How To Install A Prehung Interior Door New Construction

A door is a precision instrument. It should consistently snap into its latch, clear its jamb, and swing effortlessly on its hinges. The fine tolerances needed to attain this kind of performance help explicate why hanging a door is considered a true measure of carpentry skill.

"I started out using little more than a hammer, a chisel, and a screwdriver," says This Former House general contractor Tom Silva. In those days, he'd assemble the jamb, hand-cutting the hinge mortises, and hang the door separately. "It took a good long time and lots of patience," he says.

What Is a Prehung Door?

A prehung door is a unit that comes with hardware and a frame, gear up to be installed into a doorway. Purchasing i does simplify and speed upwardly installation, but the term "prehung" is really a misnomer. These doors and jambs must yet be carefully adjusted to account for shortcomings in the wall frame. "It requires accuracy to put in ane of these," Tom says. "If it's not installed correct, it won't hang well."

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Ordering Prehung Doors

Dorsum when carpenters assembled the parts around a door piece by slice, they could hands customize their work, make changes, or right problems. With a prehung door, even so, most of the assembly work is washed off-site, so a mistake made when you identify an order can turn a perfectly expert unit of measurement into worthless scrap. Here are ii steps for fugitive that issue.

KNOW YOUR OPENING: Prehung doors are made to fit crude openings ii to 2 ^one⁄_ii inches bigger than the corresponding dimensions of the jamb. The jamb's depth should match the thickness of the wall, including the plaster or drywall. If the opening already exists, check that the trimmers are plumb, parallel, and foursquare to the wall and the header. If they aren't, read "Prehung Door Swing: Getting Information technology Perfect" (below) before y'all order.

SPECIFY THE SWING DIRECTION: Your supplier needs to know which manner you lot want the door to swing, but beware of the question, "You lot want a left-manus or a right-hand door?" Those terms don't e'er mean the same affair. Then rather than answering straight, say instead which side you lot want the knob to be on when opening the door toward you. Let that person figure out what the door'south "handedness" is.

Split Jamb And Main Jamb With Casings On Prehung Door

Prehung doors hang on a jamb that is "split up" into ii pieces. The door is attached to the main jamb, which is installed beginning. The dissever jamb has a groove nether the cease so it can slide over the edge of the principal jamb. Typically, both jambs are furnished with casings already attached.

How to Install a Prehung Interior Door

Parts of a Prehung Door

1. Cheque the rough opening

Man Using Level In Doorway To Install Prehung Interior Door

Identify a 4-foot level on the floor in the doorway. If the hinge side is lower than the latch side, skid shims under the level nearest the hinge jamb. Adjust until the level'due south chimera is centered.
Tack the shims to the floor with a finish blast. If the latch side is lower, no shims are needed.
Bank check the walls and the trimmer studs for plumb using a level or plumb bob. Also, bank check the trimmers' faces with a framing square to see if they are foursquare to the wall.
Finally, check that the trimmers are parallel past measuring betwixt them at the top, bottom, and middle of the opening. If the wall is out of plumb, or the trimmers are out of plumb, out of foursquare, or not parallel, see "Prehung Door Swing: Getting It Perfect" below.

ii. Shim the trimmers

Man Taking Measurements With Plumb Bob To Place Shims

On the hinge jamb, measure out from the bottom of the jamb to the middle of each hinge. Mark the swivel locations on the swivel-side trimmer by measuring up from the floor (or top of the shims).
Tack the plumb bob to the top of the hinge-side trimmer, and measure the gap between the string and the trimmer at each hinge location. Where the gap is the smallest, place overlapping shims.
Adjust the shims to 1/viii inch thick, and tack them with a finish nail. Measure out the gap betwixt the shims and the plumb bob cord.
Identify overlapping pairs of shims at the other two hinge locations. Arrange each pair's thickness until the gap between shims and cord equals the gap at the start pair.
Smash each pair to the trimmer and cut off the ends with a utility pocketknife then they don't protrude past the drywall.

iii. Fit door into opening

Man Fits Prehung Door In Rough Opening Of Doorway

Elevator the door into the rough opening and push the swivel jamb tight confronting the shims tacked to the trimmers.
Tack an 8d finish nail through the confront of the hinge-side casing iii inches beneath the miter, into the trimmer. Concord a level against the face up of the casing and arrange the jamb in and out until plumb.
If the wall is plumb and the casing rests affluent against it, tack 8d terminate nails through information technology at the other 2 hinge locations.
If the wall is out of plumb and the casing does not rest against it, shim behind the casing at the swivel locations to brand the door plumb.
Nail through the casing and shims and into the trimmer. Fill any gaps between the casing and the wall with tapered wood wedges.

four. Adjust the gap between the door

Man Checks Horizontal Gap Or Reveal Of Doorway

Check the horizontal gap, or "reveal," between the meridian of the door and the head jamb. It should be uniform from left to correct and one/viii- to 3/sixteen-inch wide.
If necessary, adjust the reveal past pushing up the head casing. Set this reveal by driving an 8d nail through the face of the latch-side casing and into the trimmer, near the top of the door.
Check the vertical reveal between door and jamb on the latch side. Information technology should be about the thickness of a nickel. To arrange information technology, grab the casing and move the jamb by paw.
Open and close the door to check that its leading edge, the one that rests against the stop, clears the jamb by a consistent 1/8 inch.
Set the reveal by driving 8d end nails every 16 inches through the latch-side casing and into the trimmer. Make sure the reveal remains consistent.

five. Anchor the jamb

Man Slips Shims Between Jamb Near Top Of Door Opening

Sideslip a pair of shims between main jamb on the latch side and the trimmer, well-nigh the top of the door opening. When they are but touching the back of the jamb without putting any force per unit area on it, nail them to the trimmer with 8d finish nails.
Smash additional pairs of shims a few inches to a higher place the base of this jamb, too as but higher up and below the strike plate. Without these shims, the jamb could flex.

6. Replace hinge spiral

Man Removes Center Screw From Top Hinge Leaf Of Prehung Door

On the swivel jamb, remove the center screw from the top hinge leaf and replace information technology with a screw that's long plenty to penetrate the trimmer. This prevents the door from sagging and binding.

Tip: If the long screws don't lucifer the ones that came with the hinges, install them behind the swivel leaf.

vii. Attach the split jamb

Man Attaches Split Jamb Of Prehung Interior Door

Starting at the bottom, gently button the edge of the split jamb into the groove in the main jamb. Tap the 2 jambs together using both easily.
Nail the casing to the wall on both sides of each miter, and about every xviii inches forth the casing.
To hold the two jambs together, bulldoze 8d finish nails through the cease and into the trimmers: 1 nail at each hinge location, 1 through the shims most the top and the lesser of the latch jamb, and 1 each just higher up and below the striker. Exercise Not smash into the caput jamb.

8. Mount the latch hardware

Man Installs Latch Hardware On Prehung Interior Door

Fasten the strike plate to the mortise in the latch jamb using the screws provided. If the plate is bigger than the mortise, put the plate on the jamb, outline it with a pencil, and chisel to the outline.
Slip the latch bolt into its bore and fasten its plate into the mortise on the door'south border with the screws provided. If the mortise is too tight, conform its size in the same manner equally y'all did the strike plate.
Fit the knobs to both sides of the latch bolt, then insert and tighten the connecting screws that hold the knobs together.
Close the door and listen for the latch sliding into its strike. If the door rattles, bend the prong on the strike plate slightly toward the cease. If the latch doesn't catch, bend the prong away from the cease. Tighten all the screws.

Prehung Door Swing: Getting It Perfect

Just equally it'south easier to build a house on a level foundation, it's simpler to hang a door that's level, plumb, and foursquare. While these are rare qualities in most old houses (and an unfortunate number of new ones), the fact that an opening is out of sorts doesn't mean the door has to be. The fox is to adjust either the opening itself or your door-hanging technique.

OUT-OF-PLUMB WALLS: When a wall is more than than 1/8-inch out of plumb betwixt the elevation of the opening to the floor, the door should exist plumbed independently of the opening. Just plumb the swivel and latch jambs with a level or a bob and hold them in place with shims. There will be a gap between the casing and the wall, and then cut a piece of wood to fill information technology. A split jamb can fit over a 2x4 stud wall up to 1/2-inch out of plumb. More than that, and yous may demand to modify the jamb.

OUT-OF-PLUMB or NON-PARALLEL TRIMMERS: Shims can brand upwards for out-of-plumb trimmers, unless they are and so bad the the door doesn't fit. If the fit is a bit too tight across the bottom (and the wall is newly drywalled), you may be able to proceeds 1/ii-inch or so with a little pounding. Remove the screws that hold the drywall to the trimmers, so coax the trimmer ends into the wall with a sledgehammer. Toenail them back to the sole plate, cutting the plate back flush using a reciprocating saw, and reattach the drywall screws. A sledge won't work if the opening is also tight at the tiptop, or if the wall is covered with old plaster. In those cases, reframe the opening or order a smaller door.

OUT-OF-SQUARE TRIMMERS: A framing foursquare can tell you whether the faces of the trimmers are foursquare to the wall surface. If they're not, you might end upward with bound hinges or uneven gaps between the door and the jamb. To correct this, add a third shim to the standard opposed pair. Slide the third shim back and forth nether the other ii to change their angle with respect to the trimmer. Notation: If you have done this on the hinge side, double check that all three sets of shims are plumb before installing the door.

What to Practise Later the Door Arrives...

Mensurate the length of the head and side jambs. The corresponding dimensions in a plumb and square rough opening should be 2 to 2 ¹⁄_two inches longer. (Worst example, a door could be installed with as fiddling as 1/eight-inch clearance, side to side.) Also bank check that the jamb depth equals the wall's thickness.
Check that the door volition swing in the right management after it's installed.
The clearance between the lesser of the door and the cease floor should be 3/8-inch or less. This clearance is prepare by trimming the ends of the hinge and latch jambs. Just be certain to allow for a threshold or thick carpeting earlier making these cuts.
Exam-fit the lockset in the holes bored in the door. Holes that are too small can be rebored. Holes that are too big will have to be plugged, sanded, and and so bored again. If possible, turn this job back to the shop that did the piece of work.

Read How to Install an Exterior Prehung Door for information on exterior door installation.

Tools

Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/doors/21016350/how-to-install-a-prehung-door

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