Replacing Interior Doors With Your Own Hands: The Main Stages Of Work With Step-by-step Instructions

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

Features and sequence of replacing interior doors with your own hands

The need to install interior doors usually arises during major or cosmetic repairs, but there are other cases when you just need to do this kind of work. This is a rather complicated process, but if you know the sequence of actions, have the necessary tools and basic skills, then you can do everything yourself. Observing the developed technology and performing all the work accurately and scrupulously, you can install interior doors without the help of specialists.

Content

• 1 The main stages of replacing an interior door with a step-by-step description

  • 1.1 Dismantling the old interior door

    1.1.1 Video: do it yourself dismantling an interior door

  • 1.2 Preparing the doorway for installing an interior door

  • 1.3 Installing a new interior door

    1.3.1 Video: installation of an interior door

  • 1.4 Finishing the doorway after installation

    1.4.1 Video: installation of interior door trims

The main stages of replacing an interior door with a step-by-step description

An interior door can be installed only after all the "wet" works have been completed in the room, that is, the walls, ceiling are plastered, and the floor is leveled. If you do this earlier, then due to high humidity, the door leaf may change its size. A sub-floor must also be laid so that the height of the door can be determined.

The shops have a large selection of interior doors. They all have an attractive appearance, but the geometry of the canvas is not always all right. It happens that for poorly made doors, the discrepancy in the length of the parallel sides can be several millimeters. This can significantly complicate the installation process, so before buying it is worth measuring the canvases, for this it is enough to take a tape measure with you.

Interior doors are made of fiberboard, MDF, natural wood, plastic, glass

Often only canvas without a door frame is sold. They buy it when they want to replace old doors or there is an opportunity to make a box on their own. It is a U-shaped frame. For its manufacture, two vertical and one transverse racks are used, which are made from a bar. The material can only be used dry, even and free from black knots. The thickness of the timber used must correspond to the thickness of the purchased door leaf.

To complete the work, you will need the following tools:

• a hammer;
• chisel;
• screwdrivers;
• measuring instruments;
• puncher;
• miter box;
• hacksaw or circular saw;
• building level;
• screwdriver.

To install an interior door you need a carpentry tool

You also need to have wooden wedges, self-tapping screws and finishing nails, door hardware and foam. Interior doors on the modern construction market are presented in a wide range, they differ among themselves not only in appearance, but also in the material from which they are made. Most often they are made from fiberboard, MDF or natural wood. The installation method does not depend on the material.

Wooden doors have a beautiful appearance, but they are heavy and expensive

The interior door consists not only of a canvas, but also of a box. The material used for its manufacture determines how long such a structure will last, how reliable and durable it will be.

A box made of laminated wood will last a long time and look beautiful, but only if you use high-quality lamination

For the final design, it is also necessary to have additional elements and platbands, the purchase of which is recommended to be performed after the door is installed and you decide on the required dimensions of such elements.

Dismantling an old interior door

If the door is not properly dismantled, then part of the wall can be destroyed.

Before proceeding with such work, you need to decide whether you will continue to use the removed door and box. If you install it again, then dismantling must be done carefully so as not to damage the canvas and the box. Otherwise, the process will be faster, but the door will be damaged.

The door frame consists of two vertical and upper horizontal posts, in some cases a sill may be present. To fix these parts in old houses, nails 120–150 mm long were used, the heads of which are hidden under several layers of paint, which greatly complicates the dismantling process.

The sequence of work is as follows:

1. Removing the door leaf. The door is opened, a crowbar is inserted under it, acting as a lever, the canvas is lifted and removed from the hinges. The work is easier to carry out with an assistant. Before starting dismantling, it is recommended to lubricate the hinges with anti-corrosion grease to remove rust that interferes with the easy removal of the blade.

   

   To remove the door leaf, it must be slightly raised

2. Removing the platbands. Most often, they are not reused, so you should not worry about their safety during installation. An ax blade is installed between the box and the casing, after which it is hammered with a hammer, and then the casing is removed. The ax must be inserted in those places where the nails securing the platband are located.

   

   An ax or spatula will help to remove the platband.

3. Removing the door frame. Carefully examine the racks. Try to find the locations of the fasteners. Having retreated from the lower nail about 20 cm, and if it is not visible, then at a distance of 70–80 cm from the floor, the rack is sawn. Under it, above the cut, insert an ax blade and move the stand, after which it is removed. The same actions are performed with other parts.

   

   If the box is fixed with long nails, then in order to dismantle it, you will have to saw the racks

If you see that the door frame is fixed not with nails, but with screws that can be unscrewed, then the dismantling process is greatly simplified. It is enough to screw all the screws and disassemble the box without damaging it.

Video: do-it-yourself dismantling of an interior door

Preparing a doorway for installing an interior door

The next step is to prepare the doorway for the installation of a new door. It must match the dimensions of the structure to be installed. The standard height can be 190-200 cm, width 60-80 cm. In order to be able to correctly install the door, the opening width should be 5-8 cm wider, and the height 3-4 cm.

The doorway should be slightly wider and higher than the frame of the installed door

When preparing a doorway, you must adhere to the following rules:

• the floor must be leveled so that there are no differences in height, and the upper part of the opening must be made parallel to the lower one;

  

  The floor in the area of the doorway must be flat

• it is recommended to carefully check the vertical parts with a building level, the angle between the side posts and the top of the opening must be made straight;

  

  The vertical walls of the opening must be even, between them and the upper part there must be a right angle

• the wall in the opening area must be aligned in width.

During the preparatory work, a lot of dust is generated, and if the door is to be installed in a living room, then all things and furniture must be well covered.

Sometimes situations arise when for the installation of a new interior door it is necessary to narrow or expand the opening. In most old houses, the thickness of the doorway is 75 mm; this parameter should be guided by when choosing a new design. If the thickness of the box does not match the thickness of the doorway, you will have to use extras.

If the door frame is less than the width of the wall, then additional elements must be installed

It must be remembered that expanding or reducing the size of a doorway requires not only additional time and effort, but also funds. Before buying a new door, you need to correctly determine the size of the opening in the wall. They do this in at least three places in order to correctly select the parameters of the box.

During the dismantling of the box, even if you carried out all the work carefully, the finish may still fall off in some places. The revealed defects are eliminated before the installation of the box with gypsum plaster. It is easy to work with it, moreover, it freezes very quickly.

To align the doorway, plastering is carried out

The increase in the opening is performed using a puncher and a grinder. When decreasing it, the order of work will depend on the size by which it needs to be done. If it is 10 cm, then brickwork can be done. For smaller sizes, it is recommended to make a box from a metal corner, after which the remaining space is filled with mortar. You can also reduce the opening using a structure made of metal profiles or wooden beams, which is sheathed with plasterboard.

To reduce the doorway, wooden beams or a frame made of metal profiles are used, which are sheathed with plasterboard

Installation of a new interior door

If you decide to install the interior door yourself, then you need to start work with fixing the hinges. They can be universal, left-handed or right-handed. There are standards for the installation of these parts, according to which from the hinge to the lower and upper edge of the canvas should be 20 cm. Usually the manufacturer already makes recesses in the doors.

The hinges are securely fixed on the frame and door leaf

If they are not there, then you need to mark the places for installing the hinges, and then using a chisel or a router, you need to make recesses of 2.2-2.7 mm. After that, the parts are installed in their places. Holding them with your hand, make holes for self-tapping screws and fix the hinges. Parts are installed in the same way on the door frame.

The box is assembled in the following sequence:

1. Preparation of a flat surface. It can be a floor or two tables. After laying the canvas, side racks are applied to it, and then the upper bar is fixed with self-tapping screws. First you need to drill holes, the diameter of which is 25% less than the diameter of the self-tapping screw. To fix the top bar, two self-tapping screws are used on each side.

   

   The doors are placed on a flat surface, after which the door frame elements are attached to them and the frame is connected

2. Sawing off vertical uprights. They are made with a small factory stock, so after fitting it is necessary to make a fit to the door size. To get the job done neatly, it's best to use a hand saw.

   

   The excess part of the vertical struts is sawn off along the length of the blade

3. Installation of the box in the opening. The U-shaped door frame is installed in place and leveled using a level. Remove the end decoration strip on the left and right uprights and make holes every 25-30 cm. Insert dowels into them, and then fix the box. In order not to deform it, wooden wedges are installed between it and the wall and the correct installation is checked again.

   

   After connecting the parts of the door frame, it is installed in the opening and fixed with self-tapping screws

4. Door mounting on hinges. To do this, check how easy it is to open and close the doors, this should be easy. There should be a gap of about 3 mm between the canvas and the box.

   

   After installing the box and checking the correct installation, you can hang the door leaf on the hinges

5. Joint filling. The gap that remains between the wall and the box is sealed with polyurethane foam. It is important that there is not a lot of it, since during expansion it can damage the box, therefore, the gap is filled by about a third. The vertical seam starts at the bottom.

   

   The gap needs to be filled with foam only two thirds

Video: installation of an interior door

Finishing the doorway after installation

There are several ways to decorate a doorway.

The use of platbands is the simplest option; it is convenient when the width of the wall and the door frame are the same. In this case, it is enough to nail or glue platbands of appropriate sizes onto the box. With their help, you will hide the gap between the wall and the box. The sequence for installing platbands will be as follows:

1. Measurement of the required length of the casing. After determining the parameters, this part is cut off. Please note that it must be fixed at a distance of 1 cm from the hinge, otherwise a creak will be heard while using the door.

   

   The required length of the platbands is measured, and then they are cut

2. Trimming the edges of the casing. This is done at an angle of 45 °, for which a miter box is used.

   

   The edges of the platbands are cut at an angle of 45 °, it is easier to do this with a miter box

3. Fastening platbands. It remains to attach them to the door frame and fix them with glue, self-tapping screws or finishing nails.

If the width of the doorway is greater than the size of the door, then it can be finished with plaster and paint. To simplify the application of the composition, it is recommended to install beacons. After the plaster has been leveled, it can be painted over. There is a simpler method - after plastering, a sheet of drywall of the required size is fixed, which will allow you to get a flat surface.

After plastering and leveling the doorway, it can be painted

The use of decorative stone is advisable for openings without doors, but can also be used if available.

The doorway can be finished with decorative stone

Plastic or MDF panels are also popular. For their installation, a metal profile frame is created. After that, it is sheathed with MDF or plastic panels. This material has good heat and sound insulation characteristics, it is durable, easy to paint. Plastic panels are lightweight, moisture resistant and inexpensive.

MDF panels are often used to finish the doorway.

Video: installation of platbands for an interior door

By installing interior doors with your own hands, you can completely transform the apartment and at the same time save money on paying for the work of specialists. If you have all the necessary elements and skills, then following the rules and following the recommendations of professionals, you will be able to properly mount the box and door leaf. If a fiberboard door is installed, then you can handle it yourself, since its weight is small. When installing products made of MDF or solid wood, you will have to invite assistants, since you will not be able to cope with the large weight of the structure yourself.