designbuzz.com

How to replace interior door

Sometimes minor changes of household items can go a long way to enhance their functionality as well as give a cool new look to your home. One such item can be the interior door. Over the years, we often neglect to give attention to our interior doors and to make things worse, attack of pests, mishandling, especially by children, and regular wear and tear leads to diminish its beauty as well as functionality. Additionally, the interior doors are also prone to get moldy by bad weather, succumb to scratch immediately, or warped to the point where there is no repair. All this might hinder your coziness and replacing the door can be the only option at that time. Replacing the interior door of your house neither requires a major effort nor is a heavy burden to your family budget. Careful planning, patience, and attention to detail are the only required skills to get a new shining door in no time at all. Read on.

Complexity Level: Moderate

Time required: 1-2 hours

Resources required:

  1. Hammer
  2. Screw Driver
  3. Pry bar
  4. Measuring tape
  5. Pencil
  6. Door molding
  7. Miter saw
  8. Trim nails
  9. Block planer
  10. Old card boards
  11. Chisel

Instructions:

  1. Read the manual: Go through the manual which informs on how to replace an interior door. Read all the instructions from the manual, provided by the door manufacturer, and gather the required resources to start the job.
  2. Measure the door: Measure the door by your measuring tape and write down the height and width of the existing door. Compare it with the new door. If the size of the new door is more, use a block planer to trim the door to suit required measurements.
  3. Be careful: Be careful and avoid the door falling on you. Cram something sturdy enough like old folded card boards under the door to hold the weight of the door as you remove it. This not only absorbs the thud by giving it a height support but also protects the floor beneath from damage.
  4. Unhinge the door: Remove and loosen the screws of the lower, and then followed by the upper hinges of the door with the help of a hammer and screwdriver.
  5. Detach carefully: Detach carefully, with the help of another person, the existing door and then keep it out of the way. Clear out the door frame of all the existing nails or other parts to make way for the new set-up.
  6. Install the new hinges: Now install the new hinges. Carefully measure out the area where you need to fix the hinges using the old door as a reference. Take a pencil to mark the area where the new hinges are to be fixed.
  7. Attach the new hinges: Chisel out the pencil marked area for the required depth to set the hinges for the door. Skip this step if the existing hinges are in good shape and are the same size as the new ones. Carefully with a screwdriver attach both the new hinges first on the door frame.
  8. Fix the hinges: Bring the new door and carefully mount it atop the cardboard wedge created earlier, and then bolt the other halves of the hinges from the door frame. First fix the top hinge and then the lower one.

Frequently asked questions:

1. Is it possible to replace an interior door with an exterior door?

If the requirement is such that the exterior door has to be converted as an interior door make sure that the security factor is not being compromised on. Furthermore, the size of a door matters a lot. If the exterior door is bigger than the frame, then you can trim it but if it is smaller than the frame, the entire exercise is a waste.

2. If the door is not made of one solid slab of wood but several pieces, will the replacement be difficult?

If the door is composed of several pieces of wood, you need to consider the size more specifically as the downsizing may not be an easy task.

Quick tips:

  1. While clearing out the nails with a drill or hammer, it is very essential that the adjoining wood or wall is protected by placing a block of wood under the hammer or nail puller.
  2. To ensure smooth functioning of the new door, do not compromise on the door fittings.
  3. As walls or existing frames might not be square, level, or perpendicular, it is favorable to choose an even door fit more than precise leveling.

Things to watch out for:

  1. As the entire activity can be very tiring and massive, it is better to take help from another person to take extra precaution of handling the replacement or pass the tools when required to ease the exercise better.
  2. While lifting doors or ladders, use safety measures and put more pressure on the knees than the back, to avoid backache later.
  3. Use proper safety gear like safety glasses, gloves, hearing protection, dust mask.
  4. Read manual carefully and gather tools near hand before starting the project.
  5. Put personal safety before any other factor while on the job.

Today's Top Articles:

Scroll to Top