Adding Door to Doorway
 

My bathroom has the toilet in a cubby area through a wall. There is no
door. The house was built 18 years ago. Can I just buy a door that
fits, chisel the doorway sides for hinges and stuff, and screw it in
myself? Or do I have to hire someone to tear things up and put up a
header and load-bearing wood and stuff like that? Or do you have a
suggestion for a shower rod and curtain or something similar?
And if the answer is that I need lots of support built, can you say in
general the current wood trim can be removed carefully enough so the
wallpaper around it isn't disturbed? I mean, if the wallpaper is
torn up, I will have to completely redo the wallpaper in the whole
bathroom because it's 18 years old and we have no extra.

Measure the opening (across as well as vertically)and go to your favorite
lumber yard, Home Depot, Lowes,etc. and see what they have in a prehung door
that will fit.


wrote in message
oups.com...
My bathroom has the toilet in a cubby area through a wall. There is no
door. The house was built 18 years ago. Can I just buy a door that
fits, chisel the doorway sides for hinges and stuff, and screw it in
myself? Or do I have to hire someone to tear things up and put up a
header and load-bearing wood and stuff like that? Or do you have a
suggestion for a shower rod and curtain or something similar?
And if the answer is that I need lots of support built, can you say in
general the current wood trim can be removed carefully enough so the
wallpaper around it isn't disturbed? I mean, if the wallpaper is
torn up, I will have to completely redo the wallpaper in the whole
bathroom because it's 18 years old and we have no extra.

What do you need a door for anyway? Most people are extremely
attractive when they are taking a dump. And, if your wife and you
havn't seen each other crap yet, then you aren't really married.

"Robert Allison" wrote in message
news:uCPQd.32036$uc.15314@trnddc03...
wrote:
My bathroom has the toilet in a cubby area through a wall. There is no
door. The house was built 18 years ago. Can I just buy a door that
fits, chisel the doorway sides for hinges and stuff, and screw it in
myself? Or do I have to hire someone to tear things up and put up a
header and load-bearing wood and stuff like that? Or do you have a
suggestion for a shower rod and curtain or something similar?
And if the answer is that I need lots of support built, can you say in
general the current wood trim can be removed carefully enough so the
wallpaper around it isn't disturbed? I mean, if the wallpaper is
torn up, I will have to completely redo the wallpaper in the whole
bathroom because it's 18 years old and we have no extra.


If you have a cased opening, you can have a door made to fit it. They do
not do this at the big box amateur stores, but a door mill will have no
problem, even with odd sizes. It will probably be less expensive, too.
You will probably have to install door stop on a cased opening, but that
is simple.

Once you have a door that is correctly sized, install your hinges and
hardware and you are good to go.

--
Robert Allison Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX

chances are the OP doesn't have a frame, but drywall and some unknown number
of studs somewhere in the wall. the answer in this case would be no, they
need some sort of framework to attach the prehung doorframe to. you can't
attach that to the drywall.

On 2/16/2005 4:06 PM US(ET), took fingers to keys,
and typed the following:

My bathroom has the toilet in a cubby area through a wall. There is no
door. The house was built 18 years ago. Can I just buy a door that
fits, chisel the doorway sides for hinges and stuff, and screw it in
myself? Or do I have to hire someone to tear things up and put up a
header and load-bearing wood and stuff like that? Or do you have a
suggestion for a shower rod and curtain or something similar?
And if the answer is that I need lots of support built, can you say in
general the current wood trim can be removed carefully enough so the
wallpaper around it isn't disturbed? I mean, if the wallpaper is
torn up, I will have to completely redo the wallpaper in the whole
bathroom because it's 18 years old and we have no extra.


I can't see the alcove from here, but if you do not remove any
structural components, you do not need a header above the door. All you
need above is a 2"x4" framework to attach sheetrock.
You might be able to remove the trim without destroying the wallpaper if
you run a utility knife around the seam between the trim.and wallpaper
You might also consider a slatted folding door, or an accordian door, if
a swinging door would be too intrusive into the reat of the bathroom.

--
Bill

UPDATE:
Thanks for the good advice, everyone.
To further help you help me, the opening has wood trim on it, including
on the top of the opening. It's not just drywall all around. I
suppose it's 1x6s with typical moulding on the approaching walls. It
could be 2x6s, but if I were building the house, I would have saved my
money by using 1x6s.
I guess the main thing I'm worried about is the opening being able to
support a door (even a cheap, hollow door).

Charles Spitzer wrote:

"Robert Allison" wrote in message
news:uCPQd.32036$uc.15314@trnddc03...

wrote:

My bathroom has the toilet in a cubby area through a wall. There is no
door. The house was built 18 years ago. Can I just buy a door that
fits, chisel the doorway sides for hinges and stuff, and screw it in
myself? Or do I have to hire someone to tear things up and put up a
header and load-bearing wood and stuff like that? Or do you have a
suggestion for a shower rod and curtain or something similar?
And if the answer is that I need lots of support built, can you say in
general the current wood trim can be removed carefully enough so the
wallpaper around it isn't disturbed? I mean, if the wallpaper is
torn up, I will have to completely redo the wallpaper in the whole
bathroom because it's 18 years old and we have no extra.


If you have a cased opening, you can have a door made to fit it. They do
not do this at the big box amateur stores, but a door mill will have no
problem, even with odd sizes. It will probably be less expensive, too.
You will probably have to install door stop on a cased opening, but that
is simple.

Once you have a door that is correctly sized, install your hinges and
hardware and you are good to go.

--
Robert Allison Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX


chances are the OP doesn't have a frame, but drywall and some unknown number
of studs somewhere in the wall. the answer in this case would be no, they
need some sort of framework to attach the prehung doorframe to. you can't
attach that to the drywall.


If it is a wrapped opening (drywall on sides), then it would not be
a cased opening. I believe it is a cased opening because the OP
mentioned that he has casing over wallpaper. One does not usually
put casing on a wrapped opening, but one does put casing on a cased
opening.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX

On 2/17/2005 8:00 AM US(ET), took fingers to keys,
and typed the following:

UPDATE:
Thanks for the good advice, everyone.
To further help you help me, the opening has wood trim on it, including
on the top of the opening. It's not just drywall all around. I
suppose it's 1x6s with typical moulding on the approaching walls. It
could be 2x6s, but if I were building the house, I would have saved my
money by using 1x6s.
I guess the main thing I'm worried about is the opening being able to
support a door (even a cheap, hollow door).


If you are worried about hanging the door from that 1x6 trim, you can
get some longer brass screws from Lowes or HD for the hinges. I recently
did that with some french doors and got brass screws long enough to go
into the studs.

--
Bill

On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 10:24:04 -0500, willshak
wrote:

On 2/17/2005 8:00 AM US(ET), took fingers to keys,
and typed the following:

UPDATE:
Thanks for the good advice, everyone.
To further help you help me, the opening has wood trim on it, including
on the top of the opening. It's not just drywall all around. I
suppose it's 1x6s with typical moulding on the approaching walls. It
could be 2x6s, but if I were building the house, I would have saved my
money by using 1x6s.
I guess the main thing I'm worried about is the opening being able to
support a door (even a cheap, hollow door).


If you are worried about hanging the door from that 1x6 trim, you can
get some longer brass screws from Lowes or HD for the hinges. I recently
did that with some french doors and got brass screws long enough to go
into the studs.

The door is supported by the hinges, and the hinges are supported by
their screws. Use 2" screws, and worst case, they'll embedd in
3/4" of trim, 1/2" of sheetrock, and another 3/4" of stud.

THat will hold up an interior door, unless you're swinging on it.

wrote in message
oups.com...
UPDATE:
Thanks for the good advice, everyone.
To further help you help me, the opening has wood trim on it, including
on the top of the opening. It's not just drywall all around. I
suppose it's 1x6s with typical moulding on the approaching walls. It
could be 2x6s, but if I were building the house, I would have saved my
money by using 1x6s.
I guess the main thing I'm worried about is the opening being able to
support a door (even a cheap, hollow door).


If the height of the opening is 80-81" you are ready to shop for a door.
Just measure the width top, middle and bottom. Use the smaller number. I
don't recall all the sizes and I may miss one but common stock door sizes
are 24, 28, 30, 32, 36 and I think they make a 34. The jamb portion of
your opening most likely is 1x stock but that is fine that is all a pre-hung
door has anyway.

Robert gave you instructions about the method in his first post. You most
likely will need to add the blind stop he mentioned.


Colbyt