Fantastic video Mr. Painter! Also, great job with describing your actions and past learned lessons! That tool looks like it would be worth having for sure.
This was amazing thank you so much for the in depth guide, Just replaced 8 hollow core doors with nice solid core doors and did it all myself! I had no confidence until I watched this. Thanks!
Excellent excellent stuff, John!!! This will surely help a lot of people, and some good tips for us seasoned ‘experts!’ 🤔😊😄 This is very easy to screw up, and your video should help others to avoid a mess! Good stuff! 👍👍👍😃🔨
I cut the door to fit the jamb, shim the door into the jam, mark the hinge and knob locations onto the door. I do this because there could be some sort of flaw in the jamb or threshold, and it always comes out right. I'm gonna add that there could be flaws in the location of the latch or hinges on the jamb, the jamb could be out of level, plumb, or square.
Nothing wrong with that approach. However, not every jobsite is conducive to that tactic. Many times I'm working on a single room in a house and there isn't space for me to set up tools or materials, or it's winter time and working outdoors is an issue too.
Great video. A lot of details to complete the job successfully. I really like your approach for allowing on site adjustments. One question though. On most interior door that I have seen the hinge side is “shaved” anywhere from 1/32 to 1/16 so it doesn’t bind on the stop. However you left your slab square on the hinge side. How do you compensate for this?
Well, if the door frame and the stops are set up correctly there should be no reason to modify the hinge side edges. The hinges themselves provide a slight gap between the door edge and the frame, of course. It is possible that if you are replacing an older door that the new door is slightly thicker or thinner than the old one. In that case the stops may not be in the correct position, but I would likely move the stops rather than modify the door. Ordinarily the door should close without rubbing against the stops. Now, if the door frame is warped or twisted or otherwise out of square then you either need to fix the frame or modify the door. You'll run across this on older houses and if there is historic trim involved or the frame is severely out of true I will modify the door to fit the frame. And, if you have a very slight binding somewhere which can be fixed with a minor chamfer with a block plane, then that is fair game.
John i am having a different problem my old door is 29 3/4 by 80 the new door is 30x80 can i cut a 1/4 in from the side where the hinges are gonna go or what will you recommend
If it's a hollow-core door there will be very little "meat" on either side. If it's a solid wood door, it still may not be genuinely solid, but rather a core of finger-jointed wood covered by a veneer. So I would recommend taking off an 1/8" from both sides rather than the full amount from one side. If you are painting the door it won't be that critical, the paint will cover any discrepancy. If you are staining the door and difference in woods will show. You can run a circular saw over each side to take off close to the 1/8" and then clean up the saw marks using a belt sander or planer to get down to the full measurement. Don't forget you'll need to put a slight roundover or chamfer on the newly cut edges because they will be sharp.
