On 1/1/2005 9:45 AM US(ET), C took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 13:41:06 -0600, "Greg O"
wrote:



"calhoun" wrote in message
.. .


Another option is to consider a pre-hung
door. All you do is strip out the old casing and plumb and level the


new


one and everything fits, assuming you can plumb them.



From many years experience. I agree with Rodger the best, cheapest, and
quickest way is to install prehung doors. No trying to match hinge


mortises


and lock locations and no plaining new edges to fit old jambs.




I second this!
Just rip out the old, and slap in a new pre-hung. That is, assuming the
rough openings are standard size!
Life is too short to screw with cutting mortises for hinges, drilling for
locksets. I have done both way, pre-hung wins!
Greg




I think that while yanking everything out and putting in a prehung door may
look like the quickest method at a high level, as always, the devil is in
the details. There are still other considerations. I would still have to
score the paint around the moulding on both sides, pry off the moulding
while being careful not to create any damage to the walls, the paint, the
floors, etc., put in the new door - and this includes cutting down the new
case moulding as required to fit over the wood laminate in the bedrooms,
regrout, caulk around the moulding, touch up the paint, and deal with the
extra debris and cleanup. Plus, it's easier to transport 8 doors at one
shot than to transport prehung doors two at a time.

I can buy doors that are predrilled and there will be little to trim off
the doors themselves. Isn't it also easy to lay the old door on top of the
new one, match up the lockset holes, clamp them together, lop off what
needs to be removed and chisel out three small areas? I actually think
that's a lot less work than putting in a new prehung door. I hung two
doors in my previous house and it really wasn't that much trouble.

C


I replaced 6 luan interior doors with paneled doors using this method.
http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=howT.../rightNavHowTo
Go down to "Installing a New Door in an Existing Frame"
My biggest problem was mortising for the hinges. My hinges had round
corners and it was harder to cut and chisel the rounded corners

--

Bill