance perceived. So the lower hinge is, say, 9" from the bottom while the top hinge is , say, 6" from the top.

[Dave Liquorice]

panels

The handle isn't in the middle, they are nearer the bottom than the top. There will be a larger lump of wood to take the handle/lock/latch mechanisium.

[Dave Liquorice]

Yep, the house I was born and dragged up in had doors like that but that isn't a modern style. Modern four panel doors have long/short panels and it would be normal to have the long panel to the top.

Almost willing to put money on there being a BR about handle heights that those 1930's doors wouldn't pass.

[The Medway Handyman]

Yup.

You bought cheap moulded doors. You can only trim around 4 - 5 mm off the ends & less off the sides. The door is a thinf timber frame covered in MDF.

IME by cutting 20mm off you have cut the frame away.

One of many reasons I won't hang cheap s**te doors.

[The Medway Handyman]

If you look in any door catalouge you always see them with the small panels at the bottom.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Think they may well have been the other way round in some pre WW2 houses. To keep the handles inaccessible to small kids?

[Weatherlawyer]

I believe the style was taken up by Nash if he was not the original designer. Which panel is which is a matter of taste though his doors were hung large panel down. It thus fitted into Regency styles where the largest windows were on the bottom, the next largest ones in the master's family's bedrooms and tiny, useless ones in the servant's quarters.

The tell tale is the width of the rails. The bottom rail is wider than the top rail, (hence the hinge settings of 9 up and 6 or 7 down.) Also on the top rail you have the instructions for the locking side if there is one.

Some doors can be locked/hung either edge.

If the door is too wide to permit planing down the finished edge, cut a wider strip off. Cut the finish stip off, then the waste required and then replace the finished edge with glue and nails.

Don't forget to allow for the furniture if using nails.