HowTo Home

Buying the Right Door

So the idiot broke your door or maybe your basement remodel has rooms without any doors.   What ever the reason, you need to install a new door.    The first step is the door selection, here are a few facts you should know before you purchase.

Door selection

When looking for a new door for your home, there are hundreds of choices for both interior and exterior doors.  Doors vary in size, style, function, materials and costs.   Some doors are hallow core and some are solid. The solid doors can be described as either solid wood or solid core.   Solid wood is just that, solid wood of same type from side to side.   The solid core doors are less expensive and will have a solid core interior with a veneer exterior.  Some are natural wood and some are made from composite materials like fiberglass.   There are slab doors and pre-hung doors.  A slab door is the door only with no frame, no jambs, no hardware and usually no pre drilled holes for mounting hardware.   A pre-hung door is the door with frame, with hinges and with holes pre drilled for door lock and knob.   For any Do-It-Yourself person, a pre-hung door is strongly recommended.

You can view large selection of doors at places like ETO Doors and Interior Doors Direct.   This will give you a better idea of what is available and at what cost.

You can easily narrow down your search since you will probably want to match the architecture of your home.  Your choice will be influenced by your other near-by doors where they need to match, by your trim (oak trim means an oak door), by function meaning with or with out glass and opening configuration (door opens inward or outward and on what side) and by cost (hallow or solid).   Interiors doors can start at an extremely low price of $50 and go to several hundred each.  Exterior doors are typically solid core doors and more expensive then interior doors.   The good news is that you have many more interior doors then exterior doors in your home.

Some door facts for thought:

• Doors open into the room or out of the room with the hinge hardware either on the right or left side.
• Most interior doors are identical on both sides where most exterior doors are different on each side.   So with an exterior door, you need to know the door handing or if it is an “inswing” (swings into the house) or an “outswing” (door swings to the outside) door.
• Usually exterior and interior room entry doors swing into the room while hallway doors will swing out.  The direction of the swing, left or right is your preference.
• The door swing or on which side the lock/knob is to be located is determined by standing so that the door OPENS TOWARDS YOU.
  • If the lock or doorknob is on the left side, it is a LEFT HAND DOOR.
  • If the lock or doorknob is on the right side, it is a RIGHT HAND DOOR.

• Hallow doors are less expensive then solid doors.

• Most solid doors are actually solid core doors.  An example would be an oak door that has a solid softwood interior with an oak veneer.  The same for most of the pre painted wood grain doors.  These are great doors at a reasonable price.
• Common door heights are 80, 84 and 96 inches.
• Common jamb width sizes are 4 9/16, 4 3/4, 5 1/4 and 6 9/16.  For a standard wall framed with 2 by 4 inch studs and covered with ½ inch drywall, the proper jamb size would be 3 ½ + ½ + ½ inch or 4 9/16 inch.
• Doors come in standard width sizes; 18, 24, 28, 30 and 36 inch to name a few.   This is the width of the door itself without any jamb attached.
• A pre-hung door will add 1 ½ to 1 ¾ inches to the overall door width.
• Interior doors are 1 3/8 inch thick.
• Exterior doors are 1 3/4 inch thick.
• The glass in any door will be safety glass to meet local building codes.
• There will be a larger selection of interior doors than exterior doors.

In home measurement

Before you go to purchase a door, you will also need to take some measurements.  If you are replacing a door, just measure the actual door width, height and wall thickness without trim.   If the opening is just roughed out, measure the height and width of the opening and also the wall thickness.  For the rough opening, the pre-hung door will be about an inch smaller than your measurements.   When ordering, just tell your home improvement center exactly what you measured to avoid any confusion.

Related Information:

1. Installing Prehung Door Need a new door installation?  With a few tips and the right tools, this is something you as the home handyman can do....
2. Hollow Door Stop Damage Repair that damaged door with little effort.   A hole from using a Hinge Pin Door Stop is very unsightly.   However the hole is small and can be easily fixed....
3. Childproofing Patio Door for added Security Don’t let your young children slip outdoors unnoticed. Fix the problem and add more security to your home.  Patio doors are easy to open, even by small children....

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