Another archival post, covering installation of three upstairs doors.
When we bought our current home, there were no doors at all in the upstairs doorways. This seemed a bit odd. But no big deal; I could get and install some, in the the fullness of time.
A combination of purchases from the local dump-cum-recycling centre – solid wood doors, one for £5, one for £10 – and one or three off Freecycle (some for use elsewhere, e.g. my shed/workshop, our art/music studio, and even some gates; more on these later), furnished the required doors.
It was only when I went to hang the doors that I realised why there were none. All the door-frames are out of square. Some of the frame elements were fairly okay, others were appalling, being both out of alignment and bowed or twisted.
The whole upstairs of the building has been reconfigured, with a third bedroom added at the rear, and a stairway that ran up the middle of the house, cross-wise to the axis of the property, having been turned through 90°, and now running up the side, along the length of wall.
As a result of all of this, and some of the work being fairly shoddy, all the doors required a degree of planing, some more, some less, to make the fit the openings. Two of the three doors went well enough. Only one was a bit of a mess. But I hung all three anyway.
The worst and hardest was the door coming from the upstairs hallway to our master bedroom. I had to chop out recesses for the hinges and door hardware on the inner side (although there was no door, these elements had been cut into the opposite inner side of the frame), so the door wouldn’t intrude on the space in the room when open.
And the frame itself bows inwards as it goes down the wall on the inner side, where our wall separates us from the neighbouring property. Given that this is the side on which I want the door to hinge, I had to correct this as best I could.
In the end all the doors have been trimmed and hung. None are perfect. And none shut as cleanly and smoothly as I would like. But they are all pretty nice solid wood doors. And they’re all now in situ, painted, and working.
So, far from perfect. But nevertheless, job done. And Teresa and I are happy enough with the results, which is what really counts.