[Closed] How hard to hang a door?

Hanging a door is fairly straight forward.

What could possibly go wrong?

If they are custom made doors it could be an expensive lesson. 😀
If you can't take your time and be patient don't bother.

Leave this one for the professionals?

Yep.

(Though I'd say that anyway)

In fairness, it's not that hard. You will need some things though...

An electric plane.
A couple of SHARP (and I mean SHARP) chisels.
A good drill/driver and a set of SHARP flat bits.
Patience, and then, a bit more patience.
Decent instructions.

EDIT: I just read

custom doors

Get someone in.

Having done in previously and having ordinary DIY skills I would say that with the right tools and enough time its doable IF the bloody door frames are square, if not its time to call someone.

Complete pain in the arse to do. Especially in my house with wonky frames.

My Dad loves doing it so he gets all mine to do.

Bought new front door and frame 3 years ago. Brother in-law (self-employed chippy) hung it in the frame on the day we bought it (took 2 hours using complex wood working skills inc. routering and very accurate measuring.

We then left door and frame in shed for next 36 months until last weekend when we finally got round to ripping out old front door and installing new frame and door. (took 6 hours)

NOT a job for an amateur. Cost me £50 for a pro to do it. I sat and drank tea.... much more enjoyable.

PS.. Once door was installed, I cut the hole for the letter box...... what a pig of a job.... nearly ****ed up our lovely new door.

and remember, measure twice, from the same point on the door or frame; cut once.
[i]Typically[/i], interior doors are hinged 9in from the bottom and 6in from the top, but you really need to measure both from the top, allowing a 2-4mm gap all round. If hollow rather than timber, there'll typically be a lock block about half way down ONE side only - although as these are custom that probably doesn't apply.

Also, remember, if hollow doors, you only have about 10-15mm of proper timber down each side, inside that it could be particle board or even "eggbox" cardboard core (although again unlikely with custom doors)

Four doors will take an amateur a couple of days at least - the first one by far the longest. A pro might (should?) be able to do all 4 in one day

A pro might (should?) be able to do all 4 in one day

Softwood doors, unpainted, nice square frames etc. Yeah, no probs.

Hardwood, custom doors, not so sure. Some guys could with routers and templates but with chisels, you'd struggle.

I've only hung bothy doors and workshop doors etc. were the tolerances aren't so crucial. But I've always found it easy, and say go for it. For the pleasure of doing it yourself if nothing else. It's not like arsing about with plumbing or electrics - you can't burn down or flood the house.

I replaced all the doors in our house, as it's had a loft conversion they're all fire doors. I counted on half a day per door with someon helping me - an experienced mate teaching me for the first few, then another mat eonce I was confident enough to do the rest myself.

If you have gone to the expense of habing custom doors, get in a pro.

I would say avoid if they are expensive. Alot of modern doors are laminated and the veneers chip very easily.

Yeah 3 in a average day. 4 on a good.

I had 8 to do some years back including 4 custom ones from somewhere in Portobello. I did a couple of the standard ones myself and learned that it was easy to get wrong. None of our frames were square or totally vertical.

email me if you want a number for an Edinburgh guy who did a great job for us.

if your that unsure go and buy a cheap door blank
Have a go and if you cant do it Get some one in
who knows what they are doing

There isn't a right angle anywhere in my house. I think it was put together using a wrong angle. Good luck.

Thanks lads I guess that answers my question - sounds trickier than I thought.

Custom made doors, my arse, a lot of people say that. 😀

You need power plane, and extraction or a decent mask,
sharp pencil,
some wooden wedges,
power drill and flat bits for driling holes,
Hammer, for hitting chisels with,
some way ofholding the door secure while planing it,
tape measure,
Decent screws, and an electric screwdriver,8 screws per hinge x 3 hinges,
Flat bladed screwdiver for taking the old door off,
plenty of time and tea/refreshments,
no kids or animals,
dry weather,
a good eye.

dry weather,

Indeed. It reminds me of an incidence ...... once when second fixing on site, I informed my guvnor that I would have to stop working as it was raining, "but you are working inside" he said, to which I replied,"yeah, but if I look out of the window I can see the rain". He remained unconvinced. I wish you'd been there to back me up project.

Our local council stopped the grounds maintance staff from cutting the grass in the rain, in case they got hurt by falling into a lawn mover.

Sharp chisels & a decent electric plane are your best friend. Measure 4 times, cut/chisel away once.

I did an external "stable door" once, with a new frame. That was a challenge.

for starters you would want to get a hold of a large bevel. this is to get the right angle (see what i did there? :O) ) at the top of the door. theres no point in cutting to length and leccy planing it to width and finding out that its not running parallel along the top (where everyone is going to spot it wrong)

sort out the correct angle at the top if it needs it, then cut to length. If you dont then you will cut it to length and find that you will have to trim it down at the top to sort things out.. leaving you with a door shorter than you wanted in the first place (1980 "snake" draught excluders could be bought on ebay im sure but wouldnt look good with yer fancy doors ;O)

hardwoods are no problem to pare down when chiseling the hinge checks with sharp tools. a wee router would help but you would need to make a template up for the diffrence in depth from front to back of the hinge. i remember using one on doors years ago but most were done by hand.

Get someone in.

Ive just pictured someone fitting hinges on expensive doors as their first hinge fitting experience and honestly, it will go seriously titz up! it would be very likely that you would burst right through the whole thickness of the door with the chisel whilst paring out for hinges. Not worth the bother.