Installing Slab French Doors In A Cased Opening The Easy Way – Part 1

I made a decision that I must go forward and set up the French doorways to our bed room suite for the reason that flooring is within the technique of being torn up, and Felicity (our cat) has now been below the home not less than 3 times. The bed room the place the ground is at present being torn out (the teal door on the left within the picture under) does have a pocket door on it…

I ordered two of those slab 10-lite doorways from Dwelling Depot.

The explanation that I ordered slab doorways as an alternative of pre-hung French doorways is as a result of the doorway the place I wish to set up these doorways has already been trimmed out. I’m turning this cased opening between the music room and the hallway into the doorway to our new bed room suite. Ultimately, the doorway into the toilet shall be closed up, and the toilet shall be accessible on the alternative wall of the toilet. However that’s for an additional time. For now, I simply wanted to get these French doorways put in on this already trimmed out cased opening.

The cased opening is 46 inches large, so I ordered two 24-inch-wide doorways in order that they might be aspect sufficient to cowl the opening, however figuring out that they’d should be lower down only a bit. And since I needed to do that the simplest approach attainable, I bought non-mortise door hinges for the doorways. I purchased three hinges for every door. Non-mortise door hinges don’t require the usage of a router or chisel to put in the door. You simply screw the hinges on to the door jamb and to the sting of the door with no mess or fuss. It’s tremendous straightforward! I did purchase longer screws, although. Since my doorways are type of heavy (and never hole core doorways), I didn’t wish to use these little screws supplied with the hinges.

Beginning on the high of the door jamb, I measured down 6.5 inches, after which screwed the hinge in place in order that the highest of the hinge was on the pencil mark.

Subsequent, I measured up from the ground 7.5 inches and made a mark. I screwed the hinge on in order that the underside of the hinge was on the mark. And at last, I measured and marked the middle level between these two hinges and screwed the third hinge onto the door jamb in order that it was centered between the opposite two.

I repeated that course of on the opposite door jamb.

Subsequent, I used scrap lumber to shim the door up excessive sufficient in order that there was about 1/8 inch between the highest of the door and the highest jamb.

This was a bit tough doing all of this on my own — holding the door in place, lining up the sting of the door with the hinge, and screwing the hinge into place. However with some endurance, I managed to get it screwed on. I began with the middle hinge simply because it was the simplest to do first. Had I began with the underside, I’d have wanted one other particular person to assist me maintain the door in place, and had I began with the highest, I’d have needed to do all of that balancing act on a ladder, which might have been extremely irritating. So beginning with the middle hinge made extra sense. I didn’t make any marks earlier than screwing the door to the hinge. The marks you see there are simply from the steel of the hinge scraping towards the door as I attempted to get the door in simply the fitting place.

However as soon as the center hinge was hooked up, the remainder was very straightforward. I did the highest one subsequent, and it was very straightforward to line up and get it screwed on.

After which the underside one was additionally very straightforward. So it was actually simply the primary one which was a bit difficult.

And right here’s how that regarded as soon as all three have been hooked up. You possibly can see mild across the door with such a hinge, however that downside is solved as soon as the cease is hooked up.

Earlier than attaching the cease, I first needed to set up the second door. I put in this one a bit in another way since I wanted the doorways to match precisely. As a substitute of beginning the set up of the second door with the center hinge, I as an alternative measured the location of the highest hinge on the primary door, and replicated that precise placement on the second door, predrilling the holes to make it so simple as attainable as soon as I stepped up on the ladder, after which labored my approach down. As a result of I used to be working with pre-drilled holes, ranging from the highest and dealing down on the second door was truly fairly straightforward.

I made a decision to put in the doorways earlier than trimming the surplus width. I’m solely going to trim the surplus width off of the within edge on every door, so I’ll do this by eradicating the hinge pins to take away the doorways, utilizing my round noticed to trim the sting, after which rehanging the door by merely lining up the hinges and placing the pins again in.

I do know that simply trimming off the surplus with from the within edge on every door will make the stiles on every door totally different widths. And if the doorway solely had one door on it, I’d by no means take into account doing that. However because it’s two doorways, and so they’ll be excellent mirror photos of one another to keep up that steadiness, I feel it’ll be advantageous. Proper? You’ll have to influence me should you disagree. 😀

To complete up the door trim, I wanted to put in cease across the edges. I began with the highest piece, which I lower with my miter noticed after which hooked up utilizing 1.5-inch 16-gauge nails.

After which I hooked up the aspect items of cease.

You possibly can see how the cease covers over that small hole from the non-mortise hinges.

After which I hooked up the cease on the opposite aspect. And right here’s what the doorways regarded like after I stopped for the night.

Chopping the doorways down would be the most nerve wracking a part of the challenge. I’m not wanting ahead to that half, however I’m wanting ahead to those doorways being utterly put in! As soon as they’re lower down and put again into place, I’ll want to put in some ball catch closures on the highest jamb in order that the doorways will truly keep closed. Hopefully I can get the remainder executed at the moment and present you the completed French doorways tomorrow!