The door to our house is quite small - the aperture is 165cm x 74cm.
Getting furniture in and out is sometimes problematic and I take the doors off to help. We can't do much about the size of the hole - it's a 500 year old 2ft thick wall.
I'm looking to get a decently sealed and insulated door in there but with a frame that can be relatively easily removed (removing screws fine, loads of sealant not). So maybe a 1cm batten all the way round and then the door and frame slide in, butt up against the batten and the frame then screwed to the surrounding wall.
There's a porch so although it's a conservation area it's not too much of a concern from a building regs point of view, house is not listed.
Looking for a single door (not french as now) with half panel/half leaded glass.
Is it the sort of thing a local joinery co would be able to do? Looking online the dimensions are outside what most places seem to offer even for the bespoke ranges.
Conveniently we have a limited budget but I'd be comfortable fitting it myself.
Pics of existing door inside and out.
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Porch for context:
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Whereabouts are you based. I’m in West Berks but like this sort of job, always going for ‘interesting’ over boring and straightforward.
I would offer to help but you would have to clear the weeds around the bird bath and preferably re-grout the tiles outside before I will take a proper look
Maybe we could all come round and smash your back doors in?
As it is in a porch, I would mount the frame on the outside face of the wall.
Then the door could be as large, or larger than the opening and you could use the full width and height of the structural opning all the time, without tools (assuming the door opens outwards).
I did something similar by replacing the up and over door on my garage with a pair of externally mounted side hung doors.
Looking online the dimensions are outside what most places seem to offer even for the bespoke ranges
That's not bespoke then.
A decent joiner will make exactly what you want to any size, in any style, in any finish. That's bespoke.
Whereabouts are you?
Cute door by the way 😊👌
I'd give more thought to widening it. Looks like you could take half a brick from each side without needing additional structural work. A messy job but something that can be DIYed.
If fully widening it would be too much could you cut a channel to locally widen it and inset the door frame to give a wider opening.
A decent joiner will make exactly what you want to any size, in any style, in any finish. That’s bespoke.
This.
When we did our place we wanted the widest/tallest door we could get in the 'hole' too, our joiner had it made locally (small firm that specialised) and then fitted it. Door is fully insulated 2m x 1m. It's an old mill, so we couldn't change the outer storm door 'hole', but had lots of flexibility on the inner doors.
But, I'd look further at this:
I’d give more thought to widening it. Looks like you could take half a brick from each side without needing additional structural work. A messy job but something that can be DIYed
But not DIY.
Remove door, the porch already has one.
If you took half a brick out either side it looks like you'd need to replace the lintel as well as it probably wouldn't be wide enough [on current specs] - but it's still an option. Although you'd end up with a low wide door which might look 'interesting'!
On the width of the current door: it looks like there's a casing inside the brickwork and then the door frame fitted to the casing. Getting the frame integrated into the casing should give you more width.
74cm is a fairly standard internal door width.
Builder, wider lintel, remove some bricks.
Obviously mo money than DIY.
Welcome to 'old houses problems'. Our front door is similarly awkward.
Storm hinges or parliament hinges will allow the door to clear the opening completely. That would win you a surprising amount of usability.
Storm hinges or parliament hinges will allow the door to clear the opening completely. That would win you a surprising amount of usability.
The doors open inwards within a deep reveal so you wouldn’t gain anything. As the hinges are internal lift out pins wouldn’t compromise security so they might be a good bet. You can also reduce the section size of the frame to increase the opening width as long you correspondingly increase the fixings into the masonry. Removable frames/hinge will work the first couple of times but you will start getting problems as fixings start loosening off/wearing
I really would consider getting the opening made larger. Shouldn’t be a difficult job and it will still look original as no new bricks will be added, just taken away. People were much smaller 500 years ago and the door suited them!
Looks like you could go at least half or maybe a full brick either side PLUS you could raise it higher at least one course (maybe 2 but can’t see in the pic).
That would get you a much more usable door which you could then have made to match the old door or the style of the house. Building work wouldn’t be much compared to the cost of the door being made!!
Thanks all 🙂
Builder, wider lintel, remove some bricks
The wall is over 2ft thick and although it's got that brick surround on the front the rest of it is basically flints and lime cement with a skim of plaster on the inside to make it look neater - I think if we tried to remove any material we'd just end up with a pile of 600 year old rubble rather than a back wall.
Remove door, the porch already has one.
The porch is uninsulated and it's proper leaded individual panes which are only 2mm thick glass - it's really not suitable to be open to the rest of the building. The room behind this is the coldest in the house and the existing doors here are a very poor fit with the glass/leading is in a really poor state - last winter I taped around it to cut the draughts out and it was fairly effective but it's not a great solution.
74cm is a fairly standard internal door width.
Yes, I'm just worried if we fit a proper external door frame with decent seals and overlap with the door it'll take at 3 or 4 cm off width each side and more off the height top and bottom and we'll end up with an even smaller aperture.
The existing boarding inside that the door is attached to is 1 inch planks attached (in the looses possible sense directly to the walls.
Looking at it further I think putting a new door frame in the existing recess and flush with the outside wall would be possible - there's 9cm of depth available to the existing boardingand it would mean losing less aperture size. Having an outward opening door not too much of a problem either.
(house is near Brighton)
Few more pics.
Frame fit:
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Existing door fit:
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recess:
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The doors open inwards within a deep reveal so you wouldn’t gain anything.
Oh yeah totally read that photo wrong! Storm hinges would work if the door was moved back to be flush with the back of the frame.
Or if you do go outward opening doors use parliament hinges. Let's the door open all the way and lie flush against the wall. Which will make the most of the opening and let the most light in when open. And replacing what looks like an exterior frame with an interior frame will increase the door size.
sorry, missed one - this is gap from face of brickwork to the existing framing:
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No comments about door alternatives but I've seen various versions of flexible door sealants that replace silicone/putty at trade shows. Something like this - https://www.reddiseals.com/product/vitaseal-expanding-foam-tape/
Would allow you to remove the door and frame without the mess of sealants going forward.
So the existing door frame is built inside the [1"} casing, but on the outside you have what looks like a decent brick wall - if you have the new door frame fitted to the brickwork (rather than the casing) you'll gain 2" in width and a bit in height also it seems.
yes, sharkbait - depending on how far the new frame protudes from the wall but we'd have 2" extra all round to work with.
Personally I think that might be your best option as I understand your reluctance to mess with the wall - realistically how often do you need to move large pieces of furniture in and out?
(says he with large double doors to move things through!)