Installing Doors Often Requires Bottom Edge Trimming

A brand new door to a room or house can make a real fashion statement. Learning how to actually replace a door will open a home you window of opportunity. The skills you learn while installing doors will be useful in the future. You'll also be happy to know, that a new door will probably be a better seal and prevent more drafts and your old one.

Although you'll find that, the combination screen door is a difficult installation, if you follow the manufactures instruction it should work for you. The other two kinds, exterior entry doors, and interior doors have a few steps for installation. The more difficult entry door installation, will teach you a lot about replacing interior doors. Wedge the door fully open. Take out the hinges and screws. Examine the loose-pin hinge locations and remember them when putting in new hinges.

After the hinges have been removed, the door is ready to come from its frame. It's best to try to use this door to determine the installation of the new one. Align the top and side edges. This will tell you if your new door will require cutting or planning to fit. If the old door is unusable, you'll measure the opening and allow 1/8" at the bottom and 1/16" along the top and sides. This will ensure that the door will not bind.

If carpeting is involved measure an allowance of 3/4" or more across the bottom. Mark with a pencil so that it can be erased later, the dimensions directly on the new door. This is where you trim if necessary with a jackplane along the edges. You might have discovered, installing doors often requires bottom edge trimming, with a fine tooth saw. Using a small chisel, create new mortises for the hinge blades.

Now is the time to move the new door into its location. With the door in the frame set a 1/8" block from the bottom. Indicate with pencil where the hinges will go. Your mortises will have been made slightly larger than necessary. Next, remove the door and turn it onto its latch side. Using a square and pencil, draw three lines across the door edge to edge to indicate the hinge space.

Remember its three hinges, spread evenly, for the average door. An extra hinge will be needed for an oversized door. Seal the door edges with a sealant the use the wood screws to put on hinge leaves. Put the new door back into its frame using the same block at the bottom. Insert the top, and bottom pins. If everything fits, close the door and pencil mark where the middle hinge will fall on the doorframe. Set the door in place and insert the hinge pins, working top to bottom.