1/8" plywood over hollow core interior door?

[Chris Yarish]

I'm wondering how a 1/8" veneerer plywood would hold to a typical hollow core interior door with say, contact cement or a PL400 style adhesive.
Here's the kind of door I'm referring to:
http://www.interiordoor.com/images/door_colonial_slide.jpg

[Jeff Sudmeier]

A couple more details would be great to help answer your question. One issue that I would see is that you would be adding a 1/8" to the surfaces that hit the door jamb, etc. So the trim that the door hits would need to be moved 1/8 inch. Also 1/8" isn't much over a gap as in the valleys of the raised panels. I would be concerned with durability.

Contact cement or construction glue should work well. I would use a larger peice of plywood with weight on top as a clamp.

[Chris Yarish]

The jamb issue will be reworked with relative ease.
My concern was the gaps beneath the valleys in the door. Although small in width, their overall presence may be felt...I don't know.

My main objective was to have a more modern looking door, without a huge cost to incur.
I would be able to veneer the sides of the door easily...but it was the face, and the valley's that were of concern to me as well.

I'm not sure what other information you may need to advise, but I hope this added a bit.



Chris

[aurelio alarcon]

The jamb issue will be reworked with relative ease.
My concern was the gaps beneath the valleys in the door. Although small in width, their overall presence may be felt...I don't know.

My main objective was to have a more modern looking door, without a huge cost to incur.
I would be able to veneer the sides of the door easily...but it was the face, and the valley's that were of concern to me as well.

I'm not sure what other information you may need to advise, but I hope this added a bit.

Chris

Put a little bondo in there. That should solve your problem I think

[Jeff Singleton]

Why not just buy a door slab? They usually run about $50 around here (NE OH), maybe cheaper at the big box joints. Plus you get to have fun mortising for the hinges and drilling handle holes.

Jeff Singleton ;)

[Bill Webber]

My main objective was to have a more modern looking door, without a huge cost to incur.
Chris
I guess I don't understand. Raised panel doors have been considered desireable for the last 50 years, probably a lot longer. in the '50's raised panel doors were truly a luxury. In the 70's they were made of pressed masonite, but still desireable. Today, in the model home I just purchased, they are 'standard equipment'. Flat veneered doors have always been viewed as simply low end... that may be just my view of the world.

Regards,

Bill W.

[aurelio alarcon]

I guess I don't understand. Raised panel doors have been considered desireable for the last 50 years, probably a lot longer. in the '50's raised panel doors were truly a luxury. In the 70's they were made of pressed masonite, but still desireable. Today, in the model home I just purchased, they are 'standard equipment'. Flat veneered doors have always been viewed as simply low end... that may be just my view of the world.

Regards,

Bill W.
I couldn't agree with you more.

[Chris Yarish]

I guess I don't understand. Raised panel doors have been considered desireable for the last 50 years, probably a lot longer. in the '50's raised panel doors were truly a luxury. In the 70's they were made of pressed masonite, but still desireable. Today, in the model home I just purchased, they are 'standard equipment'. Flat veneered doors have always been viewed as simply low end... that may be just my view of the world.

Regards,

Bill W.

Yeah, and I don't think that our views or our styles necessarily cohere, that's why I was merely requesting construction advice on the issue, not stylistic advice.
With my current home renovation, those doors are one of the first things to go.
I'm doing wenge room doors and 8' dual bypassing sliding closet doors. I am currently debating the cost differential in having the existing panel door covered or to design one from scratch.
I will ultimately do the entire thing from scratch, but this is my pilot.
Purchasing the doors I want will be a couple of thousand dollars each, and
At that price, they are hardly "low end", hence the reason I'm not purchasing a slab door.
W'll see how it turns out.

Thanks for you input guys.

[Chris Yarish]

Pic of the door I want.
I will do a solid version of this.

http://www.af.nl/werkstukken/deuren/sampiemon_zebranokl.JPG

[Glen Gunderson]

I think what he's looking for is a more custom look, as opposed to the standard 6 panel raised panel doors that are in almost every single subdivision home in North America today. Yes, those cheap laminate flat panel doors that they used in tract and mobile homes in the '70s are certainly low end and cheap looking, but I don't think that's the look he's after. A well done flat panel door with a nice veneer would look spectacular, all other things being equal.

That said, a hollow core raised panel door made of Masonite is a pretty poor basis from which to build a custom door. What Jeff suggested above was buying one of those cheap flat doors and using that as a substrate, and this is a much better idea as it eliminates having to worry about the recesses.

However, I think if you're going invest the time and effort into making a custom door, you should try and do it properly and build it so it will last a lifetime. If you merely put a veneer on a hollow core door of any kind, it will still be very weak, and perhaps more importantly, feel very light and cheap. The weight of a door is a very important factor, and I would suggest making your own substrate out of plywood. This wouldn't take that much effort, it would create much stronger and heavier door, and it really wouldn't cost much more than buying a flat hollow core door.

[Tom Donalek]

Glen is 'hitting the nail on the head' here. Especially with slider or track mounted doors, extra weight is really noticable (in a good way) and my sense is that with a lot of track systems, the extra weight will help to keep the doors on the tracks and give a smoother feel to the operation. Heavier doors also block sound better. I, also am pretty sure that 1/8" ply would eventually show the contours of the panel door, and ruin the 'clean slab' look. (Chris, I'm more in sync with you taste-wise, I suspect - those are some nice looking doors!)

As an alternate idea, what about vac pressing a couple of sheets of so-so plywood or MDF plus the high quality veneer ply on either side? (1/8 ply + 3/4 ply + 3/4 ply + 1/8 ply = slightly less than 1 3/4", which is a fairly normal door thickness.) Come to think of it, you would need to embed solid wood on the hinge side. It would certainly result in a heavy door!

[aurelio alarcon]

[QUOTE=Chris Yarish]Pic of the door I want.
I will do a solid version of this.

Very nice doors Chris. You really might consider using the Bondo. I know it sounds unusual, but it works. I learned the trick from Tom Silva of This Old House.