Opinions and Tales from the Wisemen - Door Fitment

Those who have worked professionally as carpenters for many years, how often was it that you found that doors, even in new construction, just never fit? One thing in any project I do that I always have an issue with is doors. Doesnt matter if its cabinets or a 8 foot entrance door, there is always something that just doesnt line up or fit and can either require something as little as a slight turn of a screw or the extreme of tearing of an entire wall including framing down. Just wanted some food for thought opinions as I'm fairly new to carpentry as a hobby.

My latest example was my walk in closet door. I premeasured the opening, based on another walk in closet that was built with the house originally. I didnt account for the decrease in size with mud, trim, carpet + thick underlay. I test fitted the door and it fit perfect. After the room was finished it wouldnt fit worth a damn. Spent this evening shaving 3/4" inch off of one side, and 1/2" off the bottom. A little miscalculation on my part caused me a heap load of grief. Luckily it fits nice now, just requires some hand sanding to make the skilsaw cut look more uniform. I could go on and on with door stories but I want to hear some others.

 

Doors can be a real nemesis. In rennovating a home this week, one of the things I was working on was rehanging an OLD pair of 2" thick oak divided lite french doors onto a new jamb. To make matters worse, the new jamb was in a cement opening. Prior to removing the old jamb, I carefully took measurements to ensure that the hinges would go back exactly in the same place, so that the doors would hang just like they did before.

Well, to make a long story short, I believe I put those doors on [and off] at least 5 or 6 times. The biggest consternation was the reveal on the hinge sides. I ended up making a spacer, holding it against the casing, then running it [and my knife] around the doors to scribe a nice even reveal onto the hinge sides of the door. Then took the doors off [again] and belt sanded those edges down to the knife-line with a belt sander w/ 50 grit. Test fitted the doors, belt sanded some more, test fitted the doors, belt sanded some more. Adjusted one of the mortises on the door [old chiselled mortise not flat] and test fitted again.

Did this over parts of 3 days because after a while I just had to quit and go do something else. About lost all my hair on that one.

My mom has a great door story involving my dad. He replaced their kitchen door with a nice new solid oak door. Put it on the hinges, and tested the operation. It hit on the bottom half of the latch side by maybe an 1/8. (something you'd normally sand down with a belt sander). Well dad had had it up to "here" with this door by this point, and he got out the skilsaw (dad is no finish carpenter!). Mom is yelling at him to stop (she knows what's going to happen) and I'm just watching him in disbelief (at this point there's no stopping him) as he rips a taper off the bottom 1/2 of the latch side of the door.

Well, after that, the door closed alright... unfortunately he took off a giant piece of wood that was about 3' long and tapered from nothing to 3/8"! Mom was livid. She cursed him for wrecking the new door and how much it had cost them, etc. Well as it turned out, in all the ranting and raving, mom had a good idea. Glue the cut piece of wood back onto the door.

After having done that, the door shut perfectly. Since all it needed was about 1/8" taken off, the tapered piece of wood [minus the saw cut dad had made] was just enough to produce a nice reveal around the door.

Problem solved / marriage saved. LOL

 

Oh wow, I'm loving these stories. Keep them coming.

 

We built a recording studio where *everything* is built to within 1/16. The doors have been a NIGHTMARE. You see not only must the door fit perfectly, but then you have to put these special sound selas all around each door. The front and back doors are double doors and are a bone of contention, not only to hang the darn things but the seals are ridiculous. The front doors were ruined by a carpenter (lets just say the BBB suggested we sue) and have to be replaced, but we are so loathe to hang the darn things, the new doors have been sitting, waiting to be installed, for more than 6 months. This is the THIRD set of doors we've ordered because the mill kept messing up the hinge mortise measurements.

 

To add to it, my second door I've hung in my basement is a joke. Of course, a concrete basement floor is never straight. Right where I hung the door there happens to be a half inch difference from left to right. Finally decided to live with that, but the door still sits inwards in the bottom corner which is a whole other issue. The only way I could get it to "appear" straight would be to put the stud slanted or cut it cocked at the bottom, and I'm not that good. It's fully functional and only I notice, but its one of those things that drives me crazy. I think I've messed with this door adleast 10 times, not including how many times it's actually been taken off. I will take a picture of it once everything else is set up here. I always hear "it looks fine, stop messing with it". yawn.

 

Oh, and, deadbolt gone wrong. New door, needed to be drilled out for deadbolt. Holesawed out the hole fine, then went to drill out the "popper" hole. Went a bit crooked. Tried to cover it up with a strike plate, realized I didnt know what a chisel was. Yes.. fun?