Best way to get 40mm off door

[Geno]

I have a door that is 680mm wide that I want to replace. For some reason the previous owners replaced all the doors bar this one becuase I suspect he couldn't get a door to fit.
Anyway, the closest matching door I can find is 720mm wide. Therefore I assume it would be best to take 20mm of each side of the door so the pattern remains in the centre.
Does anyone have any recommendations or tips on how I should go about this task.
I have considered two options, neither of which inspire me with confidence. The first is to setup the fence on my el-cheapo 7 inch circular saw and run it down both sides. The second is to get my el-cheapo Ozito plane (a real crappy plane tool by the way, I have used a Festo once and it was a beauty but they cost 10 times what I paid for the Ozito) and TRY to take 20 mm of each side that way.
I suspect a better option is to find someone who will run it through a table-saw of some sort?
Door is one of those "Colonial" pattern things that is stuffed full of cardboard type material.
Once this is done how hard is it to hang it without stuffing it up? I have heard horror stories of people trying to hang doors.

[echnidna]

There is unlikely to be enough meat on the stiles to take 20mm off either of them. Standard door sizes run in 50mm incremments so you should be able to get a 670mm wide door even if it means asking your merchant to order it in.

You could drive a long brad through the door skin just to see how wide the stiles are. ( they are usually only 30 to 40 mm wide)
Keep away from the normal handle area as most doors have a block to support tube latches and handles.

If you really get stuck and cannot get another door then possibly the only option is to cut the stiles off. Remove the skin from the cutoff stile and then slide the stile inside the cavity with some liquid nails and clamp some boards along both edges to pull the skins tight to the stiles. Just do one side at a time otherwise the door becomes too unstable to handle. This will give you a door about 640 to 650 wide and you can tack a suitable size strip to each side to get the correct width. Its a lot of messing around but you can get a professional looking job if you dont rush it.

[echnidna]

There is unlikely to be enough meat on the stiles to take 20mm off either of them. Standard door sizes run in 50mm incremments so you should be able to get a 670mm wide door even if it means asking your merchant to order it in.

You could drive a long brad through the door skin just to see how wide the stiles are. ( they are usually only 30 to 40 mm wide)
Keep away from the normal handle area as most doors have a block to support tube latches and handles.

If you really get stuck and cannot get another door then possibly the only option is to cut the stiles off. Remove the skin from the cutoff stile and then slide the stile inside the cavity with some liquid nails and clamp some boards along both edges to pull the skins tight to the stiles. Just do one side at a time otherwise the door becomes too unstable to handle. This will give you a door about 640 to 650 wide and you can tack a suitable size strip to each side to get the correct width. Its a lot of messing around but you can get a professional looking job if you dont rush it.

[bitingmidge]

For a little information on what is going on inside your door visitHume Doors Australia (http://www.humedoors.com.au/) Navigate throught the following buttons:
Internal Doors > Door Construction > Hollow Core.

As you will see there is just no meat there to slice off!

I would buy a 670 door and either glue some 5mm strips each side or rehang it entirely and repack the Jambs to fit the door properly.

(Actually I would pay someone to rehang the door, because woodworking is my hobby and as a matter of highest principle I don't work on anything that has a purpose - but that's another story!)

Cheers,

P

[journeyman Mick]

I have had doors made to order for odd sizes, both in redicote hollow core and in solid core external doors. I would be very suprised if you can't order one in the colonial pattern you are using. I know that Corinthian doors sells rail and stile material if you want to demolish the door and rebuild it to the right size but I wouldn't recommend it. I'm pretty sure the next size down from 720 is 620, so you'd need to add 30mm to both sides if you want to go down that track. If the doors you are trying to match have a woodgrain pattern embossed on them however it's going to be fairly obvious if you plant a piece on. As far as hanging the door goes, if you're not real confident in you or your planer's abilities it may be an idea to get a carpenter in to do it for you. It is a fairly straight forward job but there's plenty of scope for stuffups and any mistakes will be fairly obvious.

Mick

[Bob Willson]

I used to sell these doors for a living a long time ago.
The best way to get what you want is to order a door made to the correct size.
The second best way is to edge strip a standard door size to the size that you want and then paint the door to conceal the edge stripping.

[bitingmidge]

I would buy a 670 door

Well of course I would, but then if I was going to have one made, why I ask myself wouldn't I buy a 680 door and end the fun??

Please accept my humble apology....err that sort of thing is why I don't actually document buildings anymore!! (and why one should never believe anything they read on the internet!);)

Cheers,

P

[Geno]

Thanks for all the good oil guys. I will contact Hume Doors and see if they can make one to size. From what I can gatherthen, the Stiles aren't very wide and taking 20mm of each will stuff the door up? I notice that Hume Doors web site says you can take a max of 3mm of the stiles.
Makes me wonder why the guy at "Doors Plus" reckoned it should be no drama to take 40mm of the door then. Glad I checked. I wonder if he would have refunded me if the door collasped into a heap of cardboard after having 40mm taken off!

[stevo11]

Watchout when cutting down hollowcores as there are big 4 big metal staples in each corner. Use hacksaw for first 50mm of cut.

It is interesting that Bunnings sell 820mm doors for $30 but 720mm and 620mm are more expensive due to lower turnover.

Stevo

[jackiew]

and don't forget to measure the height of the door into account either ... i had big probs when I wanted a door which was shorter than standard as there are limits to what you can trim off the top and the bottom too.

I have rehung a door myself ( with assistance from a friend who didn't mind being shouted at :D ) - I wanted the door to hang on the left of the frame rather than the right - and managed it without to much headache. If its an internal door you can do it at your leisure. For an external door ... pay someone unless you don't mind risking your house being unsecured overnight if it takes longer than you expected :) And in my experience these DIY jobs always DO take longer than expected

[WISE]

Youve probably resolved your problem already, but thought it might be useful for others. I sell Corinthian doors on a regular basis (not a carpenter), there are a couple of methods you can use depending on what you want to do yourself.

1) ask the supplier to make you a standard sized door ie 720 with wider stiles(vertical frame) or rails (horizontal frame), for example 50MM, you can then take off 20MM comfortably from each stile (i believe most stiles are around the 25MM mark hence you can only remove approx 5MM,depending on supplier etc). Then you can either get them to cut to size or you can cut it down yourself.

2) buy the 670 door and add 5mm edge strips.

Option 1 is more expensive (approx $25 for pair of rails unsure on cutting costs) but i think you will get a more professional job. My experience adding edge strips is that it is hard to get a good finish on smooth doors unless you are meticulous, dont even try it with timber look or patterned doors as painting shows up the texture difference.

My last piece of advice is that even "solid" doors can have cut down limits depending on what material makes them solid.(some are filled with styrofoam termed semi-solid)

hope this info is useful to someone.

[Geno]

Thanks to all those who posted replies. A lot of good advice which I shall heed. I will get onto Corinthian and see if they will construct one to size. Probably will then get a chippie to hang it.
I have been a bit slow to do this, due to a plethora of other tasks that needed doing as well (usual story really).

[WISE]

Geno,

if you are going to get a chippie to hang it maybe see if he has any advice, all trades seem to have their little quirks and should have done comments after the product has been purchased. He might suggest a supplier who can do it better or cheaper or you might get a better deal with him supplying and installing.

Good Luck