Adding to height of interior door. How?
I wondered what would be the best way to add about an inch or two to the top of an interior door.
Here’s why. Through the years previous owners had cut a door along the top due to settling in the house (currently the house is level though). The door now has a slope of about one inch over the 28 inch width. I have remodeled a room, and moved the door. I built a new jamb, and have hung the door. Unfortunately my jamb is level and plumb while the door still is crooked along the top.
I want to keep the existing door due to it matching all of my other doors. I like them, and don’t want any new ones. They are frame and panel type with a single plywood panel.
I can’t just trim off the top and leave it at that. I’m tall, and the clearance is an issue. Also, proportions of the frame parts would look goofy.
Id like to add around an inch or two to the top. Can this be done practically?
My first thought is to cut the top square, then biscuit or dowel a piece of wood across the top. The only problem is that I worry that expansion and contraction of the door with the different grain directions would not work permanently.
Has anybody done this? or able to recommend the best procedure?
Thanks.
Replies
I have done it. I was also worried about the shrinkage, so I biscuited on three pieces - two vertical for the rails and a horizontal one for the top stile.
Still invisible under paint 15 years later.
Forrest
Cool. I was wondering about doing it that way. That's all I needed to hear.
I do it regularly and have never had a problem with painted dooors.
Use good glue, fine grained dry wood and paint/seal it a soon as you sand the surface flush. Sometimes a coat of bondo along the seam first
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I add on to doors in the above manner all the time. Just make your cuts true, biscuit or even screw the piece on with plenty of glue and sand flat. Before the final sand fill the seams like Piffin said.
It'll be fine.