Morning all,
Have been door shopping a bit and am not finding what I want. I will be adding a couple partition walls in my basement with a door in each. Our current interior doors are the typical 6 panel such as this example and I would like to match as best as I can. However, I would like to have a window in the upper half of these new doors. I figured that it would be easy to find or order a door with a window in lieu of the upper 4 panels. But no... All the chain home improvement centers pointed me to custom millwork shops. I haven't called any yet as I figure their prices are going to be 3x or more. I also don't want to build my own doors as I've never built doors and don't really want to go thru that learning process as part of this project.
However, I am now thinking about modifying a pre-hung door to put a window in the upper half and here is where I would like to solicit feedback on my process before wasting $200 on an experiment. I'm assuming the panels in the door are not fixed so I'm thinking I can cut the intermediate rail and mullion out, along with the routed trim. After some cleanup attach moulding around the opening on one side to create a rabbet to hold a window. Add some moulding back on the other side as a stop to retain the window.
So, assuming my process is sound, my main concern is if removing the rail and mullion might allow the top half of the door to warp. I don't know how much if any those pieces are adding to the structure of the door.
What do you all think?
Thanks for your help.