Masonite solid core (safe-n-sound) door, ordered at 2/5 x 6/8. Supplier’s door shop made it by ripsawing 1/2″ from each stile edge. Problem occured when mounting hinges and lockset . . . hardly anything left to screw to.
But we got it up OK. Fudged in some reinforcement, used special fasteners for the hardware. This evening, working late, an electrician tripped approaching the doorway, and went through the door, wrecking it.
There will be a brand new door, paid for by the sparkies. But this time I want it made right.
Door shop should have been capable of sawing out the stiles, letting in new full size stiles, 1/2″ inset, glueing and clamping, then resizing door w/ bevels, machining for hardware, repriming edges. I have seen re-rails done in good door shops on steel and fiberglass doors, an operation that requires even greater precision.
What has been your experience with 1″ undersized (width) hardboard-faced doors?
Replies
"paid for by the sparkies."
Would the door have been damaged if the door was made right in the first place.
I wasn't there, but the guy who did the trip and lunge and fall, told me it was a pretty violent hit the door got. I can't answer your question, but I know that even with a "full size" stile, the hinge screws are only going into a net remaining thickness of about 5/8" of fingerjointed softwood.
His slam lunge was against the hinge edge of a fully opened door, and thus stressed all the hinge screws in almost a straight-pullout mode.
Why are you using such cheesey doors? This in your spec house?
If it's a solid core door Masonite solid core (safe-n-sound) door, why aren't the screws into something solid?
What has been your experience with ..........hardboard-faced doors?
Crap. Cheap crap.
Joe H
man micro, your luck just keeps deteriorating. Don't bother with lottery tickets. And bet on the Yankees again this year. Better luck on the next one.Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Helped a friend hang three Masonite hollowcore slabs last week for his daughter. They were so cheap, the sandwhiched support on the edges were a compressed paper-like product. When I left I told him to go back and replace each hinge screw with something about 1.5 inch long, cause the stock screws that came with the hinges probably won't last long. The only wooden part of the whole door was a wafer of chipboard where the lockset is bored, and it stops about an inch from the edge.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
1" undersized is bad news the right thing to order is a 2/4 door with an inch glued on the hinge side then sanded or routed smooth and use longer screws that go through the added chunk, once you paint it'll be fine.
...............Rik..........
It wasn't a masonite door, but I once dealt with similar by ripping all off one edge of a hollow core, pulling out remaining bits of f-j crap and cardboard, ripping a solid piece of fir to fit back in, glueing and clamping it, etc. Worked fine, but it took some time.
Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.
"Masonite solid core door...."
How can this door be solid and not have any wood in it for the screws to bite into? This door is a hollow core cheapie. BTW, right now at my local Home Depot, all Masonite (6 panel colonial style) hollow core doors are on sale for $25 each; nomatter what size ( from 24inch to 36 inch) and nomatter what type (pre-hung slabs to bifolds with track hardware).
If you had bought a true solid core door, ripping 1/2 inch off each style from a 30 inch wide door would not have had any effect on your screw's holding power. Masonite does make a white pine, solid core door...price for a 30 incher is only $65. Well worth paying the additional $40 and get something you can actually work with.
Davo
It wasn't a "solid core" model, but instead a "Safe-N-Sound" one. FJ pine stiles and rails, a particleboard lock block, and a core of "variable density fiber." The core is an arrangement of light density wood fiber, with some binder stock mixed in, that goes into a heat press and is given the shape of the core, with panel molding embossed in.
I just need to find a good door shop that can restile one of these. It is done all the time in the door shops that serve the architectural and commercial market.
I installed 5,6 panel,masonite covered,solidcore,in my house about 4 years ago.Kept the old wood jambs and trashed the old luan hollow cores,got new blanks.
After I mortised the butts on the door,I glued in wood pegs on all the screw holes,(used a heavy duty hot glue)So the screws would grab some meat.
With 3 teens in the house, slamming and bashing doors every time they don't get their way,the doors are still true.
They paint-up really nice too.
Spoke to the boss in the door shop that made this door originally. He apologised for taking the short cut and just side-ripping the door originally, instead of doing a compete re-stile. Says he has the right equipment to restile, and has done it before with success.
So, my replacement door to solve the wreck will be at the yard tomorrow. Good deal!
Fortunately, none of the nearby millwork took any damage. Just the door slab, where its flimsy hinge stile separated. The new one will have full 5/4 depth on both stiles. We will have it repainted and installed by the weekend. My electrical sub will have the bills early next week, to take off his next progress payment request.
Those of you that wrote and condemned hardboard-faced doors are correct, in that they are junk, if hollow-core. The solid core ones and the Safe'nSound models are pretty good, however. On a painted job, I would use them every time. They have all the heft and feel of a solid wood door, take finish excellently, and are more dimensionally stable as moisture levels change with seasons and conditions. They cannot exhibit panel shrinkage as wood doors can, and they are every bit as repairable as wood doors if gouged or dented.
Get a high-end satin-smooth spraypaint job done on a "solid wood" six panel, and I'll bet your painter will put more materials and time into it than he will in providing the same end result on an embossed hardboard door with a solid core. Put them side by side in adjacent openings, open them and swing them, then snick 'em shut with their hardware.
Have you chosen, ever, to put a paneled steel-faced door on the outside of a house you have built? How about a fiberglass one? If so, then let me ask why you did not use wood.
Many wood doors today are "engineered" assemblies of thin veneers over particleboard, with 3/8" stile facings. Even most "solid pine" doors have the stiles and rails made up of stave-core with veneer facings. Wood doors ain't what they used to be. Really, wood ain't what it used to be, either.
Staining and clearcoating? That's different. Only real wood will do, inside OR outside.