You can hang a door, with patience and the right tools. Before you buy the door, measure the opening; you need one the exact size or very slightly larger. You’ll also need:
Two hinges with screws,
A tape measure,
A pencil,
A plane,
A narrow or medium chisel with a hammer,
A drill and its bits, and
Sandpaper,
Wedges-several-no thicker than one-quarter or one-half inch to fit the clearance you’re allowing beneath the door.
Get a sawhorse to rest the door while you work on it, some goggles.
For the last step, if you’re hanging the door into a newly built doorway, have a panel saw and some thin wooden strips (one-quarter inch thickness) at the ready to make a doorstop.
And then you’re ready to roll!
Rest the door on the sawhorse. Mark how much of the door you need to trim or cut off. You should allow for one-sixteenth of an inch clearance on the sides and top of the door. Along the bottom allow one-quarter inch, but if your carpeting pile is high then make it a half inch. Don’t trim too much from the sides, or your door won’t fill the doorway!
Now that you’ve marked what needs to come off, use your plane to shave off the excess. Move the plane along each edge of the door. Just do one edge at a time. Work inward from the corners so that you don’t chip them off.
Take your sandpaper and smooth the edges. Place your wedges in the doorway and, with a helper lending a hand, see if the door fits into the doorway. If it’s too big, trim and sand some more.
Mark where you’ll place the hinges. Remember that doors generally open into a room. If you’re looking at the doorway from the outside of the room, your hinges will go on the right-hand side of the door. Rest the door on its side. The edge where the hinges will go should be facing upward. Use your measure and pencil to mark six inches from the top and bottom of the door. Each of the hinges will end at the marks you’ve made.
Place the bottom hinge on the edge where your mark is. Use your pencil to draw around it. Do the same for the top hinge. The hinge itself will rest flush against the door edge.
Take the hinges away so that you can use your hammer and chisel to cut a depression where the hinge will rest. Wear your goggles for this. Just chisel out enough of this so that the hinge lies flush when it’s placed in the depression. Avoid chiseling too much or the hinges won’t hang right.
Place the hinge in the depressions you’ve chipped out at each edge and use your pencil to mark where the screws should go. Your drill bit should be slightly narrower than the screws. Still wearing your goggles, drill the beginning of each hole, about one-quarter inch. Keep the drill bit fully perpendicular to the door edge so that your screws will go in straight. (Tip: leave one-quarter inch of your drill-bit open; cover the rest with tape. That way you’ll know when you’ve drilled to one-quarter-inch depth.) One screw at a time, screw the hinges to the door edge.
Now you can mark the doorway where the top and bottom hinges will be placed. Again, use your helper to hold the door. Mark the doorway with the door in the open position, with wedges placed under the door to help hold it steady.
Just like before, trace the hinge positions, and set the door aside. Chisel out depressions in the doorway for the two hinges. Again, be careful not to remove too much wood.
Before you actually screw the hinge into the doorway, ask your helper to hold the door while you see if the placement will be right. Once you know it’s correct, use the pencil to mark where the screws will go. Set the door aside and drill starter holes.
Finally, return the door-having your helper one last time to hold it in the open position with the wedges back under it-and drill in the screws. Just put in one of the screws for each hinge to make sure it will work before you drill in the rest of the screws.
If you are working with a newly built doorway, you will probably need to add a doorstop to the doorway. Hammer some narrow strips of wood along the doorway on the outside of the door so that the door will only swing into the room-otherwise, you’ve got a swinging door.
While you do this, your helper can get some cool drinks, and then you can both sit back to admire your handiwork.
Brought to you by Automated Homefinder - your real estate experts in:
Boulder Colorado
Longmont Colorado
Nederland Colorado
Lafayette Colorado
Firestone Colorado.
