Because of the slope of the ceiling, we have several closets that have door openings that will be shorter than the usual RO by at least 4″. They are closets, do it doesn’t matter that they are a little short – but I’m trying to figure out the best solution so I don’t think we can cut 4″ off the bottom of a standard, pre-hung door.
I thought about using solid, slab doors. But, all the other doors in the house are two panel. It seems like the slab doors would look out of place. We haven’t looked into it yet, but the carpenter thought custom ordering short doors would be ridiculously expensive.
Any ideas on a solution? I thought of maybe using slab doors, and then later trying to “dress them up” with some molding. Of course, they’d still look different than the other doors.
Replies
use soild wood two panel and cut the top amd bottom...
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But you can't cut the top on a pre-hung door, right? Well, I guess you could do it carefully so that you can put the top casing back on.
you most certainly can....
cut the jamb too....
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I'd take about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2" net max off the top and the rest that you need off the bottom....
remake the jamb to fit...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Thats what I do. If you took all four inches off the top of the door, it would look stupid.
Its not a big deal disassembling the jamb to adjust that height either.
Are these flat luan doors or like a six panel hollow core or what kind of door. To get it to look right if I need to cut a lot off a door Ill try to do it so the proportions on the top and bottom are the same. Like maybe 1" off the top and 3" off the bottom. you can pop the door stop off and reattach it when your done. On hollow core you need to take the solid bottom and top pieces and run them through the table say to take the luan part off the piece then glue and clamp it back in. usually cut the door first then cut the jambs to fit don't forget to leave the sides long enough on the top to nail into through the sides into the top jamb.
by the time your done its almost the same amount of time to just make your own jams and router the hinges, etc.... either way its just a little more farting around but it can still be easily done. If you just cut off the bottom even if the door is flat it still looks funny because the bottom hinge ends up closer to the floor than the top hinge is to the top.
make a filler to replace the door's rails...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Or use a table saw to cut the door face off the fillers,, cram back the honey comb, and slide in the filler with glue, clamp and set,, and good to go!
Do it all the time! Definately take some off both top and bottom.. easy as pie!
Use the solid slab doors and brad nail moldings to resemble panel doors. The box stores sell precut moldings for this.
mike
Not hard to order doors 6'2" prehung
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The RO heights of the doors vary from 74 1/4" up to about 76 1/4". That's rough opening from header to subfloor. The floor is going to be 3/4" hardwood, so the door will have to be a bit shorter than that.
It seems like I have a number of options, but I don't really know the cost implications. The problem with getting quotes on doors is it takes 10 minutes to get the price on a door, and you usually have no idea whether the different choices you make in the discussion add or subtract cost, or how much.
Since they are closet doors, they don't really need to be solid wood. I'm also going to paint them, so they can be paint grade. I'd love to have two panel doors, but do they make two panel hollow core doors? If so, do they make it in a custom size? Or, would I be better off getting a solid two panel door and just cutting it down? How do the hollow core doors compare in look to solid wood - if painted?
hollow core slab doors (no cutout no hinge mortises)As was previously suggested, cut only the bottom to finished size. Save the cut off. Peel off it's veneer. Tack on to, (and across) the new filler pieces, two stop blocks. (So as not to push filler too far into the door.) Push back the core membrane (Cardboard)
Lay door on flat bench. Apply a bead of glue across the outer edge of the lower section of veneer (also on the filler piece's forward top edge)As you tap in the filler, the glue will work it's way in with no mess Use waxed paper and blocking and clamp to dry. If door will be painted, just nail and glue. Note: The area where the lockset will be bored, has a small internal blocking inside it's location. Plan the cutting of the door to preserve that reinforcing to accommodate the knob's placement Steinmetz
Edited 7/24/2008 7:04 am ET by Steinmetz
If cheap is th egoal, then use hollow core, cut bottom off andglue in a filler piece again.
There is aa company that makes solid milled MDF panel doors in a mutitude of patterns and styles. They are cut on a CNC machine so The upchaarge is not bad, but still probably three to four bills per prehung preprimered.
Another option for this sort of thing is to see if a shutter is sized right for you
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It's tedious, but you can cut the top off of a pre-hung, hollow-core door. You just have to clean up the filler strip and reglue it, then re-dado the jambs.
When I cut down hollow core doors these days, I machine fillers out of fir, pine, cedar, whatever's on hand. Most HC doors around here now come with fiberboard fillers along the edges, which doesn't last as long as wood. Even the door stile edges that take the hinges are fiberboard in some cases.
"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Invictus, by Henley.
At the building supply where I get my doors I can get solid core prehung doors that come in all the same styles as the hollow core. Maybe about $40 extra per door and they look just like the hollow core doors. You can order them without the knob bore too on the jamb and door. Then have your trim carpenter cut off the bottom of the jamb and both the top and bottom of the door itself. I'll bet you could get them with no hinges or hinge mortises too.
Here is the thing - in building every problem has 2 solutions: Time and money - usually both. The only question is how much. So, sometimes you just have to buck up and get your wallet out. These things can be avoided during the design stage, but I'd imagine that the decision was made then for weird doors and more floor space in the main room. Now it's time to cash that check. Personally, I'd just look into ordering exactly what is needed to do the job. Just pick up the phone and ask for a price on the 6'2" doors. It's gonna take some time to get them too.
BTW - Are you sure you can't use a different kind of header above these doors so as to give a taller rough opening? 8" is a lot to cut off. What size are the headers now?(height width, and length)?
The headers are only a 2x4 at the moment, so I don't think we could go less than that. The RO's are all 32 + 1/8-3/8" except two of them are double doors so they are 62 1/8" and 62 3/8".
Another thing to keep in mind, the more you cut off the bottom the lower your knobs will be. 2" wouldnt be that noticable, but 4" lower knobs would be. If you can take it all off the top (slab door) would look the best, or custom made which might not be a bad idea. If their not too much. I havent seen them for about 15 years, but someone used to make a door that had the handle hole centered on the door. They were perfect for cutting down because the handle was already 4" too high. lol.
Edited 7/21/2008 9:12 am ET by wood4rd
There is also the potential to make-up bifolds using window shutters with similar design to the rest of your doors.
I've run into this a couple of times when installing hollow core prehungs. My solution was to do my cutting at the bottom and make a filler piece that could be glued into the hollow space. I didn't really like the "look" of the door, but at least I wasn't trying to rework the hinge mortises and lockset holes.
Since then, I've found a door supplier who will make the cut downs on a door blank and pre-hang it. These doors look more "balanced" since they're cut at both top and bottom before the hinge mortises and lockset holes are cut.
I called around to a few places today, including our local door specialists - they are pretty good. Smallest door that can be ordered is 75", and that would still have to be cut down. The 75" door is still pretty expensive - $400 or so.
So, I think our best bet is just to go with slab doors, and cut them down. They are much less expensive. I can try and dress them up later with some molding.
Just use regular doors and cut the top and bottom off.
One of the mags had an article on building up doors from a sheet of plywood with applied 1X to give the appearance of 2-panel door. It was a sheet of "appleply" hardwood veneer plywood with the "rails and stiles" glued onto it.
It would be easy to fit them to any size needed.