Interior Doors: Varieties, Device, Components, Installation And Operation Features

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Interior doors: types and design features

There are no trifles in the interior - any poorly chosen element can spoil the impression, therefore, when planning the interior decoration of a home, all the details need to be thought out very carefully. This also applies to interior doors. The difficulty faced by the buyer lies in the wide variety of options: doors differ in construction, material and design.

Content

• 1 Varieties of interior doors

  • 1.1 Materials

    • 1.1.1 Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
    • 1.1.2 Fiberboard (Fibreboard), plywood
    • 1.1.3 Modified particle board (MDF)
    • 1.1.4 Solid wood doors
    • 1.1.5 Glass

  • 1.2 Design features

    • 1.2.1 Swing
    • 1.2.2 Sliding doors
    • 1.2.3 Revolving door
• 2 Dimensions of interior doors
• 3 Production of interior doors
• 4 Features of installation and operation

• 5 Accessories for interior doors

  • 5.1 Door handles
  • 5.2 Hinges
  • 5.3 Locks

• 6 Interior door repair

  • 6.1 When closing, the canvas rubs against the box or does not close at all

    6.1.1 Video: the easiest way to troubleshoot if the door stopped closing due to swelling

  • 6.2 Chips or scratches appear on the door
  • 6.3 Damaged veneer or laminate
• 7 Interior doors in the interior
• 8 Video: installation of the door in the opening in all details

Varieties of interior doors

Interior doors are classified by material and construction. To make the right choice, you should first carefully study all this information.

Materials

First of all, you should pay attention to the material from which the door is made. It can be plastic, wood - solid wood or pressed plates, glass. When choosing, you need to take into account not only the appearance, but also the conditions in which the product will be used. The durability of the material is also important.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

Plastic doors have a number of advantages:

• are not afraid of either wet or dry air;
• have a low cost;
• have a smooth and waterproof surface;

• easy to clean.

  

  A plastic door is easy to keep clean, so it will be an excellent solution for decorating a kitchen opening

However, in domestic conditions, they try not to use such doors, because they:

• have a cold unnatural shine that does not fit in with the concept of home comfort;
• quickly lose their attractive appearance, the surface becomes cloudy (plastic, due to its softness, is easily scratched);
• emit a harmful gas into the air - PVC, especially if the door is heated by the sun's rays coming through the window.

Thus, PVC doors are more suitable for public and office buildings, warehouses, manufacturing plants, etc. In extreme cases, they can be used in the kitchen and in the bathrooms.

Fiberboard (Fibreboard), plywood

Very cheap doors are also made from these materials - the so-called voids. They also have one more name - Canadian.

The hollow door consists of a frame, honeycomb filler and sheathing

The frame is knocked out of the bars, then it is sheathed with the indicated sheet materials. In addition to low cost, the following signs give out the hollow core:

• a booming "drum" sound heard when tapped;
• the most primitive design: just a smooth surface, painted with oil paint.

A budget option, but not particularly demanding on operating conditions. Can be installed, for example, in a country house.

Modified particle board (MDF)

Budget doors are made of MDF today. In fact, this material is an inexpensive substitute for an array.

Doors from MDF are distinguished by their attractive appearance and low price

In addition to low cost, products made from it have the following advantages:

• it is possible to give the canvas a shape of any complexity by making cutouts in it;
• you can glue the canvas with veneer or apply lamination with a polymer film with a pattern that imitates the texture of a tree;
• the material is resistant to moisture, does not deform;
• serves long enough.

Unlike other chipboards - chipboard and OSB - MDF does not contain phenol-formaldehyde resins. The role of the binding element in it is played by the natural glue contained in cellulose - lignin, which is squeezed out of the chips during pressing in combination with heating.

Solid wood doors

Canvases made of real wood look solid and aristocratic. This is an option for an expensive interior where MDF doors would look ridiculous.

Solid wood doors blend harmoniously with natural wood furniture

The product can be manufactured in two ways:

• entirely from valuable wood species: an expensive option;
• from cheap coniferous wood with veneer from valuable species.

The disadvantage of the array is its sensitivity to temperature and humidity conditions:

• it will swell in a damp room;
• dry - to dry out and warp.

Doors made of this material must be treated with varnish, due to which these features are manifested to a lesser extent, in addition, it becomes possible to remove dirt from the product

Glass

Glass doors fit into the high-tech interior much more organically than wooden doors. They are distinguished not only by their spectacular appearance, but also by complete indifference to the operating conditions: whatever the humidity and temperature, the canvas will remain flawlessly even.

Any, even the most bizarre, pattern can be applied to the glass sheet.

Time also does not affect the appearance of the glass door - it does not grow cloudy, does not scratch, is easy to clean and therefore always looks perfect. There are several options for execution:

• mirrored door;
• matte;
• with partial matting (a pattern is formed on the surface);
• stained glass window.

Also, glass can be present in the form of an insert in a wooden door, which allows natural light to penetrate from the room into the corridor.

The disadvantage of glass is known to everyone - it is fragility. He prompted the creation of improved varieties:

• armored glass: high impact resistance;
• hardened: on impact, it crumbles into many small fragments with blunt edges;
• triplex: double-layer glass with a gasket made of an elastic material that prevents fragments from scattering when cracking.

Design features

This factor is also of great importance when choosing. By design, interior doors are also divided into several types.

Swing

The most common option: the canvas turns on hinges attached to the side. In addition, double-leaf products are also used, and the sashes can have either the same or different widths. In the latter case, the narrower sash is usually fixed with a latch and opens only when it is necessary to bring some large object into the room. Such doors are called one and a half doors.

Swing doors are of two types:

1. Classic: they have a baffle that allows the canvas to be opened only in one direction.

   

   The porch provides a tighter fit of the canvases, thereby enhancing sound insulation

2. "Saloon": they do not have a vestibule, so they can swing open in both directions (they are also called swinging ones).

   

   In addition to the hinges, the saloon door has no other supports, therefore, increased requirements are imposed on their strength.

If the swing door goes out into the corridor, then it will block it when it is opened. This shortcoming has prompted the creation of alternative options - sliding and revolving doors.

Sliding doors

There are several types:

1. Recoil. The door slides to the side, moving on rollers along a guide along the wall. It can also be made in such a version, when the canvas seems to be hiding in the wall, but for installation in this case, the opening in the wall will have to be made twice as wide or a special case made of drywall should be built.

   

   A sliding door requires a free section of the wall

2. "Harmonic". Such a door consists of several vertical sections pivoting relative to each other on hinges. A roller is installed on top of the extreme section, rolling along a guide, so that the door can move to the side, while folding. The downside is that when folded, the accordion door occupies part of the opening, so it has to be made wider.

   

   A large number of moving parts does not contribute to the durability of the accordion door

Revolving door

The leaf, like a swing door, rotates around a vertical axis, only the mechanism is not on the side, but in the middle. Thus, in the open state, the door is located across the opening.

Experts criticize revolving doors because of the possible difficulties that may arise if it is necessary to urgently evacuate people from the premises.

When choosing a door, you need to take into account that sliding and revolving doors are more expensive than swing doors and provide less effective sound insulation

Dimensions of interior doors

The inner door leaf can have the following dimensions:

• height: standard - 200 cm, but models with a height of 190 cm are also available;
• width: the most comfortable - 80 cm, canvases with a width of 60 and 70 cm are also available.

The width of the wings of a one and a half-leaf door, which was mentioned above, is usually: the main one - 60 cm, the additional one - 30 cm.

Dimensions of interior doors are regulated by GOST

When calculating the dimensions of the opening in the wall, add to the dimensions of the canvas:

• the thickness of the box elements: varies from 15 to 45 mm, the standard is 25 mm;
• mounting clearances: 15–20 mm.

The opening for a standard door with a door leaf size of 200x80 cm should have a size of 204x88 cm.

Walls are of different thickness, respectively, and door frames are made with different depths. The standard value is 75 mm. The surfaces of the box and the wall must be in the same plane, otherwise it will be impossible to install the platbands.

To extend the box if it is installed in a wall that is too thick, manufacturers produce slats of different thicknesses - the so-called extensions.

Production of interior doors

A massive interior door is a shield, that is, it is assembled from individual bars. Production is subdivided into the following stages:

1. The tree trunks are sawn into boards (unedged) of the required thickness.
2. The boards are dried in a drying chamber.
3. Next, the bars are cut into the desired sizes.
4. Spikes and grooves (lock) are cut on the bars, after which they are spliced with their ends into long blanks.
5. Defective spots are cut from the blanks.
6. Then the workpieces are coated with glue (often used "Kleyberite-303") and spliced into a shield.
7. The board is trimmed in order to obtain a door leaf with exact dimensions.
8. The product is sanded.
9. Next, the door is covered with varnish and a special solution.

10. This is followed by final drying.

    

    CNC machines ensure the specified geometry and dimensional accuracy of the doors

The production site must be equipped with the following types of equipment:

1. Band Sawmill: Used to cut trunks onto planks and bars. Of course, they can be purchased ready-made on the side, but this will lead to an increase in the cost of doors.
2. Drying chamber: a very important component. The bars must be pre-dried to a moisture content of 8–12%. If they dry, being part of the door, the canvas will deform, and cracks will appear in it. Under natural conditions, the material would dry for a rather long time, in the drying chamber, due to heating, this happens much faster. But a good camera is not only about heaters, but also control tools. The fact is that drying must be carried out at an optimal speed so that moisture has time to escape from the inner layers. If it dries too quickly, the top layer of the wood will crack.
3. Tenoning machine: trims the ends and cuts the tenons to connect the bars.
4. Butt Fusion Press: Seals the bars together so that the desired length is obtained.
5. Pneumatic press for splicing workpieces into a shield: as the name implies, it bonds the workpieces in the form of a shield.
6. Panel saws: carry out longitudinal, transverse and angular sawing of wood.
7. Milling and copying machine: cuts parts that are exact copies of the template part. It is indispensable in the manufacture of parts of the same type, as it significantly reduces the time spent on this process.

High-quality doors can be made only if the production is equipped with all the necessary equipment

The total cost of equipment without a drying chamber is approximately RUB 1.5 million. Drying chambers are made to order only. Depending on the parameters, they can have a different cost.

Features of installation and operation

Installing an interior door is a simple process that the user can easily cope with on his own. In this case, he needs to adhere to the following recommendations:

1. Before installation, the door should lie down for some time in this room, so that at its inherent temperature and humidity, the wood takes on its final volume. If this happens after installation, deformations will occur.
2. The protective film, if any, is removed from the canvas at the very last moment - this will prevent the appearance of accidental scratches during installation.
3. When replacing doors, the entire set should be changed, that is, both the canvas and the box.
4. First, the door is installed in the frame. To do this, you need to install the hinges. Only after that the box is mounted in the opening (the canvas must be removed for this time).
5. The position of the box is controlled with a level. Before finally fixing it, you need to hang the door and make sure that it does not try to open or close under its own weight.

6. Before filling the installation gap with construction foam, brick or concrete in the place of its contact must be moistened, and at the same time cleaned of dust by supplying water from a spray bottle.

   

   Before installing the door frame, the leaf is temporarily removed

Excess construction foam should be cut off only after it has completely dried, which usually takes about 12 hours.

The guarantee that the door will retain its attractive appearance for a long time is a careful attitude towards it. It should be remembered that not only mechanical contact with sharp objects, but also chemical action from solvents, acids and alkalis can damage the surface of the product. Therefore, the door can only be treated with special wood and furniture care products, in which these substances are absent.

The hinges must be periodically lubricated with machine oil, for which the door is slightly lifted.

Accessories for interior doors

In addition to the door leaf and frame, the door structure includes the following elements:

• hinges (awnings);
• doorknobs;
• latch;
• lock;
• opening limiter;
• crossbar;
• latches;
• closer;
• rollers and guide (for sliding doors).

The following signs will help to assess the quality of fittings:

1. Cost: The numbers on the price tag should be taken into account first. A cheap product cannot be of high quality by definition, so you shouldn't even pay attention to it. The desire to save money will lead to the fact that very soon you will have to buy new parts or even repair the door. Expensive fittings, on the contrary, are made of the best alloys and wood, therefore they are durable and reliable.
2. Material: metal parts of quality products are made of brass (door handles) or steel (locks, hinges). In most cases, cheap fittings are made from a silicon-aluminum alloy - silumin. Materials can be distinguished by weight: high-quality alloys are heavier than budget silumin. The unreliability of a silicon-aluminum alloy is due to the fact that it is prone to intergranular corrosion, due to which the product can one day simply break into two parts.
3. Appearance and function: quality fittings always look and work flawlessly. If the product has defects in the form of deformations or burrs, and it also works with jamming, it is better to refuse to purchase.

Among all the listed types of fittings, handles, hinges and locks are most often used.

Doorknobs

They are divided into two types:

1. Stationary. Usually they are a U-shaped product that is simply screwed to the door leaf with self-tapping screws. A door with such a handle must be equipped with a latch, which can be roller or ball.

   

   The stationary handle is screwed to the door with self-tapping screws

2. With a latch. This handle has two positions. With one of which the latch tongue protrudes from the door, with the other, it hides in the door. A spring is installed in the handle to keep it in the first position.

   

   Door handle, equipped with a latch, counteracts spontaneous door opening

Products of the latter type, in turn, are divided into two types:

• lever (push): there is a lever that you need to press with your palm;
• knob handles: usually have the form of a ball that needs to be rotated around an axis perpendicular to the canvas.

The knob is activated by turning the ball around its axis

The push handle is more convenient - the door opens easily even if the user's hands are busy. Swivel opening is more difficult, but it is impossible to accidentally catch on it with clothes. Such handles are usually installed on doors that are opened relatively rarely.

Lever handles can be fastened using self-tapping screws or screw ties. In the second case, the structure will be much more durable.

Signs of a quality pen:

• the hole for the stem is made strictly perpendicular to the plane of the cover plate;
• the design has a plastic sleeve.

A handle that does not have these signs will not be able to work softly - due to skewing, jamming will take place.

Hinges

The hinges are very diverse in design. First of all, they are divided into:

1. Non-collapsible. To remove the canvas, such a loop must be unscrewed from the box, therefore it is suitable only for hanging light hollow doors.

   

   The overhead butterfly loop is attached without a tie-in - with self-tapping screws over the canvas and the box

2. Collapsible. The door can be simply removed without unscrewing anything. In this case, one part of the loop remains on the canvas, the other on the box. The most convenient option for massive doors.

   

   To remove the door leaf, you need to raise it - and the axle shafts will separate

In addition to the usual hinges, hinges are available for doors with a quarter cut at the end. Thanks to this structural element, the gap between the frame and the canvas becomes invisible.

Conventional loops are of two types:

• one-sided: subdivided into right and left;
• universal: can be installed on either side.

Each type has its own advantages: one-sided hinges allow you to quickly remove the door, while universal hinges, due to the use of several support bearings, require less effort to open and last longer. Since the door has to be removed infrequently, and in addition to this, the platband usually also interferes, the advantages of universal hinges seem to be more significant.

The size and number of hinges are selected in accordance with the weight of the door leaf. If it is light, then use two loops 100x25 mm in size. Massive doors are hung on hinges 125x30 mm in size, and if the canvas is especially heavy, then there are three of them: two at the top and one at the bottom.

For an inexperienced craftsman, it will be easiest to install a so-called lazy loop, for which you do not need to make a selection in the box. The strips (cards) of such a hinge have a special configuration, due to which one hides into the other when the door is closed.

Locks

Full-fledged locks with high reliability are usually not used in interior doors. The most common option is a bollard that prevents you from pressing or turning the handle and thereby pushing the latch tongue inside the door. It can be switched with a key, but more often by turning a small round knob.

A lock for an interior door should be purchased complete with a handle

Interior door repair

With prolonged use, defects may occur on the canvas, as well as problems with opening and closing the door may occur.

When closing, the canvas rubs against the box or does not close at all

The defect is explained by the deformation of the box as a result of alternating swelling and drying out due to inappropriate temperature conditions in the room.

With minor deformations, that is, when the door can still be closed with effort, the chisel should deepen the recesses for the hinges by 2–3 mm

If the manipulations with the hinges did not help, you need to straighten the box, for which they do the following:

1. Completely release it by removing the platbands and removing the polyurethane foam from the gap between the box and the wall.
2. In the place where the door rubs or rests against the box, holes are drilled in the last, and then in the wall.
3. A block with a length slightly exceeding the width of the opening is installed between the posts of the box, and a spacer force is created with its help, thus leveling the box. This should be done until the door starts to close properly.
4. A dowel is inserted into the drilled hole and the straightened box is fixed with it, after which the bar is removed.
5. The assembly gap is again filled with construction foam. A special variety should be used, which, when solidified, does not create significant pressure, for example, "Macroflex-65". Next, the platbands are installed in place.

An extreme option is to cut the door. This should be done as far as possible from the side of the loops, since here the cut will be the least noticeable.

Video: the easiest way to troubleshoot if the door stopped closing due to swelling

Chips or scratches appear on the door

The damaged area must be putty. Two types of repair compounds are used:

• special putty made from PVA glue and wood dust;
• a wax pencil, a piece of which must be kneaded in hand to a plastic-like state and applied to the damaged area (has different shades).

After smoothing with a spatula, the putty is sanded with sandpaper. After hardening, the wax is polished with a piece of felt. Before applying the repair compound, the decorative coating must be removed from the damaged area.

In especially difficult cases, wood is restored by removing the top layer with a grinder equipped with a grinding wheel (there are also special attachments for a drill), followed by applying a new varnish coating.

Damaged veneer or laminate

Most often, you have to deal with peeling off the cladding. To glue it again, it is enough to heat the exfoliated area with an iron through a paper sheet and press it against the base with a rag for a while.

Small defects like chips and cracks can be corrected with the already mentioned wax crayon.

Interior doors in the interior

Internal doors are an important part of the interior, therefore it is necessary that they fit harmoniously into its style. But above all, the doors must be well combined with each other. Color, type (design) and height - you need to make it all the same. The inconsistency is especially unacceptable for those of them who go into the same room and, therefore, are visible at the same time.

The color of the doors is selected taking into account the size of the apartment or house and the style in which they are decorated. In a small living space, light colors will be most appropriate, especially if a classic design, country, provence or minimalism is chosen for it. For an emphatically modern trend - hi-tech, etc. - doors in saturated dark colors are more suitable, which favorably emphasize the shine of chrome-plated parts and glass.

In a small apartment, decorated in a classic style, light doors will be appropriate

With regard to the floor, walls and furniture, doors can be painted both in tone and in contrast - both solutions, depending on the designer's intention, can be very successful. For the classic style, it is considered traditional to use doors and wood flooring of approximately the same shade with a maximum difference of 2-3 shades.

Another common solution is to install doors in the same color as the walls. This interior is called monochrome. The floor can contrast with, say, a dark floor plus white doors, as in a Scandinavian or contemporary style. But it can also be uniform in tone with doors and walls. If you make the floor dark, the doors and walls gray, and the ceiling light, the room will visually appear taller. Moreover, this design will be an excellent backdrop for furniture, fabrics, decorative elements.

In a monochrome interior, the interior door visually merges with the wall

In interiors decorated with modern materials - glass, plastic, chrome-plated metal - interior doors can be of any color.

In expensive interiors, doors are used from exotic wood species, for example, African rosewood or wenge. Distinguished by a peculiar texture and a wide variety of shades, they look very interesting. Doors are also made "under wenge" and other rare species - a relatively inexpensive imitation that looks almost the same as the original.

Video: installation of the door in the opening in all details

Interior doors are one of the few products that have to be assessed by two criteria at once. On the one hand, they are a significant piece of furniture, on the other, they are a mechanism that must work properly. Accordingly, when choosing doors, you need to think twice well. Therefore, it is extremely important to make the right choice, including with regard to fittings, in order to ensure the product has the longest possible service life.