set prehung doors with variable subfloor
Hi Everyone.
I am hanging prehung doors. This house is my 4th rehab but the first time I have three different floor conditions in close proximity in a small hall leading to the Master suite – naked plywood subfloor, 3/4″ hardwood floor, 1 3/8″ Durock with mortar bed for radiant heat and tile). I ran the hardwood and mortar subfloor conditions through the ROs, and the plywood subfloor will have carpet and pad. To compound, there are similar situations throughout this floor, and I would like to have all the door heads at the same height since they have transoms above and misalignment will be very apparent. The problem is if I use the plywood subfloor condition as baseline, I set only 2 doors this way, then have to trim either 3/4 or 1 3/8″ off of six other doors and jambs, 2 of which are doubles, all solid core (poor me). If I use the 1 3/8″ (or 3/4″) high subfloor as baseline, I end up with a gap to fill under the jambs of the other doors. What do any of you experts do in a situation like this? PS, the mortar and hardwood are already in. Thanks…
Replies
To summarize, it sounds like there is too much height diffenece between rooms for a consistant setting height. And it sounds like you're trying to put standard doors in a non-standard r.o.. Thus the problem. If you hang them all high to get over the 1 3/8 tile floor, all the rest will have gaps under the door (the jamb could be filled in). But if you hang them low to be good for the low floor you need to cut down the others. That said, I think it is going to be less obvious (albeit more work ) to cut down the doors to the high floor.
It's a shame it wasn't thought about till now!!!
Yessir. When I think about it, though, all I could have done different would be to set all the doors before the hardwood and tile substrate, but I still would have needed to trim the doors, plus the tile setter and wood floor installer would have had a little nasty detail to deal with. Thank you for helping me think it through!
As a flooring installer, we get this all the time and it isn't as nasty as you think. We all have jamb saws to cut thru jambs, casing, etc.
JOATMOS,
This isn't the end of the world. I usually hang doors in a carpeted area by resting the Hinge Side Jamb on the thick end of a shim. Then I hang the door to be plumb and square and have an even reveal.
You don't have to have even reveals under each door. I normally leave a larger gap between the door and carpet than I do the door and hard wood.
Second, since you'll be hanging these doors over hardwood and tile you'll most likely need to cut the jambs at least anyway.
Here is what I would do. I would hang one of the doors in the carpeted floor area and maybe cheat it up 1/8 or so more than I usually do. Then, off of that jamb head I would level all the way around to the other doors, use a laser or a builders level or a plain old level if you want. Once you establish that line, you canuse it to measure the lengths of all of the jamb legs to follow.
Now, here is the next step. Once you mark the jamb legs, you can use that mark to figure out if and where you need to cut the door itself.
Since most doors that get hung over hardwood or Tile need the jambs cut anyway, it really won't be much more work. Plus, if you adjust the space between the door bottom and the carpet up a tiny bit and adjust the space between the door bottom and hardwood/tile down a little you may get away with only cutting one or two doors.
Either way, any effort expended on not cuttng the doors will most likely equal the effort to just cut them.
Now that was very helpful. Thank you.
no big deal ... done all the time ..
and Yes ... the heads should line up.
without reading back thru your list ... pick the one that'll set the doors at the "tallest" height while having a good bottom reveal.
Then ... match the heads ... and cut the others.
cutting down doors are a fact of life. Just do it.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa