Replacing interior doors and frames

[Di Stone]

I'm thinking of having the interior door frames and the doors themselves replaced as over the years, the old paint build up is just too thick or the wood looks like it's seen better days with knocks and dents about the edges. They have been stripped back previously but I'm thinking new would look better.

I've not gone down the route of getting quotes from carpenters yet but wondered if anyone out there had replaced the same? If so, was it a costly exercise and did you find it left more work being required on the walls and brickwork?

Don't trust the MuchBeloved to do the DIY so would have to get someone in.

Di

 

[whitewash]

replacing the frames could result in costly plastering/replacement of wall coverings.

 

[silverscatcat]

As the OP said, replacing the frames will cost you a fortune & involve at least 2 trades. New doors & door furniture is the normal way to go ( son is a carpenter). Any new internal door will result in the "door jambs" being removed & normally replaced, not worth the aggro to try & reuse.
All in al quite an easy job, did all mine a few years ago & let son have a practice whilst still at college.
Straight forward replacement of internal doors, allow approx an hour for B&Q cheap one's. Solid wood oak etc is another matter....good luck

 

[mxfun]

Why change the actual frames,why not just the facings and doors?

 

[tiler65]

I don't agree about the costly part of it...it all depends on what you are prepared to pay and how good your local joiner/builder is.

Obviously the better quality of timber will cost you more but that should have no difference in price for the joiner.

A good tradesman should be able to take out a door frame with minimal disruption to the wall coverings. If there is usually a problem, it is down to the wall structure being unsound in the first place and will need repairs.

You can buy door kits so you leave the old carcase frame in the doorway and just add new on top, this is because the door carcase is mainly in good condition and it is only the door stops and architrave that is in a damaged/worn condition. They are easy to replace.

My best advice is to get some quotes from your local builder/joiner and ask them about how it is achieved.

 

[big soft moose]

have a look on the woodhaven / ukworkshop/ woodwork uk forums - lots of good woodwork proffesionals on there (especially the latter).

 

[silverscatcat]

Tiler65, on the cost part, believe me any decent carpenter will charge more to replace a solid wood door than a hollow membrane pressed door. If not, they ain't quoting correctly.

 

[ruffdog64]

I`m a carpenter and taking the old lining out will be the worse part as plaster may come away with it depending on how well they are fixed, having said that the new lining will then go back into the opening and as long as the wall is fairly stable shouldn`t be too much of a problem to refix.
When you look for a carpenter try "check a trade" you should get some one local to you and you can look at thier webpage first to see previous customers feed back.

 

[Di Stone]

Many thanks for all the replies guys. Certainly food for thought with lots of reseach to do now.

Di

 

[onomatopoeia]

I`m a carpenter and taking the old lining out will be the worse part as plaster may come away with it depending on how well they are fixed

I'm not a carpenter but I did pull a door frame out a few weeks ago and yes, it did bring a lot of plaster with it.

The door and framer were 60 years old and looking rather sorry for themselves, particularly with the huge amount of layers of gloss that had been applied over the years, but even so given the mess it created removing it I think all the others in the house will be nitromors and filled then repainted, rather remove and fit new.

 

[BandyQuill]

we replaced 2 at home as they were warped so much it wasnt worth re-fitting a door, one was bathroom and the other was sitting room, the sitting room one was easy as the plaster had allready fallen off the walls around it so was just a case of throwing up a new one (we put battons across the bottom and 2 diagnols to keep the shape whilst mounting (its now the best door frame in the house)) the bathroom one caused us some issues as we wanted to fit a smaller door to accomodate a larger shower, we had to make a small stud wall to get everything to fit, took a good day but it looks much better now

easy if you have the tools and a 2nd set of hands