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DanG DanG is offline
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Default Replacing a door alone - Spacing between door and jam

Residential doors tend to be 1 3/8" thick, commercial doors tend
to be 1 3/4". If the jamb has removable door stop, this can work
out. If it is a rabetted jamb, as many exterior jambs are, this
is a major set back.

Doors should be beveled on both the hinge and strike sides. 1 3/8
doors are more forgiving about bevel. An old carpenter adage
sizes the gaps around the door as a dime on top and a nickel on
the sides. The bevel and cut are easiest done with a Rockwell
porta plane, but these are too expensive for one door. Making the
hinge mortises line up with the jamb will be the hardest part.
The mortises in the jamb will have to be set deeper if you go to
the 1 3/4 door and the existing screw holes will need to be
filled. The hinges may need to be replace with larger hinges or
adding an additional hinge if the door weight is very different.
The strike will have to be re-set also. If this is your first
attempt, it will certainly be easier to replace the door and jamb
with a prehung unit or stay with the same thickness door.

Hope this helps make some decisions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DanG
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"New & Improved - N/F John" wrote in
message news:vNSph.47$R76.31@trnddc05...
I want to put a new exterior door from my hall to an unheated
enclosed
porch. I want to get a double pane glass, but I don't want to
replace the
jam with an opening width of exactly 30 inches. The door's
width on the
outside measures 29.75 inches and inside measures a little less
than 30
inches. Thus, the door's edge is beveled. The existing door is
1 and 3/8's
inches thick. A new door would be 1.75 inches.

The door has to be narrower than the jam width. Should I have
the door's
outside edge beveled like the old one or should I have the door
trimmed on
both sides about a quarter of an inch total?