After reading this months article on interior door install I agreed with most of it and liked the hinge adjustment trick. One step that I do differently is the step for lowering the catch side. This came into play on a renovation I am wrapping up right now with 18 interior doors . I make a level line across the jamb and measure the distance down on either side and trim the jamb accordingly prior to install. On this job there are four doors right down the hall as you walk in also , in that case I draw 1 long level line as a guide to make sure all the door head jambs and trim are aligned as you look down the hall. I start were the number down to the floor is the largest so I don,t come up short in the end.
Replies
How many times have I seen uneven head casings..........
And the main killer are entry doors and those ever lovin patio doors.
On some patio doors, if you want the exterior heads to line up, you're doomed on the inside. Almost similarly are entry doors (which often set the ht. of the windows. With the integral stops, the inside casings are automatically dropped down. Great place for a small extension jamb to help bring the head casings into line.
I think patio doors shrunk. I took out the original 1963 door and replaced it with a new Andersen Frenchwood 400. The R/O was an inch short
Are you saying the new door was too tall or short?
In those early days (man, sounds haunting to say that) all those aluminum doors had a shorter opening than the newer versions coming out. To compensate, most manufacturers had a line of 'shorter' doors along with their new construction models. If you didn't find the shorter door, you were redoing or hogging out the headers.
I thought they were still offering the shorter models.
or was your old door taller?
I've come to having a couple of offerings ready for the "I want a new patio door" people. Same goes with entry doors. Never remember which, but for example-Therma Tru and Masonite have one r.o. maybe a half inch shorter than the other. Comes in handy when that half inch is critical.
The new door was 1" shorter
The new door was 1" shorter in height. The width was the same. I ended up with two obvious choices and the 3d option that I took.
I could have bucked it down, lowered the casing, ending up with a drywall patch and uneven "tops".
I could have raised the threshold and had a "step over" that I did not want so I scabbed an extra inch on the door and ended up with a gap in the side rails I could live with. My son in law is over 6'6 so the extra height was a good thing.
While I was at it Iowered the already too high threshold and actually added about 2" to the door.
Everything is red oak so it was easy to match and it would take an Andersen rep to really tell the difference.
Always something............
The ability to think on the fly is the mark of a good remodeler.
I've never added I don't think, but I've subtracted.
Pella big slider-3 panel, prob. 10 - 12'........took the operating door out and "trimmed the top so the sagging and binding header would alllow it to travel and make opening it a possibility. Barely got it out, hard to handle that thing by myself on the concrete step down, but took some off, re-grooved if it was and managed to make it work like new.
whew.