My house (built in the early 60s) has short doors inside! I was
measuring because I want to replace all the interior doors as these
ones are crappy and one is warped. Anyway, the doors themselves are 78
1/4" high. Not 80" ! Will I even be able to FIND such a door or will
I have to tear out my doorways and rebuild? :-( I'm frowning.

wrote:
My house (built in the early 60s) has short doors inside! I was
measuring because I want to replace all the interior doors as these
ones are crappy and one is warped. Anyway, the doors themselves are 78
1/4" high. Not 80" ! Will I even be able to FIND such a door or will
I have to tear out my doorways and rebuild? :-( I'm frowning.



You should be able to find doors which will suit your taste which you
could trim down to that length.

If the top and bottom sections of the new doors are solid wood it should
be a no brainer.

If they are hollow core doors you might have to glue in some filler
strips if the ones in them aren't "tall" enough take sawing an inch off
the top and bottom of the door.

HTH,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

wrote:
My house (built in the early 60s) has short doors inside! I was
measuring because I want to replace all the interior doors as these
ones are crappy and one is warped. Anyway, the doors themselves are 78
1/4" high. Not 80" ! Will I even be able to FIND such a door or will
I have to tear out my doorways and rebuild?

You can have doors made to whatever size you want. Hollow core doors
aren't at too big of a premium. You could also cut down a hollow core
door, or a solid core for that matter, fairly easily. You'd have to
get a door blank and mortise for the hinges and drill for the lockset
yourself as the heights would be off if you cut it down.

R

wrote in message
oups.com...
My house (built in the early 60s) has short doors inside! I was
measuring because I want to replace all the interior doors as these
ones are crappy and one is warped. Anyway, the doors themselves are 78
1/4" high. Not 80" ! Will I even be able to FIND such a door or will
I have to tear out my doorways and rebuild? :-( I'm frowning.


Could they be 80" doors that have been trimmed to clear thick carpeting or
throw rugs? Can you trim an 80" door that much and still have it look right?
With flush doors, that would be easy enough, but a paneled door may look cut
with a thinner bottom.

sounds like they were trimmed to clear carpet and pad, probably for the
shag rug era.

It is true that you can cut many doors to fit your current opening, but
I would consider enlarging your openings. This is very simple because
they are interior doors so you won't have to mess with siding and
brick. Also, because you are making your openings larger and not
smaller, you won't have to mess with adding and finishing drywall.
Also, your trim pieces will be much easier to find already pre-cut to
fit. Your re-sale value will alsom improve because a savvy homebuyer is
going to be a little deterred by having small door openings

wrote in message
oups.com...
It is true that you can cut many doors to fit your current opening, but
I would consider enlarging your openings. This is very simple because
they are interior doors so you won't have to mess with siding and
brick. Also, because you are making your openings larger and not
smaller, you won't have to mess with adding and finishing drywall.

Details please. Given the way a door opening is framed with headers and
such, how do you propose he makes the cuts so simply?
http://www.millardlumber.com/HowTo/doors/doors.htm

I am a bit curious how is going to raise the
headers that should be at the tops of the door rough openings.
I'm not saying it is not the right thing to do. I am saying that
if you head down this path, you will be drywalling, taping,
texturing, and painting. The header should have been set 81 or 82
inches off finish floor.
Is there a large gap at the bottoms of the existing doors? Does
it appear that there is heavy carpet and pad? As others have
said, I imagine the original doors were 6-8's and have been cut
down for some reason. It would be nice to know why before
ordering a full set of doors. The top and bottom rails in the
doors can only be trimmed a limited amount or major work is
required to reset the rails. Take one of your doors off the hinge
and look at the bottom. Please tell us if they are hollow core
doors (if you aren't wishing you had 2 guys to work with the door,
it is hollow), panel doors, or solid core. Has the bottom rail
been replaced / glued / worked with in an obvious manner? If it
is a solid core flush door, does it have a wood rail at the bottom
of the door or visible particle board? Is the finish veneer
chipped or ragged on either face of the bottom of the door? Are
your doors painted or stained?


Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




wrote in message
oups.com...
It is true that you can cut many doors to fit your current
opening, but
I would consider enlarging your openings. This is very simple
because
they are interior doors so you won't have to mess with siding
and
brick. Also, because you are making your openings larger and not
smaller, you won't have to mess with adding and finishing
drywall.
Also, your trim pieces will be much easier to find already
pre-cut to
fit. Your re-sale value will alsom improve because a savvy
homebuyer is
going to be a little deterred by having small door openings

My house (built in the early 60s) has short doors inside! I was
measuring because I want to replace all the interior doors as these
ones are crappy and one is warped. Anyway, the doors themselves are 78
1/4" high. Not 80" ! Will I even be able to FIND such a door or will
I have to tear out my doorways and rebuild? :-( I'm frowning.
If there is 2" of space above the door frame, you can buy pre-hung
interior doors at the borg. If not, just look for doors/lumber your
local yellow pages. They'll be places that will make custom doors for
you.

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

My house (built in the early 60s) has short doors inside! I was
measuring because I want to replace all the interior doors as these
ones are crappy and one is warped. Anyway, the doors themselves are 78
1/4" high. Not 80" ! Will I even be able to FIND such a door or will
I have to tear out my doorways and rebuild? :-( I'm frowning.



Could they be 80" doors that have been trimmed to clear thick carpeting or
throw rugs? Can you trim an 80" door that much and still have it look right?
With flush doors, that would be easy enough, but a paneled door may look cut
with a thinner bottom.



Sounds like mobile home doors.

My panel doors have 8" from bottom of door to
panel and 4" from top of door to panel, so cutting
2" from the bottom wouldn't look funny. But one
would need to be concerned about where the ended
up with a panel door and one would certainly would
need to buy doors without hinge and latch
cutouts. Best bet would likely be to cut 1" from
the top and 1" from the bottom and 3/4" from the top.

78 inch doors used to be a standard size 20 years ago.

Home Depot still sells them.

DanG wrote:
I am a bit curious how is going to raise the
headers that should be at the tops of the door rough openings.
I'm not saying it is not the right thing to do. I am saying that
if you head down this path, you will be drywalling, taping,
texturing, and painting. The header should have been set 81 or 82
inches off finish floor.

I was wondering the same thing. Just because you're gonna make it
bigger, not smaller, doesn't mean you're not in for a big project. In
fact, making it smaller could be easier, as you can just pad out the
header, etc.




Is there a large gap at the bottoms of the existing doors? Does
it appear that there is heavy carpet and pad? As others have
said, I imagine the original doors were 6-8's and have been cut
down for some reason. It would be nice to know why before
ordering a full set of doors. The top and bottom rails in the
doors can only be trimmed a limited amount or major work is
required to reset the rails. Take one of your doors off the hinge
and look at the bottom. Please tell us if they are hollow core
doors (if you aren't wishing you had 2 guys to work with the door,
it is hollow), panel doors, or solid core. Has the bottom rail
been replaced / glued / worked with in an obvious manner? If it
is a solid core flush door, does it have a wood rail at the bottom
of the door or visible particle board? Is the finish veneer
chipped or ragged on either face of the bottom of the door? Are
your doors painted or stained?


Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




wrote in message
oups.com...
It is true that you can cut many doors to fit your current
opening, but
I would consider enlarging your openings. This is very simple
because
they are interior doors so you won't have to mess with siding
and
brick. Also, because you are making your openings larger and not
smaller, you won't have to mess with adding and finishing
drywall.
Also, your trim pieces will be much easier to find already
pre-cut to
fit. Your re-sale value will alsom improve because a savvy
homebuyer is
going to be a little deterred by having small door openings

wrote:
My house (built in the early 60s) has short doors inside! I was
measuring because I want to replace all the interior doors as these
ones are crappy and one is warped. Anyway, the doors themselves are
78 1/4" high. Not 80" ! Will I even be able to FIND such a door or
will I have to tear out my doorways and rebuild? :-( I'm frowning.

So you want to put in doors almost two inches larger than what is there.
Where are you going to find that 2 inches" I would guess you don't have a
gap at the top, so is there a gap at the bottom?

Assuming there is a gap at the bottom, I would not put a larger door in
there to cover the gap. Likely the gap is there as part of the air return
for the HVAC.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

I have recently purchased several 78 inch high doors. They are a
standard size. They don't stock them, you have to order them. Much
easier just to buy the right size in the first place.

Hogwild wrote:
78 inch doors used to be a standard size 20 years ago.

Home Depot still sells them.


Where? Certainly not in the part of the country
where I live. Were not standard 30 years ago or
40 years ago either. I haven't seen any 78" doors
at HD, must be a custom order item. Sure you
aren't talking about mobile home or trailer doors?

The doors appear to have an air gap at the bottom to clear (and then
some) the carpet, so maybe HVAC was a concern. I appears possible that
80" doors would fit my doorways IF I had tile instead of carpet plus
pad. Whoever suggested that the house used to have shag is correct.
It DID used to, but not anymore. I'm a little worried about having to
chop the bottom off a pre-made panelled door, as the bottom usually
contains a crossmember support.

Oh well, I'll add this to my list of oddities about this old house...

wrote:
The doors appear to have an air gap at the bottom to clear (and then
some) the carpet, so maybe HVAC was a concern. I appears possible that
80" doors would fit my doorways IF I had tile instead of carpet plus
pad. Whoever suggested that the house used to have shag is correct.
It DID used to, but not anymore. I'm a little worried about having to
chop the bottom off a pre-made panelled door, as the bottom usually
contains a crossmember support.

Oh well, I'll add this to my list of oddities about this old house...

If you need to cut 1" or less off the bottom, I
wouldn't worry about the cross member because it
will wider than that. Just be sure that you use a
good circular saw with a good blade. As for the
HVAC air requirement, I wouldn't know if that is
true or not, but how much you leave the doors open
would dictate what you need to do. In my house,
the doors are fully open or have a gap (nearly
closed) most of the time. I wouldn't want to live
in a house that had a big gap at the bottom of the
door and never have lived in such a house
regardless of the type of central heating and a/c.
In fact, I have never been in a regular house
that had such doors. Uggh.

"Where? Certainly not in the part of the country where I live. Were
not standard 30 years ago or 40 years ago either. I haven't seen any
78" doors at HD, must be a custom order item. Sure you aren't talking
about mobile home or trailer doors?"

I said in my post that I had to order them. Now that I think about it,
I did order them at Lowes, but I could have ordered them at Home Depot
just the same. You have to go to the desk in the door area to order
them. They will not be in stock, even in the Home Depot is in a
neighborhood like mine where they would be in demand. And yes every
house in my neighborhood (built in 1950's) has 78 inch high door
everywhere.

George E. Cawthon wrote:

If you need to cut 1" or less off the bottom, I
wouldn't worry about the cross member because it
will wider than that.

Not by a lot. On some of the hollow core doors I've been reworking
recently the bottom frame rail is just over an inch. Apparently they
don't design the door with site modifications in mind.

If the rail is under 1/2" after cutting the door down (drill a hole to
determine it's depth), I'll knock it loose and replace it with a more
substantial piece.

R