Door Opening

[Dick Sylvan]

As some of you may get tired of hearing, I am building two carriage style doors for my workshop (4' x7' each). I have looked in several books on building and installing doors and cannot find any information on the appropriate clearances around the edges of the doors and the jambs. I will be using long strap hinges on these doors. Thanks for your help.

[Mike Cruz]

I've always gone with 1/8" all around. Is that "right"? Don't know, but it seems to work for me...

[Peter Quinn]

We use 1/8" spacing between the edges of doors and the faces of the jambs, Typical back bevel on the swinging side of a single door is 3 degrees, and some like to back bevel the hinged side 1-3 degrees for large doors so they don't become "hinge bound". This should not be an issue with face mounted strap hinges, more an issue with butt hinges.

For pairs that meet we bevel both meeting edges 2-3 degrees to form a mating edge with a consistent 1/8" gap. In cases where an astragal is used with pairs the meeting edge if the astragal is beveled to match the other door in the pair, and the door edge to which the astragal is attached is left square. We use urethane foam door gaskets from conservation technologies that have specific compression requirements for ideal performance which dictates the depth of stops used. This is only important during construction and planning if you are creating jambs with integral stops. Applied stops are simpler and easier to repair, but not ultimately as durable. Check their site or the manufactures specs for any weather stripping you are using.

http://www.conservationtechnology.com/building_weatherseals.html

[Mike Cruz]

Like I said, I use 1/8" gaps... :D