Fitting an internal door or replacing a damaged one seems like a difficult task. However, if you follow the necessary steps, it can be a pretty easy and quick task. Sometimes, when renovating your house, you might discover that all you need to give the room a facelift is replacing that ancient, rough-looking door. Without paying for the services of a carpenter or expert, you can get your internal door fixed in a matter of minutes. DS Brothers Ltd, a company of builders in London, has shared some details on how to do this.
Preparing to Replace the Door
The tools you need to replace and fit in a new door are basic tools such as
- Tape measure
- Planer and sandpaper
- Circular saw or carpentry saw
- Screwdriver
- Wood chisels
- Flatwood drill bit set
- Utility knives
- door wedges
You can easily rent some other tools if you don’t have them all. Also, your safety tools should not be forgotten. These include hand gloves and safety googles to protect your hands and eyes.
Before fitting in a new door, there are some details you must be conscious of. This is because it would be a mistake to fit in the door, only to step back to observe how lopsided or awkward it turned out. So, observing details about measurements, as well as selecting an ideal choice for a door, is really important. Firstly, note that an internal or interior door should be a hollow core door, not a solid one. So, when you have to buy the door for an internal fitting, ensure it can be lifted by one person, and also ensure the wood is of good quality. When you get this home and to the entrance point of fitting, then you are ready.
Measuring for Your New Door
Measuring the door is arguably the most important part of the task here. The goal is to make sure the new door fits into the doorway. In many cases, the door is usually a bit bigger than the standard doorframe. Remember that the door needs to have some small gap beneath it and the floor. In that case, you would have to trim off a few bits of the wood, using a plane or a circular saw. It is always advisable to use the old door you’re replacing to measure and cut the new door to the right size. Ensure you cut from both sides of either length or breadth to make your trimming neat and even. However, be very careful and avoid trimming more than what the fitting instructions state. There should be a 2mm gap on both sides and at the top, and also at the bottom. You can use some two pence coins to gauge this accurately.
Fitting the Door on the Hinges
As soon as you have your door trimmed to the right size, then you have to measure the position to fit in your hinges. Your hinges go in two points on the door length and they help the door swing open and shut smoothly. Check the door up in the frame, ensuring it is very straight by using the wedges. Then use the pencil to mark the lines from the hinge recesses on the frame. Trim off the excess wood with a chisel. Ensure the new hinge fits comfortably, and then screw each hinge to the door frame and open the hinges. If done correctly, the hinge pivots will stick out from the edges of the doorframe. Fit the door into the doorframe again by resting it on the wedges. Use the pencil to mark the position of the fixed hinges to the door.
Now, unscrew the hinges from the doorframe and place them at the door edge, where you pencil marked. Mark the width of the hinge carefully on the door. Then you make a series of straight cuts with the knife across the wood. It should be at most 5mm intervals, and the same depth as the flap. It is advisable that you only fix in the hinges with one screw. Do not yet fix in the other screws until you are done with every adjustment and you are satisfied with the result.
Hanging the New Door
The next thing to do is fix in the hinge flaps to the door frame. Ensure that the door opens smoothly on its hinges and fits into the frame without any difficulty. Then you can fix in the last screws onto the hinges. And voila! Your new door is fixed.
Finishing the task might require you to also fit in the door handle. This means you would have to measure and pencil-= mark the position and then drill a small hole to fit the latch. Use a chisel to make cuts on the pencil marks and then clear out the debris. After fitting and inserting the latch, make sure it is level, and ensure the latch plate lies flush before screwing it into place on the door frame.
Following these steps, you can easily fit a new internal door by yourself and even make it secure and perfect.