Hi All,

I'm replacing an interior bathroom door. I would like to use a pre-hung unit. Every unit I have found has a standard jam width of 4 9/16", but the width of my door opening from outside wall to outside wall is 5 9/16".
Should I use the 4 9/16" jam width pre-hung door and add a wood strip to cover the gap? This is just a simple bathroom door and I don't want to spend a lot to order a custome size frame.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

 

I assume you have an older home to have that width of a wall. If you have some skill with a chisel, you could probably make the frame of the unit yourself. It's just three wide and three narrow sections of wood attached together. Figure an extra hour to make the four mortise cut outs for the hinges and door latch. Overall, it's probably two hours of extra effort over making the strips. I wish I had done that, as the prehung units I got at HD weren't manufactured quite right (top of the units were off by about 3/8" for the width of the door).

If you want to add strips to the door, biscuit joining would probably be the right way to add them (before you hung the door). If the door frame is stained instead of painted, you will have to be a little careful to match the wood's appearance. Hope this helps as a stop gap answer until a professional responds.

 

Yeah, my house is about 30 yrs old. Thanks for your input

 

probably easier to use the existing frame and hang the door to it than to modify the prehung .

hanging a interior door is really not the big a deal .

 

True...That would have been the plan if the existing frame didn't have 30 years worth of paint layers on it (it looks terrible). I attempted to strip the paint on the frame and was planning to just hang a new door and stain it all, but it was pretty tough getting the multiple layers of paint off. The scraping was messing up the wood, as well as getting saw dust everywhere when trying to sand the rough spots, so I ripped the whole frame out already. Thought it would just be easier to install the pre-hung, ready to stain.

 

You can use a standard 4 9/16 jamb and add a 1" extension jamb to the door. The thing you need to figure out which side to add it to.

If you install the 1" extension jamb onto the hinge side of the door, the door will not be able to open farther than 90 degrees, plus a few degrees due to the offset in the hinges. So if your door is in a corner, or has a piece of furniture behind it that would prevent it from ever opening past 90 degrees, then that would be an option. If the door needs to swing more than 90 degrees, then you need to add the 1" extension jamb onto the latch side of the door- the side with the strike plate.

When you add an extension jamb onto the latch side of a door, (as opposed to installing it on the hinge side) you need to get a wider strike plate than normal. Even if you get a new door knob, the strike plate that comes with it will be a standard strike plate. Wider strike plates are available in many hardware and big box stores. Many are even adjustable. The wider strike plate will keep the latch from gouging the 1" extension jamb as the door goes closed.

Another thing you can do is get a prehung door with a split jamb, which is adjustable for various wall thicknesses. Or you could order the door jamb custom sized to 5 9/16" thick, which would cost a bit more, but would save you a lot of headaches.

As mentioned, you could make your own jamb, router your own hinges and hang a slab door in the opening, but that's some pretty advanced work and I wouldn't recommend it for a newbie to carpentry.

 

One more thought. Use the hinge half of the prehung unit, take a 1x6 and split it to the width to finish covering the jamb. It will fit against the female portion of the jamb, but you can caulk that portion if it leaves a gap; remove the casing from the other half and install it to the edge of the 1x6.

 

Thanks for the great suggestions. Getting the custom size jam would certainly be the easiest, but will cost me about double the price. Adding the 1" strip to the jam is what I will try. I'll see if I want to do it on the hinge side or the latch side...The door is in a corner and I would never have to open it past 90 degrees.
Thanks again..Big help

 

Sounds good. If you end up installing it on the hinge side, you don't need to mess around with biscuits- you can nail it on with 2" nails and maybe a little glue. (if it's going to be stained, be sure you wipe off any glue that shows real well with a rag and water.) Just be sure you leave a nice 3/16" reveal around the inside of the jamb (don't install it tight against the barrel of the hinges or it will rub and make a black mark.) Good luck!