Source for Interior Doors

[Jack Horner]

I am replacing about 20 interior doors, and would like a well constructed solid door. I am looking at the 4 panel Pacific Coast Maple doors from Allegheny Wood Works. The doors are solid (engineered & veneered stiles, solid rails, solid panels) joined with cope and stick joints reinforced with screws. They price out about $250-300 each prehung. Anyone have any experience with this manufacturer? Any thoughts on the construction used or other manufacturers to look at? Thank you.
Their website and construction description:
http://www.solidhardwooddoors.com/HTML/door-construct.html

[David Kumm]

I would look at examples to check the matching but the construction is less than ideal. Most interior doors will have dowels. I'm not a big fan of dowels for passage doors but that is generally what is used. Better than cope and stick with screws. They probably hold up fine but definately not the preferred method. They are pretty inexpensive though so if they look good... Doors can get north of $500 pretty quickly. I started making my own because I didn't like the choices but they are very labor intensive and you need some serious machines. Dave

[Peter Quinn]

I have no experience with that manufacturer, but I'm not thrilled with the pocket screw cope and stick reinforcement technique. How does that work on the mid rails and center stiles? Screws aren't particularly strong going into end grain, and even at that angle this is mostly an end grain connection. I don't trust a straight cope and stick over the long haul either. Dowels are so damn strong if done well they rival mortise doors, and they are a fair bit quicker to produce with cheaper tooling, so that is the next best budget choice. Obviously, or it seems obvious to me, true mortise and tenon doors are the strongest option if well made, but also generally the most expensive to produce.

I figure 32"X80"X8/4 plus 10% minimum waste= 40BF minimum for an interior door. Engineered stiles use less high grade face stock but generally cost MORE, not less than solid stock to manufacturer, so add a premium for that. So with maple at around $3.50/BF if you buy 1000BF, thats $140 in lumber for a solid hardwood door. If they sell them for $250, thats not much left for labor, rent and profit. Say it takes 5 hours to make a door from rough lumber to shipping ready product (and thats moving pretty quick frankly), at any reasonable shop rate, its a bust. So how do they do it that cheap? With screws? No sir, I don't like it. They offer a "One year limited warranty". I wouldn't warranty a cheap door made with screws for more than year either, but I expect the ones I make to last several lifetimes. Seems they don't?

As to where else to buy? Depends on your region and budget. A paint grade 4 panel door in my region from a custom door shop (I work in one) runs over $600, stain grade goes straight up from there. As a side job in my low overhead home shop I couldn't build one for less than $450 as a slab, no jamb, no hinges, no hanging. But factories tend to have an economy of scale on stock products. I think a more factory oriented place like Simpson will certainly come in cheaper on standard stock products, perhaps in the $350-$500 range depending on species and region? Best to check with a good local lumber or millwork yard. Some door manufacturers are regional, some are national. Often once things get custom the factory operations have little price advantage over a good local custom shop, perhaps even a slight disadvantage and a considerable communication burden as well. As a comparison, Simpson offers a 10 year warranty on interior doors. The shop I work for has made repairs or replacements on doors sold 20 years ago, but they cost twice as much!