Home DIY

Right then hanging doors:

Note: I'm going to break this down into sections and then post, adding the next section by editing. This way if you're keen to start you get started and come back and check.

When I'm hanging multiple doors I tend to have a cutting area so that I'm not setting up and then moving all my tools around, it also saves on cleaning up as the dust etc is confined to one place. However I would advise you to do what I used to recommend my apprentices to do which is cut your doors next to the opening as realistically you want to offer it up more times than I would and take off less each time so that you are creeping to the final size of the door.

Typically would use:
6' level
2' level
tape measure
Plunge saw and track
Sharp chisels I cannot emphasize this enough
Stanley knife
Palm router (or a router with hinge jig) - optional but very useful
Drill with centre finding bits
Impact driver (you can use the drill and swap bits over but this is a pain in the arse and will so you right down this is why having multiple drills and / or impact drivers is a good thing).
Plastic packers
A block plane (if you have one or sanding paper and sanding block if not)
Marking guage (very useful but not essential)

Part 1; check, check again and mark everything up.

If doors are pre-finished then you should still mark them up by sticking masking tape on them and writing on that.

Remove all packaging from the doors and check that they are in good nick.

Work out which doors are going where. If all the openings are the same size then this is less important, but you want to number the door openings and then number the corresponding door.

Check the door liners. I know that you put them and and that they are plumb as fuck but its always worth checking. Use the 2' level to check the head (top) of the liner is level use the 6' to check the sides are plumb and straight. Mark any discrepencies on the liner itself.

Check that the doors are square either using a large framing square, measuring from corner to corner on the diagonal (if you do this with the 2 diagonal measurements and both measurements are the same then the door is square), or the 3 - 4 - 5 method (use one corner as the 90 degree corner of a right angled triangle if the sides of the triangle are 3 units and 4 units long then the hypotenuse of the triangle will be 5 units long. it can be any unit but with doors I tend to go 300mm and 400mm = 500mm).

Mark up the doors. I always mark them up from the side of the door that will be against the wall when they are open, you'll see why later. You should mark the following:

The top of the door,
The hinge side,
The lock side,
The centre line of the door,

This may seem like overkill but its not, take the time to mark up the doors like this and make the markings as obvious as possible. Taking the time to mark the doors up now will save you making costly mistakes later.

Measure the exact dimensions of the opening. I start by measuring the distance from the floor to the head, as the sides of the liner are plumb as fuck use these to make sure that you get an accurate measurement and the tape measure is also plumb. Measure the width of the opening as well. Measuring to the nearest mm is fine but this needs to be an accurate measurement. Remember to double check your measurements. Mark the dimensions of the opening up on the door.

Part 2 Fitting the door

Once you have your dimensions you are ready to start trimming the door.

You are looking to acheive a 2 - 3mm gap between the liner and the edge of the door, this gap should look even all the way round. You want a slightly bigger gap between the floor and the bottom of the door I aim for 7 - 10mm but if carpet is going to be laid after the door is hung I would normally ask for a sample of the carpet and underlay that will be used and using this will work out how much needs to be trimmed from the bottom - this is tricky to get right so if carpet is going in you may want to err on the side of cauttion and reisgn yourself to taking the door off to trim it once the carpet has been fitted.

When you are trimming the door you need to trim height wise from the bottom and split the difference to take it evenly off the sides (this is why you marked a centre line before)

I would aim to trim the door to a snug fit (about 1mm less than the opening all the way round), then trim off your margins.

Measure the amount you need to take off the door from the bottom Carefully and trim. Remember: measure, measure, cut. I usually double then triple check my measurements before making the cut

To trim the sides you need to work out how much needs taking off the door and then split this and measure from / to the centreline that you marked. Once again: measure, measure, cut.

Offer the door up to the opening it should just fit in, dont push it in all the way as it will be difficult to get out if you do this (I know one guy who spent a couple of hours trapped in a room he couldn't get out of when he forgot this)

Work out what your margins are and mark them up. Once again remember to measure, measure, cut.

Trim the door in the following order base, hinge side then lock side. 3 very important things to note:

1. When using the track saw to do these cuts remeber to let the blade do the cutting, move the saw slowly so that there is no resistance. If you force the saw to cut faster than the blade can manage blade may wander resulting in either a wobbly cut or a non-square cut
   
2. Make sure the rails are not moving as you cut, either clamp them or hold them down.
   
3. Traditionally the lock side of the door is planed slightly so that it is back-cut, this allows the door to open and close without catching. When using a plunge saw you can save time by setting your saw to cut at a 2 degree angle to trim the lock side. Remember to reset it to 0 degrees once you have done the cut.
   
   

Offer the door up all being well it should fit nicely check your margins are correct by inserting appropriate sized plastic packers between the door and the frame on all sides

Adjust your cut if neccessary, it used to be that you would need a plane at this point but using a track saw will allow you to trim ~0.5mm if used carefully and not forced.

Part 3: Swinging the door (fitting hinges etc.)

Mark the location of the hinges on the face of the door. Usually they are 150mm from the top of the door and 225mm from the bottom (this is the top edge of the top hinge and the bottom edge of the bottom hinge) its a good idea to mark which side the hinge will be sitting to prevent fuck ups.

With the door in the frame, slide it over so that the hinge side sits tight up against the door liner. With your stanley knife score over the pencil line and transfer this mark accross to the edge of the door liner so that the two scores you have made with the knife line up perfectly.

Remove door from the opening. Do this with top and bottom hinges (obvs)

Mark which side of the mark the hinge will sit on the door liner. Do this with top and bottom hinges (obvs)

You are now going to start working on the door while its sitting on its edge so need to figure out how to support it, you can buy gadgets that will support it on the floor but the best thing to do is get a ~ 1' long length of 4" x 2" offcut and cut out a chunk from the centre that is roughly 1.5 times the width of your door, and cut a wedge. Place the lock side of the door in the cutout and slide the wedge in (not too tight you don't want to damage the door) so that the door is supported. Alternatively you can stand the door on its edge and straddle it so it is supported by your legs.

Place the knife in the mark that you scored on the door so that it "registers" in the score then using the butt of the hinge (the butt is the bit where the hinges are joined together round the pin) to hold it square, basically hold it against the door upside down, slide the hinge up to the knife. I will now be accurately held against the mark. Use the outline of the hinge plate to score a line round the outside of the hinge. You now have a very accurate outline of the hinge location and chould repeat this process for the other hinge location on the door and the two other ones on the liner.

If you have a marking guage mark the thickness of the hinge on the face of all 4 hinge locations.

I would normally use a palm router to roughly cut out the hinge and then finish it with a chisel, or as @Airhead says you can use a router with a jig. alternatiely you can chop it out with a chisel as per this video

https://youtu.be/YcYHSn0OAUE

He goes over some of the other stuff I have touched on but I would strongly encourage you to mark the hinge with a knife, not just a pencil, as doing so can save many headaches when it comes to wood splitting. At the side of the hinge.

Use the centre finding drill bits to drill the holes, if you dont have them put the hinge in the recess and carefully drill your pilot hole so that the holes is slightly off centre in a way that will pull the hinge tightly into the recess (away from the edge of the recess you have just cut). Do this with all four hinge locations, then fix the hinges to the door.

Hang the door. There are all kids of gadgets you can get to help with this (airwedges, foot levers etc.) I find that the easiest thing to do is to put the edge of the door slightly inside the frame then rock it forward its outside bottom corner so that the hinge lifts up to the point that you can get one screw in the top hinge. Send this screw home 90% of the way then lift the bottom hinge corner so that you can get a screw in the bottom hinge and screw it tightly. Tighten the top hinge and "swing" the door to check its closing properly. Finally put the rest of the screws in.

I'll put fitting the locks in another post later doing that times 5 is a fair bit of work.