How I built Custom Interior Doors for around $40 each

[Wes Harville]

I have low ceilings in my basement, so I needed doors that are about 6" shorter than standard. I would have just bought them, but the factory would just cut 6" off the bottom leaving me with a 2" bottom rail which would have looked very unproportional. I didn't want to spend the time or money on building frame and panel doors so I spent a week wracking my brain until I came up with this method. Hope you enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzE470rqnmk

[Alan Schaffter]

Nice job, but kind of a silk purse- sows ear thing isn't it. Since it is a basement, why not just use plain, flat, birch or luan ply, hollow-core doors? Cut off the top or bottom and glue in a new solid rail (like you did to your panel cutouts)?

Or, if you really wanted a paneled door look, since they are just paint-grade anyway, why not just apply thin 3/16" or 1/4" ply faux stiles and rails to one or both faces of the hollow-core doors? It would make for a slightly thicker door but that is easily handled by adding jamb extensions.

[Wes Harville]

Since it is a basement, why not just use plain, flat, birch or luan ply, hollow-core doors? Cut off the top or bottom and glue in a new solid rail (like you did to your panel cutouts)?



So I started off by hanging just the flush doors. I cored them and hung them all so we would have doors until I could customize them. We lived with all of them flush except for one for almost a year, because I wanted to make sure the door wouldn't warp after cutting the panels in. It was all for asthetics as even thought it is a basement, we use it a lot.




Or, if you really wanted a paneled door look, since they are just paint-grade anyway, why not just apply thin 3/16" or 1/4" ply faux stiles and rails to one or both faces of the hollow-core doors? It would make for a slightly thicker door but that is easily handled by adding jamb extensions.


I considered using a 1/2" sheet of mdf with 1/2" mdf strips on either side to make the panel look but was afraid it would warp. As for just laminating them onto a door, if I had 1/2" thick recesses, that would make the door 2-3/8" thick. That didn't really interest me. I thought about just laminating 1/4" strips on it making the door 1-7/8" thick but when I did a mock up it didn't look right to me.

[lowell holmes]

Nice job, but kind of a silk purse- sows ear thing isn't it. Since it is a basement, why not just use plain, flat, birch or luan ply, hollow-core doors? Cut off the top or bottom and glue in a new solid rail (like you did to your panel cutouts)?

Or, if you really wanted a paneled door look, since they are just paint-grade anyway, why not just apply thin 3/16" or 1/4" ply faux stiles and rails to one or both faces of the hollow-core doors? It would make for a slightly thicker door but that is easily handled by adding jamb extensions.

I applaud Wes's originality. Quality is appropriate wherever you find it.:)

[Wes Harville]

I applaud Wes's originality. Quality is appropriate wherever you find it.:)

Thanks Lowell.....you "get it"

[Rick Potter]

Looks great to me. Good idea for custom without breaking the bank. I bet the door is pretty stable now.

[Rich Riddle]

Interesting idea and novel. I factor opportunity costs into the equation though, so it's more expensive that way.

[Jim Dwight]

I've never seen that idea before. Very nice work with the circular saw too. I once built a house full of interior doors of construction lumber and shelving boards. We liked them. Doesn't seem like a whole lot more work than modifying hollow core doors this way. But these doors would be more stable.

[Chris Padilla]

Interesting. I did something very similar with some closet sliding/bypass doors that needed cut in half. I cut 'em in half, pushed in the cardboard support pieces, and glued in a piece of poplar for support AND to extend the closet doors a bit since simply cutting int half wouldn't quite work due to the overlap required.

[Wes Harville]

I agree on the opportunity cost versus just buying a door, but if I would have bought the doors they would have had a 1" bottom rail. with the bottom hinge being about 4" off of the floor. I wasn't making the doors to try and save money over time. I built the doors so they would look proportional. The money saved was versus solid wood doors, which also saved time and opportunity cost.

[Wes Harville]

Looks great to me. Good idea for custom without breaking the bank. I bet the door is pretty stable now.

Not only are they extremely stable, they also weigh as much as my solid core doors in the rest of the house. If you have ever opened and closed a solid core door they feel so much different, especially when they shut. I am very happy with the finished product.

[Jim Becker]

I thank you for that idea/method and can see where it can come in handy. I'm thinking I may try it for a particular door I need to build as a project that's living on "my list".

[Roy Turbett]

I applaud Wes's originality. Quality is appropriate wherever you find it.:)

+1 What better place to try out a new idea than a basement? Nice work!