Doors are one of the most important furnishings in your house and one of the first aspects anyone notices when visiting your place. In this article, we will talk about interior doors, such as the living room, kitchen, bedroom, or bathroom. Even if, in modern times, many people don’t use a lot of doors inside their home, to create the idea of open space, they are crucial for privacy, and for preventing air and certain odors, such as the ones coming from the bathroom or kitchen, to circulate around the other rooms.
If one of your old doors is rusty and squeaky, you have to replace it, but since it’s a task too difficult to DIY, you have to turn to specialists. A local handyman from Home & Business Services – HBSOnTime.com, a family-owned business operating in the Greater Fredericksburg Area, VA since 2013, guided us through the steps of door installation, one of the services they offer, among others such as carpentry, ceiling repair, drywall installation, dryer vent cleaning, flooring repair, insulation installation, small remodeling, window screens repairs, etc.
1. Buying the door. You have to make sure that the purchase you make fits the rough opening in the wall. Normally, you should contact the local handyman after you bought the new door, but if you want to make sure you get the right one, you could call him beforehand. He will remind you that the framed-in rough opening is always around 2 inches wider than the purchased door, not including the jamb.
2. Straightening things out. First, the local handyman will draw a plumb line on the wall, measuring half an inch in from the rough opening, on the hinge side of the door. Then, using a level, he will draw a line down the drywall.
3. Attaching the installation brackets. The next step involves attaching six door-installation brackets, three on each side, to the outside of the jamb, the wooden frame to which the door comes pre-attached. The first bracket should be placed around eight inches from the top, the next one – just above the latch stop, and the last one – eight inches from the bottom.
4. Putting the door into place. Next, the local handyman will place the door into the opening, while making sure to put blocks or shims under it, in case a carpet, hardwood, or laminated floor is going to be installed. He will know never to place the door directly on an unfinished floor.
5. Attaching the brackets. Next, the highly-trained expert will screw in the top bracket on the hinge side of the door, using the plumb line on the wall. Then, he will screw in the next two brackets, using the same reference. After all three brackets are screwed in, the door should be level. If everything is alright, including the reveal (the small gap between the door and door jamb), the blocks placed under the door can be removed.
6. Installing the casing. Finally, the local handyman will install the casing, also called the trim – small strips of wood that hide joints and other parts of the hinge.
