French Door with side lights install question

Installed a French Door where a window use to be. It has side lights that open. The Double Doors are fitting tight the side lights are fitting just right. Have done all the necessary shimming and everything is level and plum. Not sure how I can get the gap between doors to open. The jams on either side of doors are fixed and changing the shims would not effect the inside doors. These are steel doors, wondering if planing is the only option?

Would ask this question in one of the home repair of house fixit sites but those folks are usually a-holes. Thanks for any advice Rich

Reply to
Rich
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Planing a steel door...? Do you mean it's a wood cored door with steel skins? If there's exposed wood on the edges of the door, you could plane it down, but you can't plane down a steel, hollow-core door. You could grind it down, but that would likely make the door a mess.

If the doors were a prehung unit, then there's something wrong with the installation and by _far_ the easiest thing to do is to pull the unit and reinstall it.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Its wood core on the edges, foam with steel skin. Can't see an install problem. 1/4" gaps on the jams to studs, shimed and all level. I'll have to take a closer look at it today. Side light doors fit perfectly on both sides.

Reply to
Rich

Did you install with the doors still in place? You can open up a whole can of alignment worms if you remove the door/doors prior to attaching the unit in place.

If all else fails you might try cutting the hinge mortises a bit deeper.

Reply to
Leon

No, installed unit with doors in place. There is wood to plane but only want to use that option if all else fails.

Reply to
Rich

Look to see if the frame next to the door is parallel or warped. IOW is it tight for the full length? or just in certain spots.

I would suspect you installed your wedges too tight or the unit was warped to begin with and you shimmed it in that way. Now the mounting screws didn't pull the frame back to correct.

For small amounts shave the wood edges but a new door shouldn't need this. Look again and you should find it after a night's think.

"Rich" wrote in message news:igshnc$du2$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org... Its wood core on the edges, foam with steel skin. Can't see an install problem. 1/4" gaps on the jams to studs, shimed and all level. I'll have to take a closer look at it today. Side light doors fit perfectly on both sides.

Reply to
Josepi

Where exactly is it binding, and how much would it need to be planed? Hold a square in the top corners of the door opening against the jambs and see if there's some creep there. The threshold was part of the unit when installed, right?

You said everything was level and plumb, but you didn't mention square, which is critical. What are the diagonal measurements of the door opening? They need to be the same for it to be perfectly square.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Was the rough opening at least that specced for the door?

Reply to
dadiOH

Right. biding at the top. Probably about 1/16" These units are installed with staples and I know have a tendency to loosen. But that should effect the side light doors and they are fine. Leaving in a few and will check square at top of jam.

Did the Diagonal, both equal.

Reply to
Rich

about a foot above the deadbolt to the top.

Loosened the top screws and shims on both side of the top and middle. But not sure that would have any effect since there are side light doors and the shimming would change those gaps not necessarily the middle french doors.

Reply to
Rich

Yes I've installed many doors. This is the first French with side light doors that open with screens I've installed.

Reply to
Rich

They sidelights are not a problem and since they're narrower any misalignment would have less of an effect. Forget about them.

Prehung doors are banged out in a production line and often have miscut hinge gains, stripped screws and other avoidable defects. If you did not check the operation of the door before installation, and verify the squareness and such, doing so after it's installed is a bit late in the game. It's entirely possible that the door was defective when you got it.

Plane the edge, it's only 1/16" and that is what it's there for.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

All suggestions, so for, are pretty good. I would add, also, were the doors finished or unfinished? Maybe some moisture got into the wood and the doors expanded a little. If this may be an element of the problem, then allowing the doors to dry, then seal, may help. Make surer the edges of the doors are sealed, also, not just the interior/ exterior faces.... albeit/them steel clad.

Otherwise, I'm thinking, plane whichever edges you can.

Sonny

Reply to
Sonny

Where are they fitting tightly? Sides or top/bottom? Have you waxed or siliconed the rubber yet? Have you made sure that you aren't bowing the frame in with shims? (This is far too easy to do. DAMHIKT) Are both doors tight separately, or just together? Are you sure that the frame isn't skewed in the opening (rhombus), which would make one doors bind on the top and the other bind on the bottom? (and probably the sidelights, too.)

Steel doesn't plane easily, of which I'm sure you're aware.

Hey, we can be, too. That's plumb and jamb, for next time. ;)

-- Threee days before Tucson, Howard Dean explained that the tea party movement is "the last gasp of the generation that has trouble with diversity." Rising to the challenge of lowering his reputation and the tone of public discourse, Dean smeared tea partiers as racists: They oppose Obama's agenda, Obama is African-American, ergo...

Let us hope that Dean is the last gasp of the generation of liberals whose default position in any argument is to indict opponents as racists. This McCarthyism of the left

-- devoid of intellectual content, unsupported by data -- is a mental tic, not an idea but a tactic for avoiding engagement with ideas. It expresses limitless contempt for the American people, who have reciprocated by reducing liberalism to its current characteristics of electoral weakness and bad sociology. --George Will 14 JAN 2011 Article titled "Tragedies often spark plenty of analysis"

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Just belt sanded the trouble area after trying a few tweaks. All is well and customer happy. I agree with your above signature.

Reply to
Rich

Just took a belt sander to the trouble area, my plane in the truck needs sharping. Its basically useless. All is fine and customer is happy. I don't like doing that but I spent to much time trying to tweak it and whatever I tried went for not.

I don't like messing with those doors to much because they are pretty flimsy. I move the doors to the location then take off all the crappy packing straps,blocks,and crating material. Don't trust those staples. Have had to remove them when the idiot or machine missed.

Thanks for the advice.

Reply to
Rich

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a picture of the French Door Installed that I had some question on. Everything went fine, had to shave down one doors upper corner a bit. The House is not all plumb but what house is? That was a bit of a problem to, getting the doors to set together on the same plane. Customer is happy. But the drywall R&R should be fun. This job was a result of water damage. Rain in Southern California 3 weeks ago. When we were getting 4" a day for a week.

Reply to
Rich

Don't forget to plane the edge at a little angle (bevel) on the movable door that closes last. That way, it will still close, but the gap will be small at close.

Reply to
Morgans

The last batch of pre hung interior doors I got (for my student built house project) was of such poor quality workmanship, that we will probably hang our own door slabs and trim them.

Anyone else notice that, lately?

Reply to
Morgans

Lately....? Try for years. It's like they take the trained monkeys that finished at the bottom of the class at Monkey Training School. Correcting a badly hung prehung takes longer than hanging a slab and you still end up with an inferior end result.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

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