Exterior Passage Door

[Steve Kohn]

My youngest son bought a 105 year old house. After buying the house he discovered that the exterior back door is actually a cut down interior hollow core door. It was cut down because the door size is not a standard size, plumb, or level. My son looked at custom doors but everything is too expensive.

I have never built an exterior door. What am I getting myself into? What kind of materials and tooling will I need?

[Charlie Stone]

Steve, I am currently working on 2 sets of dutch doors for my garage (built in the 1870's) these are my first doors also. Basically, you want wood that wont rot or warp easily. I am using cypress. From there, it depends on how fancy you want to make it, and how you want to finish it. I did a ton of research in traditional styles of woodworking, and looked really closely at the other joinery used in my house.
In my case, most all the joinery was done with pined double lap joints, rather than mortise and tenon.
I am doing all the work with pretty much what I have in my shop. I did use this as an excuse to get a good low angle block plane, but other than that, its mostly just my bandsaw, router, jointer and mortise chisel.
It is taking me forever, but, most people don't have 4, 4x9 doors to do in one shot. Also, this is quite a learning experience for me. I have much more of a construction background rather than a finish woodworker background. I am still getting used to the idea that 1/16 of an inch is HUGE.

[Jamie Buxton]

Well, if you want to build an exterior door, go ahead. But you should be able to use a production-line, non-custom, door. Your example of the cut down interior door shows that it is possible to get a production-line door and trim it to fit your opening.

And building a good-quality exterior door isn't a simple project. You need to start with really good clear stock, preferably quartersawn. Or you can make your own stave-core stock, but that's a lot of work. You need to do high-quality joinery, usually with deep mortises. You need to seal water out of the door, which is no easy task. And you need to add good weatherstripping.

[Peter Quinn]

And building a good-quality exterior door isn't a simple project.

I agree with everything Jamie said except this statement. Building an exterior door is just a series of simple steps. It is actually quite simple, though the scale can be a bit challenging if working alone. But my first question for you is what size is the finished opening now, and if possible to measure, what size is the rough opening and how badly out of plumb is the opening? If you can do this with a stock door it will surely be cheaper and easier than making one.

For reference, you will need about 40BF of lumber to make a standard sized door, plus a bit more for a jamb and sill. Call it 60-70BF all day, at $5-8 per BF, plus weatherstripping, glass, and finish. That puts you into it for about $400-$500 in materials to make a basic good quality wooden exterior door, and that can certainly go up depending on materials and glass usage.

You can do the whole thing with a big plunge router and a TS, though you will need to be able to flatten stock or buy stock that has been flattened, which will bump up the lumber cost a bit. You'll get lots of info here if you decide to proceed with this project, but at the exploration stage I would reiterate that a stock door will almost always save you money until you get into really high end entry ways. You might even consider reframing to accept a standard door rather than be force into a custom option.

[lowell holmes]

Norm built an entrance door, and NYW has a video. I suggest you view the video for ideas on contstruction. He used loose tenons.

I am starting a new entrance door. I will use the loose tenons as he did. The stiles and rails will be stick and cope instead of the applied moldings he used. The groove for the panels will be 1/2".

I agree that the cost for materials will be in the $400- $500 range.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Would it be less expensive to fix the opening and buy a standard size door?

Making a new door to non standard dimensions seems a lot of trouble to do it wrong.

[lowell holmes]

That's not always the case. The idiots that built my house put the door headers in at 81 1/2" instead of 82 1/2". A standard door unit will not fit. If I have to go to the trouble of modifying a door unit, I might as well make one and get what I want, that being a qs white oak door frame and door, using the leaded glass panels that are in the door now. The qs oak is to resist wood rot from moisture.I dread the weight of the door though.
Since the new wooden doors are not exactly quality merchandise, I prefer to make my own.

[Logan William]

I am actually in the same situation right now in having a non standard sized door that is in very poor shape and wanting it replaced before the snow falls. Your commercial bought exterior doors should have been treated with some sort of mold/rot/bug deterrent per WDMA IS-4 standard so you will need to make sure that any wood you buy is resistant to rot and that you think of how you will manage the water. What I would do(and am doing) is to buy a solid core exterior door slab that is close to the needed size then cut it down from there. My local lumber yard quoted me 100 bucks for a 25" wide by 84" solid core, exterior rated with wide stiles/rails to make cut down easier. I almost bought it but was at the local Habitat ReStore yesterday and found basically the exact door I need for $40 bucks. I will rebuild the jambs/stops and route in channels in the stops for weatherstrip and should have exactly what I need....hopefully!

[Steve Kohn]

I was over at my son's house today and measured the door. It appears that the door is 27 15/16 at the bottom and 27 5/8 at the top. The opening is a kind of a parallagram. Replacing the framing is not an option, since the siding lookes to be original and removing and replacing it is likely not going to be practical. Think of the buildup of 20 or so coats of paint.

I think I know how to deal with the difference in width, however the opening is only 76 inches tall. Is it possible to cut down a stock door this much?

[Joseph Klosek]

Standard doors are 80" tall. So if you cut a door say 1" off the top and 3" off the bottom, that may work. You will however most likely cut out 1 or 2 dowels on the lower rail. So it is possible that you will have to add some type of reinforcement to the bottom. I would rout out a groove and add some floating tenons with 5 minute epoxy.

28" door is standard and referred to as a 2/4 door. Meaning 2'/4" wide. Standard exterior doors are 3' or 3/0 doors as per code.

Just check the top and bottom rails of the units you are interested in installing and see how much you can trim off. Most door slabs are designed to be cut down in order to fit in an existing opening.

This is how I would think of approaching the issue unless you can scavenge one from craigslist or your local habitat store.

You could make a door but how much is your time worth and when do you want to get it done.

J.P.

[Peter Quinn]

I was over at my son's house today and measured the door. It appears that the door is 27 15/16 at the bottom and 27 5/8 at the top. The opening is a kind of a parallagram. Replacing the framing is not an option, since the siding lookes to be original and removing and replacing it is likely not going to be practical. Think of the buildup of 20 or so coats of paint.

I think I know how to deal with the difference in width, however the opening is only 76 inches tall. Is it possible to cut down a stock door this much?

Well...IMO cutting down a stock door other than a solid core is pretty much out. Even there you would have to find some way to put the wood strips at the edge back in. I'm not sure you can find an exterior door at 28" width in any event, thats pretty narrow, and taking 4" off the height gets pretty dicey. And all the infrastructure (siding, trim, etc) on a very old house gets hard to work through in terms of modifying the opening, though it might be worth it, given you will be removing material, not adding. Funny thing, I just made and installed a 76" exterior door for a neighbor on a 120 year old house. Was 76" a popular height at some point? I've seen 78" pretty frequently.

Depending on budget there are options. I made a set of doors for my garage using spruce from the building yard that I air dried in my shop, and T-111 fir plywood, total cost for a 9' opening was $78? Made the whole thing on a TS with a dado blade. Its been in service over 4 years with total exposure, no failure to date. If time is short you could make a temporary ladder frame door with a few sheets of 1/4" plywood, a poplar frame, and rigid foam insulation. Or you could just go for it and make a proper door, though time is short depending on our climate.

[Josiah Bartlett]

I have an old house too, things like this make it fun.

I've had good luck finding oddly sized doors at architectural salvage places. Some cities have better ones than others. Sometimes you have to look through a lot of piles of doors or accept one that isn't quite the same style as the rest of the house, but you can often dress them up to match better.

If you can pull the trim off, you can reframe the door so it is at least plumb, and this is worth it. You shouldn't have to disturb the siding to do this, but you may need to replace the casing. This is almost always worth the hassle. If you pull the casing, you may be able to raise the header as well, and if you can trim 4" out of the siding above the door at the same time you can at least get to a standard height door, and trim down a 28" stock exterior door to fit.

[Charlie Stone]

... If you can pull the trim off, you can reframe the door ....

If you decide to pull the trim off, be mindful that 100 year old plaster typically will completely crumble as soon as the first nail is pulled out of it.

I agree that building the door is actually just a long series of simple steps. Besides, I think the best gift I can give someone is something I made with love that will be around much longer than I will be.

[Henry Ambrose]

This isn't that hard to do, I've done it a bunch. Leaving the old jams and casing up saves a lot of work in refinishing, and avoids old crumbly plaster falling out and making or repairing door casings that splintered apart when you tried to remove them. Of course, this assumes that what is there now is properly functional and looks OK to the owner.

First, build (or buy) a door that is square and just slightly larger than the hole it fits in. Then, assuming the old door fits in the crooked opening pretty well, just lay it down on top of the new door and draw its outline on the new door. Taking care, cut the outline with your circular saw, barely leaving your line. Plane the edges to the line. Next, put the old door back down and transfer the hinge mortise locations to the new one and cut those in with our chisels. Drill only a couple of the holes at each hinge location. Put the hinges on and slip the new door into the opening. Screw in a couple of screws top and bottom, just enough to hold it up and let you move the door to check for fit. Adjust as necessary for a nice closing action and fit and then put in all the screws. Install weatherstripping, remove door from opening and take off weatherstripping and hardware and prime and paint all around.

If function and security is all you're after You can probably buy a damaged solid core door for really cheap - like $50 or so. If you're gonna paint it a scrape or two won't hurt as you can fill these easy enough. So, if money is tight you can make or buy a nicer door later on if you want.

[Josiah Bartlett]

If you decide to pull the trim off, be mindful that 100 year old plaster typically will completely crumble as soon as the first nail is pulled out of it.

I agree that building the door is actually just a long series of simple steps. Besides, I think the best gift I can give someone is something I made with love that will be around much longer than I will be.

If you are careful, you can do this from the exterior, while leaving the interior casing intact. Or, you can just drive the nails all the way through the casing before removal with a small punch and re-install the casing with a nail gun. I use a small metal detector to find the nails if I can't see the heads. If you cut the paint with a knife before removal, the plaster usually holds up. At least mine did, but I have horsehair plaster and it actually is pretty strong. My house was plastered circa 1910. Some of it will depend on if the casing is applied over the plaster or if it was plastered butted up to the casing.

[Brad Shipton]

It sounds like your son is on a budget, so I would suggest you start looking into what you have for architectural clearing houses nearby. Your son can sand it down and then you can re-finish the door. It will be pretty easy to find a solid old door. Maybe even one close to the right size.

Finding a new door that is solid may not be an easy task. It is very common for new doors to be built using what is referred to as stave core. A stave core door will have something like a 1/2" (or less) of solid appearance grade wood around the perimeter and where it is exposed, but if you cut past this you will find a different material in the core. The core is usually a lower grade material and it is laid up to mimic how quartersawn wood behaves.

To find out if the door is solid, look at the top and bottom of the stiles. Some manufacturers do not cover up non-visible areas so you can see the core material. Even if they do you can usually still see the glue line or some other evidence of the skins at these spots.

As for building a new door, that all depends how much time and patience you have. Its not hard, but it is a bit different than building a cabinet door. You can even build the door using hand tools if you don't own a router. Just don't expect to complete the task in a weekend. I am not a huge fan of Norm's door, so if you want some qualified information how to build one I suggest some reading on the woodweb.

Good luck.
Brad

[Neal Clayton]

I was over at my son's house today and measured the door. It appears that the door is 27 15/16 at the bottom and 27 5/8 at the top. The opening is a kind of a parallagram. Replacing the framing is not an option, since the siding lookes to be original and removing and replacing it is likely not going to be practical. Think of the buildup of 20 or so coats of paint.

I think I know how to deal with the difference in width, however the opening is only 76 inches tall. Is it possible to cut down a stock door this much?

not a standard 80x32 door, i wouldn't bet on it. i was taught that tenons only need to be an inch away from all edges and ends. so it's unlikely you'd be able to cut two inches from the top and bottom.

as for building a custom door, it's not terribly difficult to construct one, as mentioned above, but the materials will be a bit expensive. white oak and mahogany would be the preferable hardwoods, as for softwoods they're doable but old growth for density and impact resistance would be better. stiles need to be quarter sawn so that they tend to stay straight. rails can be flat sawn with proper tenons, but i would say not with dowels. if you have a source for old growth douglas fir or yellow pine (10+ growth rings per inch) those would be a good softwood option.

you generally need 1/8" clearance around the entire opening for seasonal movement, and possibly more if the floor/threshold isn't level (which it probably isn't). so plan on building it 1/4" large all the way around and trimming it to fit after. triimming is pretty easy to do, just draw a line and use a straight board clamped down as a skilsaw guide.

if you want to replace the original bronze weatherstripping, kilian's hardware (google it) has it in any size required, along with other authentic hardware and such for old buildings.

the bottom rail should be roughly twice the width of the other rails for rigidity. you'll need to pick out the lock first, since the distance from the edge of the lock to the knob center (backset) determines your stile width (for older doors, typically the stile width is 4 to 5 inches, with 4.5 and 5 being the most common).

if you use a traditional mortise lock you'll need to build a jig to cut the plate opening with. not terribly difficult, but ensure perfect center, lest you wind up throwing away a fully assembled and finished door when the lock mortise goes awry ;). the best mortise lock reproductions i've found are from von morris. a few places online sell them, i buy lock/knob sets from rejuvenation.com.

any solid door will be quite heavy, probably upwards of 80-100 pounds unless you use a very light softwood. so i would consider 4" hinges a minimum, and preferably 3 of them rather than two, the third will help hold the door straight.

[Carpenter Mark]

While it's an unusual size, you should be able to find a 6'-6" x 2'-4" door to get closer to fit your opening that a 6'-8" x 2'-4". Try to locate an old style lumberyard in your area and ask if they have one, home center help will look at you as if you have grown a second head if you ask for one there.
Establish a plumb line in the center of the door opening-use a plumb bob- and lay out your door cuts from this, marking from the centerline of the door. Use a level at the head and threshold and again, register the cut with the plumb line, i.e the opening is 3/16" above square to the plumb line to the right and 3/16" below square to the left. Cut the door tight and plane to fit. And have fun!

[Charlie Stone]

Steve,

In the FWW issue I got today, Tools & Shops, There is an article about one of the editors rebuilding his shop including the doors.

[Peter Quinn]

Steve,

In the FWW issue I got today, Tools & Shops, There is an article about one of the editors rebuilding his shop including the doors.

Yup, something like that is what I meant for a ladder frame door. Not personally what I like for a heavy usage entrance, but it is quick to build and not particularly expensive.

[Charlie Stone]

I wish I had seen that article before I started busting my butt designing, getting the design approved by the historic commission and building the new doors for my carriage house (shop to be).