| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| bagpuss |
replacing internal doorsWe have a new house and its now lovely and painted but most of the internal doors need replacingWe are planning to buy and hang the doors ourselves to save some money as they doors themselves will cost £200 upwards We unfortunately don't have the space to really store and treat the doors before hanging them so I wanted to know if anyone had done anything similar and at thing to watch out for My current plan is for us to get the doors hang them, then varnish them as we simply do not have the space to do this any otherway Do people know if we need to varnish the tops and bottoms of the doors Also when varnishing are two coats needed? Any hints or tips would be much appreciated |
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| Nick |
If you varnish them on the hinges you'll mess up the carpets below them, the door frames around them, the furniture on them and the clothes you wear as you pass through them.
Unless it's absolutely necessary, I'd avoid it. |
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| bagpuss |
I would varnish one at a time to try and avoid brushing past too many The trouble with not doing them while they are hanging is we have no where to put even one which is dry and safe while the varnish sets let alone 7 and I suspect delivery charges would stack up if we did them one at a time if we have them delivered one at a time as I don't think we could fit one in our car let alone more than one the carpets below can be dealt with by a dust sheet the rest of it will have to be done with great care and small brushes the thing which concerns me most is do we need to worry about the tops and bottoms of the doors as of course one hung it will be very difficult to varnish the bottom of any doors |
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| cab |
Errm... I wonder if you can make space to do the painting in our garage, in and around Bens car (which could be pushed out on to the driveway)? | ||||||
| dpack |
check the doorways for twisted and unusual shapes (1)
put the hinges on the doors use a pair of wedges to adjust the height and angle of the door to the frame remove and refit the stop bead if needed (see 1) fit catch /handles etc (unhang door for cutting /drilling /router work) practice and a power plane speed things |
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| Nick |
Top hinge should be 6 inches from the top, bottom should be 9 inches from the bottom. That way they appear to be equispaced. | ||||||
| bagpuss |
If ben would be happy parking on the drive way for a couple of days that would probably work, Will he be about tonight? |
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| bagpuss |
I suspect the hinges etc will go where the hinges already are in the door frames, they seem like normal doors so I would guess it will be approximately these proportions |
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| judith |
Nick's absolutely right about varnishing the doors in situ - you really don't want to do it if you can avoid it, even with judicious use of dust sheets, masking tape and wotnot.
Could you not order and hang the doors for now. Then when the weather is a little more settled, get yourself a cheap pair of sawhorses and varnish them outdoors on those. If you start early enough in the day, you can do one side, leave for a few hours, flip it over and then do the other side. I think you will be a lot happier with the finish if you do. |
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| bagpuss |
realistically are we going to be a position where we can guarentee then weather will be okay for more than 24 hrs straight though I would doubt it I would like to get it done relatively quickly as I am aware than the longer we live with the doors that need replacing the less likely we are to replace them, same if we hang them untreated, how likely actually is it that we will unhang them to retreat them, knowing me fairly slim I appreciate this isn't the ideal situation but given the circumstances we have I was kind of hoping for more, try this it will help than don't do it it will be terrible |
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| cab |
Dunno. Probably. It ain't like he's hard to find to ask though. |
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| cab |
Yeah, this is the most arid part of England. Give it a few weeks it'll be dry as sticks around here. |
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| Nick |
Yep, I'd be EXACTLY the same, and I'd varnish them in situ and make a hash of it, possibly after living with them unvarnished for several months/years. Do it properly, you'll be much happier afterwards. 
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| bagpuss |
See the weather recently makes me less willing to trust a not insignificant cost to it if we can find somewhere like your garage indoors to do it then that would be great but if not I don't think I want to risk it bearing in mind it would only have to be slightly damp on the days the doors are done for the work to potentially ruined and given the cost both in money and time I personally don't think its worth it |
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| Treacodactyl |
What's wrong with the existing doors, can't they be stripped & reused?
If you want to hang them now to paint at a later date then something like a rising butt hinge means it's easy to lift the door off the frame and paint outside. Something like this: http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=A333011&ts=70797&id=14640 |
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| bagpuss |
but if we are not in a situation to do in properly because of the various conditions described above I am looking for sensible suggestions on how to make sure we make as good a job of it as we can |
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| cab |
It ain't that hard painting wooden things like that indoors. Put a dustsheet down, prop a door up on something on its side, paint a side, let it get touch dry, flip it, paint the other side, let it dry to touch again, flip it, sand, and repeat. Dead easy. Its what we did with all those shelves upstairs and down.
No, it would take considerably more than it to be a little bit damp for them to be ruined. A few drops of water don't ruin a varnishing job. Worst case scenario is that a door gets all rained on and you need to dry it off and sand it. |
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| cab |
I had a look at 'em. Sort of. It would be quite a job to fill all the holes in them and get them all flat (looks like someone had a hobby of door punching in that house at some point). I rekon that with the doors Bagpuss has in that house it would be do-able, and I rekon it would be much quicker but a little bit harder to do a really good job than new doors, but it ain't up to me to pick whether its the faster or easier option to go for here 
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| Frewen Feltmaker |
Do they have to be varnished? Could they be waxed instead? | ||||||
| bagpuss |
[quote="Treacodactyl"]What's wrong with the existing doors, can't they be stripped & reused?
[quote] They are chipboard doors with large dents in them, handles several broken (ie the chipboard around the handle has started to come away) and have been very poorly maintained for probably several years, the work involved in getting them to look nice again means I think new doors will probably actually be easier
The hinged sounded like a good idea but as its then self closing which having lived with self closing doors for several years in our rental property and my OH found them very annoying I doubt he would go for them thanks for the suggestion though, |
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| Treacodactyl |
Or even oiled? |
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| MarkS |
exactly what I was thinking. |
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| bagpuss |
If we were buying fairly basic pine doors, what sort of oil would we need to use |
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| Treacodactyl |
If you're considering oil then it might be worth a new topic as I'm certainly not an expert. To start with I'd consider Danish Oil but I don't know how durable it would be but I'm sure there are people who have experience.
Here's an example: http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=28320&ts=74933 |
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| Frewen Feltmaker |
I've used danish oil on furniture (dining table and chairs) and on the kitchen worksurfaces. Really easy to use and durable 
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| Treacodactyl |
Or something like this that mentions pine: http://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/products/wood-oils/hard-wax-oil.htm |