Seeing the German carpenter’s post made me recall how most of the Europeans do doors differently than we.
When I was in the door biz, I traveled to Europe’s biannual Bau trade show, just to see how they went about with product design and business. When in Munich, the show is held at the fair grounds, the Messegelande, and the displays fill more than 15 large connected buildings.
If you’ve been to Europe, and noticed doors, you know what I mean. Very well detailed, with excellent fit and finish, the doors are edge-rebated to mate with rebated frames. Typical hardware is quite high end, as compared with the softsteel stamped and rolled hinges (most all Chinese-made) and cheap latchsets seen in many US homes.
Exterior doors are usually made in the 2-1/4″ and thicker range, and are double-rebated. Most are outfitted with heavy-duty multi-point latching. Deadbolt keyholes are up at eye level, which, when you think about it, makes more sense than down below your waist, especially when coming home in the dark.
Prehung doors, while taking hold in some areas on a very small scale, generally do not exist. Carpenters build door frames, and hang the doors, all on site. Exterior door frames look like single- or double-rebated 4x4s.
What I always found entertaining was how wildly modern many of the door styles are, all over Europe. While “old world style” seems to have a cachet here in the US (and I’m not really sure what epoch or region is meant by that), the euros seem to want high style. Strange, how conservative us new-worlders have become in our housing tastes.
Replies
Gene,
Do you have a link or pic of what they look like?
-zen
No, but if you can navigate in German, try "Turen." It is "doors" in Deutchland-speak.
Edit: I had some extra time before my departure, so I Googled "Turen" and got this site. I am sure there are others. http://www.portas.com/hausturen/index.jsp;jsessionid=aWqRktRosOG9
I didn't dig into the pages much, but you can see some of the modern styling, I'm sure.
These guys don't show the lock up high as I saw on many other entrances. Don't know why.
Because many entrance doors in Europe are right on the street, most doors don't have a latch like we do in the US, where a turn of the handle or lever can open an unlocked door. They just keep them locked there, and the key is always used for entering. Thus when you look at the entry doors at this site, you'll see a keyway piece, and a pull handle of some type, but typically no latch or knob to turn.
Edited 5/13/2005 8:21 am ET by Gene Davis
Yeah, carpenter that I am, on my Grand Tour I noticed the doors! Not a six-panel door to be seen, and flush doors, which basically look like the cheap hollow core doors here, are made with beautiful wood with a great finish and work flawlessly.
I've wondered about replicating the look over here by applying a 1/2" plywood panel to the face of a conventional door, overhanging the jamb for the double-rabbeted look.
Mike