Rather than bury this in the couple of recent threads asking about how to hang doors, I'm starting a new topic. I wrote it in Word, rather than here, so I can put it other places. In the process of copying and pasting it here, the formatting was changed a bit. I hope it's readable:
Hanging Doors by Tom King
This is the way I do it for new houses. I built one spec house a year for 33 years. The whole house was built by my hands with two helpers. The only thing we didn’t do was install the HVAC equipment. I knew there would be callbacks on heat pumps, and such, at some point, and I didn’t want to be the one called to replace anything. All owners of the houses I sold over those years are still good friends, and live within a mile of where I live now. I never had a callback for anything.
The first part built would be the garage, after I built the whole foundation. Then the tools were moved in, so the shop was not only on site, but under the same roof.
After the finished walls were done, and floor down and finished, the trim began. Since the shop is right there, any piece is put in place-like cabinets that I also built-as soon as it was ready to go up.
Since this is about hanging doors, we’ll start with the jambs.
Select boards that the finish side allows the grain, on both sides, to turn back towards the non-finished face of the jamb. We don’t want a nail to come out where it matters to have to deal with. I use 5/4 boards.
Once you have a perfectly flat finish face, I put a very slight bevel on one side, to make sure the casing will fit perfectly, without having to use caulking. I don’t know what the amount of bevel is. My old Delta 8” jointer has a pop pin with a tapered pin that mates into a tapered slot to lock the fence at 90 degrees. The tapered side of the pop pin has a little flat on the end. I put half of that slot on top of one edge of the mating slot in the fence, so it’s not much.
Using a sample piece of the 5/4 jamb material, I figure out the exact width I want the jamb. I want to put a combination square blade on the wall that hits the bevel on the side of the jamb maybe 3/16” back for the edge. Figure out the exact width you want to run the jamb material, so you can put the same bevel on the other side of the jamb parts. It’s not that hard, but worth the effort.
That makes the width of the face of the jambs every so slightly wider than the thickness of the walls.
We’ll sidetrack here, a little, and talk about spacing. For our example, we’ll use a 2-8 x 6-8 door. That’s two eight by six eight in builder speak, or 32” x 80” if you need to translate. There will need to be some clearance around the door for it to operate without rubbing.
Butt hinges typically give you 1/8” clearance if the faces of the hinges are flush with the surface, so we’ll use 1/8” as our clearance on the hinge side. We’ll use 1/8” on the top to match the hinge side. Around here, we get the absolute extremes of humidity, and temperature, so if you use 1/8 as the clearance on the lock side during a dry time while hanging the door, it will most likely rub during the Summer. For that reason, I decide whether to use 1/8 or 3/16 as the lock side clearance when I build the jamb.
The old way of hanging doors would have been to make the opening 32” wide for this door, hang it on the hinges, mark the lock side by the jamb on that side, take the door back down, and trim it. We don’t want to have to do the extra step, especially since I will prefinish the door, and don’t want to mess with it again once it’s up. Also, there is not the need, today with central heating, to have a door fit tight enough to keep out Winter drafts. We want it to always open and close easily.
So back to the jamb preparation. With our 32” door, say we’re going to hang in during a dry time, so we add 1/8” for the space on the hinge side, 3/16” for the lock side, 2” for the jamb thicknesses, and space for the wedges between both sides of the jamb, and the rough opening in the framing. I like to use 5/8” on each side for wedges I make, so that gives up a rough opening size of 35-9/16”. This is the way I would do the framing, but of course, if you are using an existing opening, you have to adjust what you need to do. I designed every house I built, so this is how I determined rough openings.
For the height, we won’t use wedges over the jamb, so I just add an inch to make it simple. Say we’re going to put down ¾” flooring over the subfloor, and want a ¾” opening under the door to clear rugs, or allow for HVAC air flow, the rough opening would be 82-7/8” tall. That’s 80” door, 1” jamb, 1” space above jamb, 1/8” clearance between door and jamb, ¾” space under door, and ¾” flooring. We don’t want to have to cut the door. Actually, I’d probably just round that up to 83” because I’m not going to use really narrow casing anyway, and it makes it easy to remember jack lengths.
Back to assembling the jamb.
I cut a ¼” deep by 1” long rabbet in the tops of the jamb sides, to accept the jamb head. It keeps it all nice and square, and easy to make the joint really tight. Use your preferred method of fasteners. Jamb side lengths, in our example here, are 80” for the door, 1/8” for the space between the jamb head and door, 1” for the thickness of the jamb head, and ¾” for the space we want under the door. That gives us 81-7/8”. Cut that length, and then cut the rabbets. This would, of course, be done all together for all the interior doors in the house.
Once the jambs are assembled, or even before, we finish it before we set it.
We are assuming all the floors are level, since this is a new house that I have built from the ground up. If you are setting a jamb in an old house, or poorly built newer one, the jamb will need to be leveled in place, so you will need to leave the sides long, and then trim to fit. I’m not going into every possibility, but this is intended to be used as a general guideline to adjust to your own needs, but hopefully, you can use some parts of it.
I have left a 5/8” space behind both sides of the jamb, so we can use opposing wedges to persuade it into having perfectly straight, and plumb sides, and square at the top.
You will need a bunch of wedges to put in opposing each other, in the space between the jamb, and the framing, to persuade it into a perfectly straight plane. You can buy wedges, but you often may end up needing more than two, and I liked to make them exactly like I wanted them out of harder material. I use a jig to make them all exactly the same. I don’t keep up with the angle or length, and when we set up to make them, I made a box full large enough to use for a few years.
Our desired opening width, for this example door, is 32-5/16”. If you’ve been keeping up, you know why. If you don’t, go back and start reading over again. Cut a spacer from scrap material this length, out of anything you have laying around that’s as least as wide as the jamb.
Set the assembled jamb in the opening, with the spacer you just made on the floor (to hold the finished jamb opening that width).
Using a pair of wedges on each side of the jamb near the top, tighten the wedges against each other just enough to even up the space on both sides between the jamb, and the framing. With a straightedge on the wall perpendicular to the jamb, establish the position that you want, making sure it’s the same on both sides, and put one nail near the top wedges, on each side, to hold the top in the position you want it to end up, and to hold it in place for now. Put the nail behind where the stop will be, so you don’t have to putty holes.
You will need a long straightedge to both straighten, and plumb the jamb sides. This is what 78” long levels are made for, and what I use.
Using opposing wedges on both sides of the bottom, do what’s needed to push both of the jambs sides against the temporary spacer on the floor between them,also make them perfectly plumb, and in the position relative to the finish walls that you want. You might have to push a small bow in on a jamb side with your straight edge at this point, but that’s okay. Once you have it perfect, pop a finish nail near the bottom, on each side, behind where the stop will be.
The next step is to use wedges to hold the sides perfectly plumb, in a flat plane. If there is a bow towards where the door will be, it’s okay to put a nail to hold it a little too far in, and then persuade it out to perfectly straight with the wedges.
The wedges will stick out both side of the jamb for now, but that’s okay. Get the jamb set perfectly.
I put a large screw, underneath where the stop will be, perpendicular to each hinge location, the lock strike, and anywhere else I feel it needs one.
Since I have selected well cured lumber, and the casing will hold the edges, I don’t put fasteners where there will be any further finishing required.
The protruding wedges can now be cut off. You can use a multitool to zip them off, or if you like a quieter time, buy a cheap, made in England, Japanese pullsaw in a box store. Undercut them at an angle so they will be no trouble getting a perfect fit with the casing.
Now to setting hinges.
I want to prefinish the doors, and not mess with them again, so I cut the hinges mortises in the door, and what ever mortises, or holes are needed for the lock, and then finish the door. Rotisseries are well worth the little trouble it takes to cobble up some, so you can finish both sides at the same time.
Once the finishing if done, and everything is well cured, install the hinges. This can be done any kind of way from a chisel and mallet, to a router jig. For the door, I use a Craftsman jig that clamps to the door, and does not leave any holes of any type in the door. If I didn’t have that one, which are probably near impossible to get now, I’d make one out of plywood, that can be clamped to the door with padded quick clamps.
For the jamb, in my new work, I use a plywood jig that is simply flat, and can be used for left handed, or right handed doors. I screw it to the jamb with the screw holes behind where the stops will be, there again, so as not to leave holes that matter. If I’m hanging a door in an old house, with the same hinge spacing (almost never happens) I use the same jig, but find a compromising position that I can plumb it into that looks the best, allowing for the door being not perfectly in the same plane with the jamb.
If it’s just one, or a few doors in an old house, that don’t have the same spacing, I just cut the mortises in the jamb with a chisel. Butt chisels are short chisels for cutting hinge butt mortises because you can’t hit a long chisel at the bottom of the top hinge mortise, or the top of the bottom hinge mortise.
I use my long level to plumb, and mark the edges of the hinges in the jamb. It’s important that hinges are all aligned perfectly with each other.
I use a couple of pairs of opposing wedges under the door to get it into a perfect height and plumb to the jamb, so the hinges go right into the correct position. Helpers to hold make a Big difference.
Use a VIX bit to drill all hinge holes. If you don’t use a VIX bit, do the best you can predrilling the holes, and install the first screw in the best hole that fixes the hinge in the perfect position, seated all the way home in the mortise.
For one or a few doors in an old house, I’ll mount the hinges to the door, mark and cut the top hinge mortise in the jamb, shim the door into place so the top hinge is where I want it, mark by the hinge the top mortise, cut and set that hinge, then swing the bottom hinge into place against the jamb, and mark and cut that one. Using the hinges skips all the human error of marking locations.
Now that the door is hanging on the hinges, install the lock. Close the door enough that you can use the lock plunger to mark the correct position for the lock strike. I made a special jig that I use for this, you can buy them, or do the best you can at setting the lock strike. I drill a hole where I want it, and then mortise for the strike plate.
Now you can close the door, but be careful not to push it too far in and spring the hinges.
We have waited for last to set the stops because we want the door to always close with one sound, never rattle, but always be closable.
Cut the top stop to fit the opening, square on both ends. With whatever method you plan to fasten the stops, and that top stop in your hand, standing on the stop side, close the door. Place the stop up into position.
Now comes the difference that makes a difference, in presetting stops or not. With the top stop now held into postion against the door, push on the lock side of the door Ever so slightly, so that it flexes the door in the slightest amount with one finger. You don’t want much flex, but the least you can feel with one finger so that you have some. Pop a fastener to hold that side. On the hinge side, back it off a tiny bit so you have some clearance. I don’t use as much as a 1/16, but be your own judge. You never want the door to touch the stop on the hinge side, or going along the length of that stop.
Now cut the side stops. If it has a molded profile on one side, cut it at a 45 degree angle, and cope off the waste. I won’t go into how to cope this type of joint here, but you want it to look like it has grown together.
On the hinge side, keep the same clearance you used on the top stop on that side all the way down, and fasten it in place.
On the lock side, fasten the stop at the top, where the joint meets. Then holding it out ever so slightly down to where the lock strike is, fasten it down to the lock. You probably will need a tiny bit more clearance to allow for slop in the lock itself, than you left on the hinge side. Sorry, but I don’t have specifics on these clearances. It has come from experience.
Now skip down to the bottom of the door. Using the same one finger pressure you used at the top, touch the stop to the bottom of the door, and fasten it there. Finish fastening it between there, and the lock, and you should be done.
If you don’t have any kind of feel for how to set this stop, it might be a good idea to put a small finish nail at the top, bottom, and lock, following the previous instructions the best you can. Then open and close the door to see how it works. You want it to be easy to close, but close with one sound, and there be no rattling of the door possible once it’s closed. With this three nail method, if it doesn’t behave perfectly, take a soft block of wood, and give the top a little persuasion with a strike to the block to persuade the stop where it needs to be. Once you are satisfied, fasten it permanently.
Exterior doors are done a little differently, but if the stops are rabbeted out of the jamb, I use a side rabbeting plane to do any adjusting I want, using a spacer to take the place of the weatherstripping, so that the door behaves the same way I like interior doors to behave.
When prefinishing jambs, if it’s an exterior jamb, or in a bathroom, coat the bare wood with epoxy on the end grain, and several inches up all around.
I’m not taking time to reread this, but reserve the right to edit if anyone finds a mistake, or something I left out.
Use ball bearing hinges on exterior doors. Otherwise, every door I’ve ever hung in any house I built from 1974 until 2007, still operates properly, as far as I know. I sold my last spec house that I built in 2007. It looked like to me that other builders had gotten smarter than me, and I like working on historic houses better anyway, having grown bored with building new houses, so I’ve been working full time on old houses since then.
Best,
Tom
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Originally Posted by Andrew Hughes
