I just had a number of interior doors replaced in an old house that I am
having renovated. The door replacements were done to make all of the
interior doors in the house match instead of having mismatched door styles
throughout the house. The original doors were 77" to 78" high. I had the
doors replaced with inexpensive hollow core Masonite veneer 6-panel door
slabs.

The replacement door slabs were 80 inches high, so they had to be cut. But
the cuts meant that either the top or bottom ended up as just an open hollow
space between the front and back veneers. Somehow that doesn't seem right
to me. What do contractors normally do in this situation? Do they really
just leave the top or bottom open like that? Do they try to fill in the
space with a replacement filler piece?

When I search in stores and on the Internet, I can't seem to find interior
door slabs that come in any size less than 80' high. Am I missing
something? Don't manufacturers sell hollow core doors that are 78" high so
that when they are cut a little shorter there is still a solid end piece at
the top and bottom?

Is my only other option to use solid core replacement interior doors? And,
if so, do they sell solid core interior replacement doors that are 78 inches
high?

There is at least 2 inches of solid wood at the top and bottom of the door
which can be trimmed. Try pinching the door in the store or use a stud
finder to determine the exact cutoff limits.

If it were much shorter than you would need a solid door but you should be
able to trim 2" total, 3" will be close. Look for a spec sheet for the
door, it may be there.

Cut as much as you can from the bottom then the rest from the top so it
looks good.


"nnnnnnnnn" wrote in message
. ..
I just had a number of interior doors replaced in an old house that I am
having renovated. The door replacements were done to make all of the
interior doors in the house match instead of having mismatched door styles
throughout the house. The original doors were 77" to 78" high. I had the
doors replaced with inexpensive hollow core Masonite veneer 6-panel door
slabs.

The replacement door slabs were 80 inches high, so they had to be cut.
But the cuts meant that either the top or bottom ended up as just an open
hollow space between the front and back veneers. Somehow that doesn't
seem right to me. What do contractors normally do in this situation? Do
they really just leave the top or bottom open like that? Do they try to
fill in the space with a replacement filler piece?

When I search in stores and on the Internet, I can't seem to find interior
door slabs that come in any size less than 80' high. Am I missing
something? Don't manufacturers sell hollow core doors that are 78" high
so that when they are cut a little shorter there is still a solid end
piece at the top and bottom?

Is my only other option to use solid core replacement interior doors?
And, if so, do they sell solid core interior replacement doors that are 78
inches high?

pipedown wrote:

There is at least 2 inches of solid wood at the top and bottom of the door
which can be trimmed. Try pinching the door in the store or use a stud
finder to determine the exact cutoff limits.

If it were much shorter than you would need a solid door but you should be
able to trim 2" total, 3" will be close. Look for a spec sheet for the
door, it may be there.

Cut as much as you can from the bottom then the rest from the top so it
looks good.


Dude you never cut the top of a door. NEVER! If you cut the solid piece out
of the bottom you reuse it in the hollow area. 2-3 inches off the bottom of
door is not that big a deal. Your largest panels are at the bottom. as you
go up they get smaller, including the stiles.

--
"You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"
Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586

On May 19, 11:35*pm, evodawg wrote:
pipedown wrote:
There is at least 2 inches of solid wood at the top and bottom of the door
which can be trimmed. *Try pinching the door in the store or use a stud
finder to determine the exact cutoff limits.

If it were much shorter than you would need a solid door but you should be
able to trim 2" total, 3" will be close. *Look for a spec sheet for the
door, it may be there.

Cut as much as you can from the bottom then the rest from the top so it
looks good.

Dude you never cut the top of a door. NEVER! If you cut the solid piece out
of the bottom you reuse it in the hollow area. 2-3 inches off the bottom of
door is not that big a deal. Your largest panels are at the bottom. as you
go up they get smaller, including the stiles.

--
"You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"
Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586

Dude you never cut the top of a door. NEVER!

Never? And in all caps? That's a pretty drastic statement.

Consider a 6 panel pine door that needs 5 - 6" cut off. True
situation - basement bathroom remodel in a house with a really low
basement ceiling.

If I cut everything off the bottom, it would have look really out of
balance and the door knob would have been down around my knees.
Instead I determined the proportional differences of the top and
bottom rails and divided my cuts proportionally. Came out great.

"pipedown" wrote in message
. ..
There is at least 2 inches of solid wood at the top and bottom of the door
which can be trimmed. . . . . ,

I'll check again and post back here tonight or tomorrow, but I don't think
that's correct. I saved the pieces that were cut off and I think the solid
part at the top and bottom is much less than 2 inches.

"pipedown" wrote in message
. ..
There is at least 2 inches of solid wood at the top and bottom of the door
which can be trimmed. Try pinching the door in the store or use a stud
finder to determine the exact cutoff limits.

I just went and checked the new 80-inch hollow core doors. There is a
1-inch solid core across the top and a 3/4-inch solid core across the
bottom. That's it. I was surprised myself.

nnnnnnnnn wrote:

I just had a number of interior doors replaced in an old house that I am
having renovated. The door replacements were done to make all of the
interior doors in the house match instead of having mismatched door styles
throughout the house. The original doors were 77" to 78" high. I had the
doors replaced with inexpensive hollow core Masonite veneer 6-panel door
slabs.

The replacement door slabs were 80 inches high, so they had to be cut.
But the cuts meant that either the top or bottom ended up as just an open
hollow
space between the front and back veneers. Somehow that doesn't seem right
to me. What do contractors normally do in this situation? Do they really
just leave the top or bottom open like that? Do they try to fill in the
space with a replacement filler piece?

You use the section you cut out. Pull off the masonite veneer and the edge
and you have a straight piece you can use in that "open hollow" Glue and
finish nails to hold it in place


When I search in stores and on the Internet, I can't seem to find interior
door slabs that come in any size less than 80' high. Am I missing
something? Don't manufacturers sell hollow core doors that are 78" high
so that when they are cut a little shorter there is still a solid end
piece at the top and bottom?

Is my only other option to use solid core replacement interior doors?
And, if so, do they sell solid core interior replacement doors that are 78
inches high?

They sell really nice solid wood 6 panel pine doors you paint about 100.00
each.

--
"You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"
Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586

"evodawg" wrote in message
news:dArYj.728$ah.406@trnddc06...

You use the section you cut out. Pull off the masonite veneer and the edge
and you have a straight piece you can use in that "open hollow" Glue and
finish nails to hold it in place.

Thanks. I was thinking that may be what they do. I saved the cutoff pieces
in case that is the way to do it. I haven't tried separating the masonite
from the wood filler strips, but hopefully thta won't be too hard to do.

Years ago interior doors came in two heights, 78" and 80". I see now that
masonite.com only shows 80" as the smallest door that they make.

Someone stocking older models may have smaller sizes or another manufacturer
may make smaller sizes.

"nnnnnnnnn" wrote in message
. ..
I just had a number of interior doors replaced in an old house that I am
having renovated. The door replacements were done to make all of the
interior doors in the house match instead of having mismatched door styles
throughout the house. The original doors were 77" to 78" high. I had the
doors replaced with inexpensive hollow core Masonite veneer 6-panel door
slabs.

The replacement door slabs were 80 inches high, so they had to be cut.
But the cuts meant that either the top or bottom ended up as just an open
hollow space between the front and back veneers. Somehow that doesn't
seem right to me. What do contractors normally do in this situation? Do
they really just leave the top or bottom open like that? Do they try to
fill in the space with a replacement filler piece?

When I search in stores and on the Internet, I can't seem to find interior
door slabs that come in any size less than 80' high. Am I missing
something? Don't manufacturers sell hollow core doors that are 78" high
so that when they are cut a little shorter there is still a solid end
piece at the top and bottom?

Is my only other option to use solid core replacement interior doors?
And, if so, do they sell solid core interior replacement doors that are 78
inches high?

nnnnnnnnn wrote:
I just had a number of interior doors replaced in an old house that I am
having renovated. The door replacements were done to make all of the
interior doors in the house match instead of having mismatched door
styles throughout the house. The original doors were 77" to 78" high.
I had the doors replaced with inexpensive hollow core Masonite veneer
6-panel door slabs.

The replacement door slabs were 80 inches high, so they had to be cut.
But the cuts meant that either the top or bottom ended up as just an
open hollow space between the front and back veneers. Somehow that
doesn't seem right to me. What do contractors normally do in this
situation? Do they really just leave the top or bottom open like that?
Do they try to fill in the space with a replacement filler piece?

When I search in stores and on the Internet, I can't seem to find
interior door slabs that come in any size less than 80' high. Am I
missing something? Don't manufacturers sell hollow core doors that are
78" high so that when they are cut a little shorter there is still a
solid end piece at the top and bottom?

Is my only other option to use solid core replacement interior doors?
And, if so, do they sell solid core interior replacement doors that are
78 inches high?

Yes, you can piece in the filler strip, but it is a pain in the ass. You
may need to cut from the top and bottom of the blank, to avoid trimming
away the entire strip on one end. Your contractor is an idiot, or lazy.
I wouldn't accept the work.

--
aem sends...

nnnnnnnnn wrote:


The replacement door slabs were 80 inches high, so they had to be cut.
But the cuts meant that either the top or bottom ended up as just an open
hollow
space between the front and back veneers.

Keyword here is THEY, who is they? Contractors, Handyman, Illegal Alien
hourly worker. Did you pay them yet? If you did you got screwed.

Somehow that doesn't seem right
to me. What do contractors normally do in this situation? Do they really
just leave the top or bottom open like that? Do they try to fill in the
space with a replacement filler piece?

See my solution in prior post
--
"You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"
Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586

"evodawg" wrote in message
news:wYrYj.731$ah.444@trnddc06...

Keyword here is THEY, who is they? Contractors, Handyman, Illegal Alien
hourly worker. Did you pay them yet? If you did you got screwed.

Well, supposedly they are genuine bona fide real-life contractors with
experience in the field. They have all of the right tools and equipment and
the impression I got is that they know what they are doing. I decided to
start them out on a couple of basic things first to see how they work, etc.
Now I am finding that I have doubts about their true skill level, but I
thought I'd check here to see what is considered normal and what isn't.

On May 19, 10:03 pm, "nnnnnnnnn" wrote:
I just had a number of interior doors replaced in an old house that I am
having renovated. The door replacements were done to make all of the
interior doors in the house match instead of having mismatched door styles
throughout the house. The original doors were 77" to 78" high. I had the
doors replaced with inexpensive hollow core Masonite veneer 6-panel door
slabs.

The replacement door slabs were 80 inches high, so they had to be cut. But
the cuts meant that either the top or bottom ended up as just an open hollow
space between the front and back veneers. Somehow that doesn't seem right
to me. What do contractors normally do in this situation? Do they really
just leave the top or bottom open like that? Do they try to fill in the
space with a replacement filler piece?

When I search in stores and on the Internet, I can't seem to find interior
door slabs that come in any size less than 80' high. Am I missing
something? Don't manufacturers sell hollow core doors that are 78" high so
that when they are cut a little shorter there is still a solid end piece at
the top and bottom?

Is my only other option to use solid core replacement interior doors? And,
if so, do they sell solid core interior replacement doors that are 78 inches
high?

What I prefer in that situation is to buy prehung doors, and sawzall
the opening, fix the
drywall, and then it takes a standard door. there is usually enough
meat in the header to
do that without compromising the structure, when not, you can build a
new header inside the wall.
It is a bit more work, but the results are worth it, and if a new door
is needed in the future it will fit.

"Eric in North TX" wrote in message
...

What I prefer in that situation is to buy prehung doors, and sawzall
the opening, fix the
drywall, and then it takes a standard door. . . .

I did think about that option, but it's an old house with and older style
trim throughout. If I used pre-hung doors, it would mean changing the trim
on both sides for more than a dozen doors. So, I thought that just
replacing the slabs would make the most sense.

When looking at the job, they measured each door and I just assumed that
contractors could buy hollow core interior doors in various sizes, including
78-inch high doors. Then each door would only require minimal cutting to
fit the opening.

To my surprise, it appears that no one sells new 78-inch hollow core 6-panel
interior doors. It also appears that no one sells hollow core interior
doors with pre-cut door hardware openings.

Ummm.... 78" high is a standard door height. Just one that they don't
stock it in the stores. You have to order it. It's more expensive
than an 80" door, but not by a whole lot. In my opinion, better than
hacking more than the manufacturer's recommended amount from an 80"
door. Most people are too stuipd or lazy to do it the right way and
actually order a door that's the right size.

So, where can I order 78-inch 6-panel hollow core interior doors?

I have checked everywhere I can think of on the Internet and can't find
anyplace that sells them.

Thanks.

"zzyzzx" wrote in message
...
Ummm.... 78" high is a standard door height. Just one that they don't
stock it in the stores. You have to order it. It's more expensive
than an 80" door, but not by a whole lot. In my opinion, better than
hacking more than the manufacturer's recommended amount from an 80"
door. Most people are too stuipd or lazy to do it the right way and
actually order a door that's the right size.

"nnnnnnnnn" wrote in message
...
So, where can I order 78-inch 6-panel hollow core interior doors?

I have checked everywhere I can think of on the Internet and can't find
anyplace that sells them.

Thanks.

"zzyzzx" wrote in message
...
Ummm.... 78" high is a standard door height. Just one that they don't
stock it in the stores. You have to order it. It's more expensive
than an 80" door, but not by a whole lot. In my opinion, better than
hacking more than the manufacturer's recommended amount from an 80"
door. Most people are too stuipd or lazy to do it the right way and
actually order a door that's the right size.

try the custom desk at a big box, or at a real lumberyard. you can also look
up doors in the yellow pages. when i was building my house, i found a small
shop that just builds doors for custom houses, that was the same cost as
buying all the doors at a big box.

ddb had written this in response to
http://www.thestuccocompany.com/main...es-307769-.htm
:
OK...Let's make this simple. Having just cut down about 15 of these very
same doors (six panel hollow-core), from 80" cut down to as small as 76",
let me say this:

1) Any so-called contractor leaving open ends on a door is not a real
contractor. Don't pay them. Don't hire them. Don't let them on your
property.

2) If you're cutting the door down by 3/4 or less, you can cut the bottom.
Don't cut the top.

3) Contractors habitually don't cut the top because (a) if you've got a
pre-hung, you'll leave a gap, or (b) if it's a replacement slab (you're
just replacing an existing door and keeping the old jamb and stop) with no
hinge or handle cut outs, they'll measure top-down to get hinge placement
on the door vs. the ones they'll route or chisel out on your new door.
However, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule (see #4 below).

4) If you've got to cut down more than say 2 or 3 inches, and you feel
that the 'balance' between the door panels is too wacky from top to
bottom, you CAN cut the top and bottom. However, you're going to have to
chisel out a new hinge placement to ensure you don't leave a gap a the top
of the door. In the case where you're replacing existing doors, buy a
'slab' door with no hinges and handle cut outs, and buy an inexpensive
Irwin doorhandle/hinge install kit at Home Depot and a good, sharp, 1"
chisel. It worked perfect for me.

To cut down a hollow door more than 3/4" and make it right, this is what I
did:

* Measured the offset *carefully* on my circular saw to the outside of the
blade, in my case, 1 12/32".
* Clamped a straight-edge to the top or bottom of the door that I wanted
to cut. This was measured off at Offset + the amount I want to shorten the
door by.
* Cut the door with the circular saw. I ended up with a cut end with the
entire solid plug sandwiched between the veneers of the door.
* Used table saw to line up the plug to trim *just* the veneer off. Worked
awesome every time. I set it so I could literally peel the last bit of
veneer off about the thickness of a piece of paper, so I knew the plug was
perfect.
* Spread wood glue on inside of door where plug will go. Wipe with finger
to get even coat. Do the same on the door plug. Insert. Clamp for 30
minutes.

Done. I've done both bi-folds and interior doors with this method, and it
works awesome. I have a 1962 basement+main with original doors at 78",
plus a new basement reno that is 80" standard with a lower ceiling in my
laundry taking it down to 76".

PS: If you need to cut the door lengthways to trim it, use a table saw and
get a friend to help you handle it through. Don't use the circular saw
method for that ... too slow, and if it's not perfect, you'll notice the
tiniest imperfections lengthways, whereas at the top and bottom, you don't
notice any small stuff at all (like saw blade marks).

Your 'contractor' is an incompetent buffoon. Sorry...I've had one of those
too...who hasn't?

-------------------------------------
nnnnnnnnn wrote:


I just had a number of interior doors replaced in an old house that I am

having renovated. The door replacements were done to make all of the
interior doors in the house match instead of having mismatched door
styles
throughout the house. The original doors were 77" to 78"
high. I had the
doors replaced with inexpensive hollow core Masonite veneer 6-panel
door
slabs.

The replacement door slabs were 80 inches high, so they had to be cut.
But
the cuts meant that either the top or bottom ended up as just an open
hollow
space between the front and back veneers. Somehow that doesn't seem
right
to me. What do contractors normally do in this situation? Do they
really
just leave the top or bottom open like that? Do they try to fill in
the
space with a replacement filler piece?

When I search in stores and on the Internet, I can't seem to find
interior
door slabs that come in any size less than 80' high. Am I missing
something? Don't manufacturers sell hollow core doors that are
78" high so
that when they are cut a little shorter there is still a solid end
piece at
the top and bottom?

Is my only other option to use solid core replacement interior doors?
And,
if so, do they sell solid core interior replacement doors that are 78
inches
high?






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"nnnnnnnnn" wrote in
:

I just had a number of interior doors replaced in an old house that I
am having renovated. The door replacements were done to make all of
the interior doors in the house match instead of having mismatched
door styles throughout the house. The original doors were 77" to 78"
high. I had the doors replaced with inexpensive hollow core Masonite
veneer 6-panel door slabs.

The replacement door slabs were 80 inches high, so they had to be cut.
But the cuts meant that either the top or bottom ended up as just an
open hollow space between the front and back veneers. Somehow that
doesn't seem right to me. What do contractors normally do in this
situation? Do they really just leave the top or bottom open like
that? Do they try to fill in the space with a replacement filler
piece?

When I search in stores and on the Internet, I can't seem to find
interior door slabs that come in any size less than 80' high. Am I
missing something? Don't manufacturers sell hollow core doors that
are 78" high so that when they are cut a little shorter there is still
a solid end piece at the top and bottom?

Is my only other option to use solid core replacement interior doors?
And, if so, do they sell solid core interior replacement doors that
are 78 inches high?


As Dennis said,

1) Any so-called contractor leaving open ends on a door
is not a real contractor

I am not a real contractor either but I sure wouldn't do that. If the
door looked OK after the cut and hung I would have taken the paneling off
the cutoff piece which would leave the wood "filler" piece, put some glue
on it, slide it back up in the opening and clamp for a few hours. Heck,
might even get away with not clamping and just put some brads in to hold
it till dry. Probably never see them. Especially if they get painted.

Too bad you don't have the cutoffs???