When it comes to building or installing a wooden door in your home, you don’t always have to be an experienced woodworker. In order to build high quality wooden doors for your home, you will need high quality door plans as well. But let us assume you already have your door ready for installation, where do you go next? Here are simple steps that you can follow when installing your wooden door for the main entrance in your home.
- Start by prying off the interior trim of your old door. It is important to use a putty knife to protect the wall so that you don’t have to repaint once you are done installing the new door.
- After prying, you can proceed to tear off the brick molding. You can easily do this using a utility knife; it really makes it easy to remove. Depending on the strength and type of molding you have, it may come off as one piece or break into smaller pieces. Whichever way, be careful not to damage the wall.
- The next step is to free the door frame. Remember your old door was held to the wall by nails or screws, which mean you, will need to cut these nails in order to let go of the door. It is easier to cut nails using recip saw or any other saw that cuts nails.
- Now that your door frame is free, you can remove it from the opening. If you were successful cutting all the nails and screws, the door frame should easily come loose, but if it is still stubborn, you can tilt it. It is advisable to get some help when removing the old door frame, some door frames can be heavy depending on the type of wood used to build the door frame.
- After you have successfully removed the door frame, you should check the door sills. The most important thing when checking the sills is to ensure the levelness is correct. You may be required to add some wood if there is a need to raise the level.
- Next, you need to caulk the opening. This will also include caulking the sill as well. It is important to check the measurements of your new door as you make all these adjustments. If you build a door at home, your door plan must have explained all the exact measurements. In other words, before you built your door you were suppose to measure the old door first so that the new one will fit nicely.
- Once caulking is done, you can put in the door frame first before the actual door. This should be easy if you followed all the previous steps properly. Just like needing help when removing the door frame, you will need help as well putting the door frame back.
- Nailing the top corners of the new door is the next step. Regardless of whether you build the door at home or bought a ready-made door, the new door may or may not fit perfectly. If you use a door plan and used all the specifications on the door plan, then fitting should not be an issue. Likewise for a ready-made door, the specification shown must match your old door.
- The next step is plumbing the hinge side. It may be necessary to use another nail at the bottom to hold the frame plumb in place just below the hinge side.
- Shim the door frame around the hinges, top, bottom, and opposite side of the hinges. Shimming the door frame will make it easier to wedge the door in order to correct any problems. Good door plans usually give you more important detailed specifications and tips on how to go about correcting any possible problems.
- Once you are satisfied with all the corrections of possible problems with the new door, you can now screw the door to the door frame.
- Finally, you can seal the shim space, fix the interior frame and door locks. These should be a breeze if you were able to finish the previous steps successfully. Your new door must pass weather test, ensure that there are no spaces left around the frame once you are done with everything.
Once again, if you are building your own new door, remember to find a reliable easy to follow door plan. >> Download door plans and other woodworking projects plans to use at home… Click Here for instant access <<
