Friend of mine asked if he could borrow my router, because he needed to
replace a door in his house. House is recent construction, doors are
hollow core "six panel" doors apparently made of pressed poop and fail.
He bought a similar door (from HD) the same nominal size and just
wanted to rout the mortises for the hinges, because being mass produced
prehung doors they used radius-corner hinges.

The old door measured 29-7/8" wide. The new door (Jeld-Wen) brand
measured almost 30-1/4" wide. FAIL FAIL FAIL. Of course I didn't have
a plane in the trunk of my car.

On the upside, while the old busted door appeared to have the outside
frame made of MDF, the new Jeld-Wen door, despite having the same flimsy
(understatement of century) facing, used real pine for the structure.

I personally would have been tempted to spend the $$ and buy a real
solid pine paneled door, but then the doors in the rest of the house
would have looked like **** in comparison...

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

On May 15, 6:54*pm, Oren wrote:
On Sun, 15 May 2011 20:14:47 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:





Friend of mine asked if he could borrow my router, because he needed to
replace a door in his house. *House is recent construction, doors are
hollow core "six panel" doors apparently made of pressed poop and fail.
*He bought a similar door (from HD) the same nominal size and just
wanted to rout the mortises for the hinges, because being mass produced
prehung doors they used radius-corner hinges.

The old door measured 29-7/8" wide. *The new door (Jeld-Wen) brand
measured almost 30-1/4" wide. *FAIL FAIL FAIL. *Of course I didn't have
a plane in the trunk of my car.

On the upside, while the old busted door appeared to have the outside
frame made of MDF, the new Jeld-Wen door, despite having the same flimsy
(understatement of century) facing, used real pine for the structure.

I personally would have been tempted to spend the $$ and buy a real
solid pine paneled door, but then the doors in the rest of the house
would have looked like **** in comparison...

nate

Are you mad about it?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

OT: I am _now_ firm believer in using 36" doors everywhere when
building. I remodeled (total floor plan change) and reused the old
doors - 28" thirty years ago. Wife now disabled and can't manuever
her wheel chair through those narrow doors.

Harry K

On May 15, 9:54*pm, Oren wrote:
On Sun, 15 May 2011 20:14:47 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:





Friend of mine asked if he could borrow my router, because he needed to
replace a door in his house. *House is recent construction, doors are
hollow core "six panel" doors apparently made of pressed poop and fail.
*He bought a similar door (from HD) the same nominal size and just
wanted to rout the mortises for the hinges, because being mass produced
prehung doors they used radius-corner hinges.

The old door measured 29-7/8" wide. *The new door (Jeld-Wen) brand
measured almost 30-1/4" wide. *FAIL FAIL FAIL. *Of course I didn't have
a plane in the trunk of my car.

On the upside, while the old busted door appeared to have the outside
frame made of MDF, the new Jeld-Wen door, despite having the same flimsy
(understatement of century) facing, used real pine for the structure.

I personally would have been tempted to spend the $$ and buy a real
solid pine paneled door, but then the doors in the rest of the house
would have looked like **** in comparison...

nate

Are you mad about it?

Well, I'm a little annoyed, although it is my fault somewhat for not
measuring the door against the opening before starting to prep it.
(I'd thought that my friend had set it in the opening to make sure it
fit, but apparently not.) However I am appalled at the cheesy
construction of these doors... there's several doors in the house with
evidence of damage from just having been slammed by kids (or perhaps
angry adults,) although it's hard to get ****ed at the kids because
without seeing them do anything it's hard to say whether they're being
particularly abusive or not, these things are SO flimsy. They make
the hollow core veneer doors that were popular a few decades ago look
positively robust by comparison.

nate

Friend of mine asked if he could borrow my router, because he needed to
replace a door in his house. House is recent construction, doors are
hollow core "six panel" doors apparently made of pressed poop and fail.
He bought a similar door (from HD) the same nominal size and just
wanted to rout the mortises for the hinges, because being mass produced
prehung doors they used radius-corner hinges.
The old door measured 29-7/8" wide. The new door (Jeld-Wen) brand
measured almost 30-1/4" wide. FAIL FAIL FAIL. Of course I didn't have
a plane in the trunk of my car.

Oversized is no problem, just use a straight edge and a circular saw to
trim it to the actual size you need. There's usually a couple inches of
solid wood around the frame for trimming to width and height. Even if you
have to trim a few inches off the bottom, you can cut a filler strip of
solid wood to fill the gap. I did that last summer at my in-laws.

If the door is already prebored for locksets, I would trim the door on the
hinge side to avoid problems with the locksets. Then cut new hinge
mortises.

Anthony

On Sun, 15 May 2011 20:14:47 -0400, Nate Nagel wrote:
The old door measured 29-7/8" wide. The new door (Jeld-Wen) brand
measured almost 30-1/4" wide.

Hmm, I thought the Jen-weld ones are normally clearly marked with the
dimensions & rough opening? All their exterior ones that I've seen have
been, anyway - perhaps the interiors are different.

On the upside, while the old busted door appeared to have the outside
frame made of MDF, the new Jeld-Wen door, despite having the same flimsy
(understatement of century) facing, used real pine for the structure.

Yeah, I think they're engineered lumber rather than solid pine, but it's
still a bit better than MDF (what we used to call custard wood in NZ :-)

I've got a couple of Jen-weld exterior doors here; the first wasn't too
bad (in "you get what you pay for" terms, anyway) but the other was very
poorly assembled - I'm still kicking myself for ever loading it onto the
truck. I've never messed with their interior stuff, though - there are
probably less parts and therefore less to screw up :-)

I personally would have been tempted to spend the $$ and buy a real
solid pine paneled door, but then the doors in the rest of the house
would have looked like **** in comparison...

Most of our interior ones are solid and well-built, with big old pinned
hinges on them and those nice old latches that take the huge keys, but
there's a complete mixture of four-panel and three-panel ones. At some
point I want to learn how to make my own so that I can make them all look
the same (and hopefully someone makes reproduction latch assemblies,
because they're all getting pretty worn now)

cheers

Jules

N8N wrote:

Well, I'm a little annoyed, although it is my fault somewhat for not
measuring the door against the opening before starting to prep it.

How old is the house? Doors sizes were not always standardized, and
often built on-site.

Yes, you should have measured! The dimensions are the first thing you
write down, then whether it's RH or LH for hinges, then if they swing in
or out.

I guess the order of operations is not important, obviously. But
believe me, after I saw a professional I was helping pick-up the wrong
door (even knowing the measurements)...

Well, that's something else to measure/inspect at the supplier too. I
don't trust stickers implicitly now when the consequence is a ~~
R-e-a-l-l-y ~~ rotten day.


--
1 FREE lifetime domain registration!
DreamHost Promo Code "GMORG321"
https://signup.dreamhost.com/

HerHusband wrote in
:

Friend of mine asked if he could borrow my router, because he needed
to replace a door in his house. House is recent construction, doors
are hollow core "six panel" doors apparently made of pressed poop and
fail.
He bought a similar door (from HD) the same nominal size and just
wanted to rout the mortises for the hinges, because being mass
produced prehung doors they used radius-corner hinges.
The old door measured 29-7/8" wide. The new door (Jeld-Wen) brand
measured almost 30-1/4" wide. FAIL FAIL FAIL. Of course I didn't
have a plane in the trunk of my car.

Oversized is no problem, just use a straight edge and a circular saw
to trim it to the actual size you need. There's usually a couple
inches of solid wood around the frame for trimming to width and
height. Even if you have to trim a few inches off the bottom, you can
cut a filler strip of solid wood to fill the gap. I did that last
summer at my in-laws.

If the door is already prebored for locksets, I would trim the door on
the hinge side to avoid problems with the locksets. Then cut new
hinge mortises.

Aw, you just need to look a bit harder for a 2" backset :-)


Anthony

On May 16, 8:52*am, N8N wrote:
On May 15, 9:54*pm, Oren wrote:





On Sun, 15 May 2011 20:14:47 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:

Friend of mine asked if he could borrow my router, because he needed to
replace a door in his house. *House is recent construction, doors are
hollow core "six panel" doors apparently made of pressed poop and fail..
*He bought a similar door (from HD) the same nominal size and just
wanted to rout the mortises for the hinges, because being mass produced
prehung doors they used radius-corner hinges.

The old door measured 29-7/8" wide. *The new door (Jeld-Wen) brand
measured almost 30-1/4" wide. *FAIL FAIL FAIL. *Of course I didn't have
a plane in the trunk of my car.

On the upside, while the old busted door appeared to have the outside
frame made of MDF, the new Jeld-Wen door, despite having the same flimsy
(understatement of century) facing, used real pine for the structure.

I personally would have been tempted to spend the $$ and buy a real
solid pine paneled door, but then the doors in the rest of the house
would have looked like **** in comparison...

nate

Are you mad about it?

Well, I'm a little annoyed, although it is my fault somewhat for not
measuring the door against the opening before starting to prep it.
(I'd thought that my friend had set it in the opening to make sure it
fit, but apparently not.) *However I am appalled at the cheesy
construction of these doors... there's several doors in the house with
evidence of damage from just having been slammed by kids (or perhaps
angry adults,) although it's hard to get ****ed at the kids because
without seeing them do anything it's hard to say whether they're being
particularly abusive or not, these things are SO flimsy. *They make
the hollow core veneer doors that were popular a few decades ago look
positively robust by comparison.

nate- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"However I am appalled at the cheesy construction of these doors"

A couple of years ago a friend moved into a ~$200K home that he had
had built. He asked me to put a cat door in the door that lead to the
basement. I asked him if he was sure that he wanted me to cut a hole
in a brand new door - what would that do to the warranty if I screwed
it up? Are you sure you don't want to ask the builder to do it?

He decided to ask the builder about it and his answer was: "Let your
friend do it. If he screws up the door, I can charge you less for a
new door than I would have to charge you to put the cat door in
myself."

Considering how simple the job was, I was surprised to hear
that...until I cut the hole in the door.

The "6 panel door", complete with wood grain, was made of pressed
cardboard. There was a wooden frame, but the entire field was
basically paper. Even the interior supports were made from corrugated
cardboard set on edge for strength.

I have no doubt that just about anyone could punch a hole in one of
these doors with very little effort.

On May 16, 3:02*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On May 16, 8:52*am, N8N wrote:





On May 15, 9:54*pm, Oren wrote:

On Sun, 15 May 2011 20:14:47 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:

Friend of mine asked if he could borrow my router, because he needed to
replace a door in his house. *House is recent construction, doors are
hollow core "six panel" doors apparently made of pressed poop and fail.
*He bought a similar door (from HD) the same nominal size and just
wanted to rout the mortises for the hinges, because being mass produced
prehung doors they used radius-corner hinges.

The old door measured 29-7/8" wide. *The new door (Jeld-Wen) brand
measured almost 30-1/4" wide. *FAIL FAIL FAIL. *Of course I didn't have
a plane in the trunk of my car.

On the upside, while the old busted door appeared to have the outside
frame made of MDF, the new Jeld-Wen door, despite having the same flimsy
(understatement of century) facing, used real pine for the structure..

I personally would have been tempted to spend the $$ and buy a real
solid pine paneled door, but then the doors in the rest of the house
would have looked like **** in comparison...

nate

Are you mad about it?

Well, I'm a little annoyed, although it is my fault somewhat for not
measuring the door against the opening before starting to prep it.
(I'd thought that my friend had set it in the opening to make sure it
fit, but apparently not.) *However I am appalled at the cheesy
construction of these doors... there's several doors in the house with
evidence of damage from just having been slammed by kids (or perhaps
angry adults,) although it's hard to get ****ed at the kids because
without seeing them do anything it's hard to say whether they're being
particularly abusive or not, these things are SO flimsy. *They make
the hollow core veneer doors that were popular a few decades ago look
positively robust by comparison.

nate- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"However I am appalled at the cheesy construction of these doors"

A couple of years ago a friend moved into a ~$200K home that he had
had built. *He asked me to put a cat door in the door that lead to the
basement. I asked him if he was sure that he wanted me to cut a hole
in a brand new door - what would that do to the warranty if I screwed
it up? Are you sure you don't want to ask the builder to do it?

He decided to ask the builder about it and his answer was: "Let your
friend do it. If he screws up the door, I can charge you less for a
new door than I would have to charge you to put the cat door in
myself."

Considering how simple the job was, I was surprised to hear
that...until I cut the hole in the door.

The "6 panel door", complete with wood grain, was made of pressed
cardboard. There was a wooden frame, but the entire field was
basically paper. Even the interior supports were made from corrugated
cardboard set on edge for strength.

I have no doubt that just about anyone could punch a hole in one of
these doors with very little effort.

This house was built less than two years ago and cost considerably
more than $200K. Doors are very much as you describe save for these
ones didn't even have a "wooden frame" the structure was all some sort
of engineered processed wood pulp food product. Hence my shock and
awe. Whereas I can get the real deal paneled doors at the
architectural salvage place for about the same price, but there's
obviously travel time, issues finding the size you need, finding ones
that exactly match, painting, filling all the old mortises and making
new ones, etc.

nate

On May 16, 4:40*pm, N8N wrote:
On May 16, 3:02*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:









On May 16, 8:52*am, N8N wrote:

On May 15, 9:54*pm, Oren wrote:

On Sun, 15 May 2011 20:14:47 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:

Friend of mine asked if he could borrow my router, because he needed to
replace a door in his house. *House is recent construction, doors are
hollow core "six panel" doors apparently made of pressed poop and fail.
*He bought a similar door (from HD) the same nominal size and just
wanted to rout the mortises for the hinges, because being mass produced
prehung doors they used radius-corner hinges.

The old door measured 29-7/8" wide. *The new door (Jeld-Wen) brand
measured almost 30-1/4" wide. *FAIL FAIL FAIL. *Of course I didn't have
a plane in the trunk of my car.

On the upside, while the old busted door appeared to have the outside
frame made of MDF, the new Jeld-Wen door, despite having the same flimsy
(understatement of century) facing, used real pine for the structure.

I personally would have been tempted to spend the $$ and buy a real
solid pine paneled door, but then the doors in the rest of the house
would have looked like **** in comparison...

nate

Are you mad about it?

Well, I'm a little annoyed, although it is my fault somewhat for not
measuring the door against the opening before starting to prep it.
(I'd thought that my friend had set it in the opening to make sure it
fit, but apparently not.) *However I am appalled at the cheesy
construction of these doors... there's several doors in the house with
evidence of damage from just having been slammed by kids (or perhaps
angry adults,) although it's hard to get ****ed at the kids because
without seeing them do anything it's hard to say whether they're being
particularly abusive or not, these things are SO flimsy. *They make
the hollow core veneer doors that were popular a few decades ago look
positively robust by comparison.

nate- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"However I am appalled at the cheesy construction of these doors"

A couple of years ago a friend moved into a ~$200K home that he had
had built. *He asked me to put a cat door in the door that lead to the
basement. I asked him if he was sure that he wanted me to cut a hole
in a brand new door - what would that do to the warranty if I screwed
it up? Are you sure you don't want to ask the builder to do it?

He decided to ask the builder about it and his answer was: "Let your
friend do it. If he screws up the door, I can charge you less for a
new door than I would have to charge you to put the cat door in
myself."

Considering how simple the job was, I was surprised to hear
that...until I cut the hole in the door.

The "6 panel door", complete with wood grain, was made of pressed
cardboard. There was a wooden frame, but the entire field was
basically paper. Even the interior supports were made from corrugated
cardboard set on edge for strength.

I have no doubt that just about anyone could punch a hole in one of
these doors with very little effort.

This house was built less than two years ago and cost considerably
more than $200K. *Doors are very much as you describe save for these
ones didn't even have a "wooden frame" the structure was all some sort
of engineered processed wood pulp food product. *Hence my shock and
awe. *Whereas I can get the real deal paneled doors at the
architectural salvage place for about the same price, but there's
obviously travel time, issues finding the size you need, finding ones
that exactly match, painting, filling all the old mortises and making
new ones, etc.

nate

It should be noted that $200K where I am might get you the same house
as "considerably more than $200K" gets someone where you are.

Many years ago I was living in an $90K house in Western NY. My
brother, who still lives in my home town on Long Island came to visit.

I asked him what my house would sell for back home.

"$350K - $400K in my neighborhood, well over $500K just a couple of
blocks away."

I visited him recently and I was amazed at how little $700K gets you
on Long Island these days.