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If you are looking to restore your period home to its former glory, starting a new build or converting an old barn and would like to add a touch of the past to your home, one of the first things to consider are the doors, either buying old reclaimed doors or new reproduction doors.
All are readily available, but both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Firstly:
What style do you want?
How many doors do you need for your project ?
Do they have to match perfectly?
Are they all the same size?
Are the door frames already built?
All are readily available, but both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Firstly:
What style do you want?
How many doors do you need for your project ?
Do they have to match perfectly?
Are they all the same size?
Are the door frames already built?
Hold down, Ctrl and D to add us favourites
Hold down, Ctrl and D to add us favourites
BUYING OLD OR NEW DOORS
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have an offer on !
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or AFWIN5 for:
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Valid until
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You can buy original reclaimed doors from all periods and in all styles quite easily.
These range from early rustic ledge and brace, Georgian six and five panel doors, classic Victorian four panel and, 1920's - 40's doors and all in different sizes, but if you said
you need 15 oak doors from around circa 1650 to 1670, you would probably never ever find them or be able to adapt them to fit or could justify the price a dealer would want to charge you for them !
Where as, you could search out a company and buy them ready made or find a local craftsman and have them custom made and finish them to look as rustic as you want.
If you needed four Victorian 4 paneled doors for downstairs and four for upstairs and you weren't that worried that they were a slightly different style, you have a really good chance of finding your doors for a good price.
If you are doing a new build or full conversion, you're laughing, just make sure you buy all the doors for the project before your builder puts in the door casings.
A lot of builders try everything to fit ready built door frames, I think it's only because it's a bit easier for them and these come in today's standard door size, (e.g. 30” x 78” )
Old doors were normally built for the room, aesthetically and practically, a grand living room would look silly with a 29" wide door and you wouldn't be able to get the grand piano through it either.
A small bathroom that had a 26" roll top bath in it would probably have a 29" door or if the carpenter had some off-cuts he wanted to use up 28" 7/16 or whatever, as long as the bath tub went in!
Very rarely are old doors 6'6" x 2'6"
These range from early rustic ledge and brace, Georgian six and five panel doors, classic Victorian four panel and, 1920's - 40's doors and all in different sizes, but if you said
you need 15 oak doors from around circa 1650 to 1670, you would probably never ever find them or be able to adapt them to fit or could justify the price a dealer would want to charge you for them !
Where as, you could search out a company and buy them ready made or find a local craftsman and have them custom made and finish them to look as rustic as you want.
If you needed four Victorian 4 paneled doors for downstairs and four for upstairs and you weren't that worried that they were a slightly different style, you have a really good chance of finding your doors for a good price.
If you are doing a new build or full conversion, you're laughing, just make sure you buy all the doors for the project before your builder puts in the door casings.
A lot of builders try everything to fit ready built door frames, I think it's only because it's a bit easier for them and these come in today's standard door size, (e.g. 30” x 78” )
Old doors were normally built for the room, aesthetically and practically, a grand living room would look silly with a 29" wide door and you wouldn't be able to get the grand piano through it either.
A small bathroom that had a 26" roll top bath in it would probably have a 29" door or if the carpenter had some off-cuts he wanted to use up 28" 7/16 or whatever, as long as the bath tub went in!
Very rarely are old doors 6'6" x 2'6"
Tips on buying doors:
Don't buy cheap doors from the well know tv advertised companies, the reason they are cheap is they are filth and they will warp and you will regret it every time you open or close them!
Always use a steel tape measure a lot of people used to come to my yard with cloth seamstress tape their granny used and its grown a quarter of an inch every decade.
When buying old doors measure the existing door only if it fits well. When the door is missing, measure the distance from the inside of one side of the jamb to the other side and subtract 1/4 inch from the measurement to allow for the door closing nicely.
I'm a perfectionist and the first door I ever fitted, I made the tolerance so perfect. I opened and closed it beautifully at slow speed. One hour later when the phone rang I burst in as a person normally would and blew the curtains and pictures on the wall everywhere, also you couldn't pull the door closed at normal speed as it created to much air pressure and pulled your arm out of joint. Things can be too perfect !
Don't try and find the impossible, an example of this is, yours truly, I bought and sold doors everyday and every set of doors that I bought weren't good enough for my house or there was a bit of damage to one of them, slightly wrong style, or whatever, four years went by before I settled for a set and had them taken apart and put back together in the size I required.
The point I'm getting to, is the last set were probably the same as a set three and a half years earlier, in hind-sight why didn't I get a set made from old wood and old panels from scrapped doors. I have since told myself to get a life! and now have no qualms about repro as long as it's good quality.
If you are keeping the doors painted you can plant a strip of wood either side or top and bottom to make them bigger or if the doors you have are to small you can add wood to the the three sides of the frame and move the architrave over to hide the joins or add larger architrave, this also give you virgin wood for the hinges.
If you can get doors a little larger than you need when you take off a the extra this also give you virgin wood for the hinges.
If the doors have yale lock holes in them, you can buy finger plates to cover the holes.
If you find a door is warped you can try packing out the hinges or even fitting an extra hinge in the middle.
Don't buy cheap doors from the well know tv advertised companies, the reason they are cheap is they are filth and they will warp and you will regret it every time you open or close them!
Always use a steel tape measure a lot of people used to come to my yard with cloth seamstress tape their granny used and its grown a quarter of an inch every decade.
When buying old doors measure the existing door only if it fits well. When the door is missing, measure the distance from the inside of one side of the jamb to the other side and subtract 1/4 inch from the measurement to allow for the door closing nicely.
I'm a perfectionist and the first door I ever fitted, I made the tolerance so perfect. I opened and closed it beautifully at slow speed. One hour later when the phone rang I burst in as a person normally would and blew the curtains and pictures on the wall everywhere, also you couldn't pull the door closed at normal speed as it created to much air pressure and pulled your arm out of joint. Things can be too perfect !
Don't try and find the impossible, an example of this is, yours truly, I bought and sold doors everyday and every set of doors that I bought weren't good enough for my house or there was a bit of damage to one of them, slightly wrong style, or whatever, four years went by before I settled for a set and had them taken apart and put back together in the size I required.
The point I'm getting to, is the last set were probably the same as a set three and a half years earlier, in hind-sight why didn't I get a set made from old wood and old panels from scrapped doors. I have since told myself to get a life! and now have no qualms about repro as long as it's good quality.
If you are keeping the doors painted you can plant a strip of wood either side or top and bottom to make them bigger or if the doors you have are to small you can add wood to the the three sides of the frame and move the architrave over to hide the joins or add larger architrave, this also give you virgin wood for the hinges.
If you can get doors a little larger than you need when you take off a the extra this also give you virgin wood for the hinges.
If the doors have yale lock holes in them, you can buy finger plates to cover the holes.
If you find a door is warped you can try packing out the hinges or even fitting an extra hinge in the middle.
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