Shorten a door
The shortening of doors is done to accommodate the flooring material in a room. Based on the flooring material in the room where the door is located, the door will have to be readjusted to accommodate the flooring. In other words, the door will have to be shortened. The shortening of the door will allow for easy opening and closing of the door. If the door is not shortened then it will be difficult to open and close the door. More likely in forcing the door to work properly, the flooring material might get spoiled.
Shortening a door is not difficult, but a little easier than imagined to perform. Though some might find it easy to just shorten the door, it is important to perform the steps needed correctly to avoid any damage done to the door or to the flooring material.
The easiest way to make changes to the flooring material of a room in your house is by shortening your door. The reason for that is if the level of the floor comes up by adding a heavy type of carpet and flooring, the bottom of the door is going to have risen as well. Shortening the doors is a simple task to do but you need to follow the directions carefully to achieve the best result and to avoid damaging your door. Here are the easiest ways to do it.
You will need:
- Paint or varnish
- Utility knife
- Heavy duty wood glue
- Clamps
Steps:
- For solid veneered door, cut the bottom of the door according to the height needed. You will see some kind of particleboard or composite wood. Paint or varnish the newly exposed wood. You can prevent the bottom of your door from swelling by sealing all the freshly cut wood. The ideal coats are two times better to keep the moisture from being absorbed into the door.
- For the hollow door type, you need extra care when attempting to shorten them. Most of this type of doors made out from a product called medium density fiberboard (MDF) which are about 1 1/8 inch thick.
- If you cut the bottom more than 1 1/8 inch then you have cut off the bottom frame of the door completely. This will eventually expose the bottom of the door which allows the moisture to circulate inside the door panels and causing warp problem.
- To prevent the warp problem, you must first salvage the bottom piece of the door frame. Do not throw away the scrap once you have made the cut. Separate the rail from the door panel that is glued in with a utility knife.
- Coat both sides with a heavy-duty wood glue and slide it back into the opening that was created by the time you cut the bottom of the door off. Add light pressure to this place with clamps until the glue dries. When the glue completely dries off, you can hang the door back in the frame.
Additional Reading:
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/shortenadoor
Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sukanto_debnath/2130934981/
