I’m remodeling my kitchen, including nice cherry interior doors. The existing door to the garage is painted steel (and the wrong style). Custom-made wood fire doors are surprisingly expensive, so I was thinking about overlaying some thin (7/32?) cherry plywood on the inside of the door. The door swings in, so jamb clearance won’t be a problem.
Will this work? What’s the best glue to use (that won’t come off with normal temperature swings)?
Replies
Contact cement should do the job but you may want to inquire about what are called door skins they are meant to ovey lay worn flat slab wood doors. Can not rember ythe thickness they come in but are about 38"x 82".
Wallyo
Iron on veneer would work as well, the hotmelt adhesive is pretty sticky stuff.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
Good point Sphere a cherry door skin would be harder to find birch, mahogany, oak easier.Me I'd go the cheap route birch and stain it to match the cherry.Wallyo
I've used 1/4" cabinet plywood for this - never on metal though, so don't know about the glue.
Forrest
I had the same problem. My solution was to build the front 3/8" or so of a true frame-and-panel door, and glue it to the steel door. The rails and stiles are glued to the steel with epoxy, and the raised panels float, just like in a standard door. On mine, the door swings out into the garage, so I needed to deal with weatherstripping. The door skin doesn't run quite to the edges of the door, so that the existing magnetic weaterstripping still works. I added new jamb facing on top of the old door-stop molding, so it covers the old weatherstrip.
I have laminated a lot of Formica to steel doors. This is practically the same as what you are proposing to do. The big issue is cleanliness of the steel door. I wash the surface with Paint Thinner, then sand and steel wool the area so the glue has something to stick to ( tooth ). I then wash the door again with alcohol and let it dry. I then use contact cement. Jay
Contact cement and a door skin.