I’m hanging a new (old) door in a new (old) wall opening. Wall is plaster on lath. The wall on one side of the vertical jamb is 6-3/4″ thick and by the time I get over to the other side, the wall is 7-1/8″, maybe 7-1/4″ thick.
What does a real carpenter do in this situation?
1. Cut all three jamb legs 7-1/4″ thick and shim the casing trim where needed. I’m adding a back band around the edge of the casing that makes hiding differences easier.
2. Cut one leg of the jamb 6-3/4, cut the other leg 7-1/4, and then taper the top leg of the jamb from 6-3/4 to 7-1/4.
Thanks for the help, folks!
Replies
There is no one way to do this. What a pro would do would depend on whether this is a paint grade or stain grade job, whether one side of the door is jammed into a corner and thus out of sight, out of mind, etc.
A 1/2" is pretty extreme to try to hide with a back band. The best way would be to cut the jambs to fit. I cut them close with a skilsaw and then plane them to fit. For smaller differences on a painted job, you can just leave the casings proud and caulk the gap. You can also sometimes slip a wood filler strip behind the proud casings.
Its a paint grade job. The door is in the middle of the wall, it'll be seen from all sides.
not too long ago we finished up a similar project....what we did was hung the door as plumb as we could, and dealt with the trim on the opening side, but on the side with the stops, we removed them, and replaced them with a wider stop, which we scribed to the wall, and attached or casings to the stops...it looked beautiful...
Option #2 is not an option.
Option #1 is a good option and I have to do it all the time for differences up to 1/8" but your gap is 1/2" so I would go on to option #3.
3. Make the jamb 7-1/4" wide. Hang the door plumb. Add a layer of plaster topping compound around the door using the jamb as a guide. Trim to perfection.
good luck
Here's one for the peanut gallery: What do you do when installing a new exterior door in an old house and the opening isn't flat -- the two vertical jambs aren't parallel?
Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be! --Miguel de Cervantes
Fake it.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
Actually, that sounds like a pretty reasonable way to do that, cut jamb to the widest width and fill out flush with set-type joint compound prior to casing trim... Thanks.
All of the above are do-able. Just depends on the particulars, which one to chose. Mud works OK for narrower trim, but if it's wide and has to lay flat to the wall, I'll sometimes make a custom jambset that matches the wall. The more sever the difference, the more likely a custom jamb is.A custom shim behind the casing on the skinny part of the wall works pretty well for small differences and out-of plumb walls.With and old wall with plaster and lath, there is another option that I will sometimes employ. If the wall and original trim are constructed such that the plaster and lath butt into the trim rather than run behind it, I often install new stuff in the same manner, and you can hide a multitude of sins in the thickness of the lath and plaster.Steve
Door #1
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I've had to do this on restoration/remodeling jobs in old houses where the walls vary by as much as 1/2" from one side to the other. Old plaster walls, not drywall, and no good way to float the walls.
What I've done is to cut the jams to a width that'll work on the narrow side. The casing fits on that side fine. Then, I hog out the back of the other trim pieces (TS and/or planer), leaving only a narrow strip full thickness on the inside edge -- 3/8" or so. Scribe that narrow section to fit to your jambs. That way, the difference is only noticable if you carefully compare the thicknesses of the casing by looking at it from the edges -- pretty subtle.
On one occassion, the wall was so wavy, I ended up cutting a huge groove down the center of the trim so there were strips on both edges, and I scribed the outside edge to fit the wall.
You need to have casing that's pretty thick to do this -- depending on how far out things are, you'll probably need at least 3/4" stock to make this work.
A regular PIA to do, but it looks decent.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA