Early in the year, my wife and I decided to replace the ceiling fan and install LED lighting in the family room and replace all the interior doors in our home.  The fan and light installation were completed in May.  Then it was time to replace the interior doors. We wanted to replace the hollow core doors with solid core doors.  After looking in Lowes, Home Depot, and Menards I was able to find a local Builder Supply business which only sold doors and windows.  My wife and I put on our masks and talked to a sales rep (trip #1).

 

A Mission style door made from poplar wood was selected.  I told the sales rep that I wanted to purchase one door and after working out the “how-to’s” for mortising the hinges and latch set, I would order the remaining doors.  I wanted to purchase slab doors and hang them from the existing door jams.  Using this method, I would not have to re-trim each door.  Our home is a colonial style house, and the existing mill work is not standard and not readily available.

 

When ordering the original one door, I informed the sales rep (trip #2) that I wanted to have a 1/16” bevel (~ 3-degree)on both sides.  Having a bevel on the hinge side will allow for the hinges to close if the jam is twisted and having a bevel on the latch side will allow the door to close if the opening between the door and latch side doorstop is small.  The sales rep did not know how to order what I requested.  She showed me what she had for an ordering menu.  I noticed that there was a “net bevel” option.  I asked what that meant.  She did not know.  She called the Manufacturing Company and ordered the one door.  She informed me that it would be 7 – 10-week lead time.

 

After waiting 6 weeks the door arrived.  I took delivery (trip #3) and took the door to my shop.  I noticed that the door was made wrong.  It only had a full 1/16” bevel on one side.  The other side had a tapered bevel starting at the bottom of the door and ending 14-1/2” up.  I notified my sales rep who notified the Manufacturer.  The Manufacturer asked me to take pictures of the quality escapes.  They also informed us that the door was ordered incorrectly.  It had only been ordered with a bevel on one side.  Due to the Manufacturer’s error, they asked me if I wanted a replacement door.   Later, the sales rep emailed me the paperwork for the replacement door, and it had a notation written on the bottom, that the old door would be sent back to the Manufacturer.  I called the sales rep and told her that I would not be sending the door back.  I had already mitered the door for the hinges and latch and had temporarily installed the door.  Through many emails I continued to ask, “what does “net bevel mean”?

 

After a few days had passed I ordered the remaining doors.  Replacing the current closet bi-pass doors with bi-fold doors took some head scratching.  The current door openings are all different dimensions.  To help minimize the opportunities for ordering and manufacturing errors, I wanted to order as many of the doors with the same size dimensions as possible.  I headed back to the sales rep (Trip #4) to order the remaining doors.  During this event, I could not make a commitment that day.  I was not aware that the closet door hardware was a lesser series model from what I wanted.  I thought I would be able to get a heavy-duty series hardware because the doors were solid core.  Also, the sales rep had the option to enter if I wanted Architecture Yes of No.  What does this mean?  The sales rep did not know, but she did know when she checked no, the price per door was less expensive.  I took the sales quote home for review. 

 

During the review I noticed two errors in the quote and after I arrived home, I received an email finally explaining what “net bevel” means.  Net bevel is what I wanted: a 3-degree bevel on both sides without removing any material from the door width.  Now most of the door quote had to be changed.  I went back to the Build Supply to see the sales rep (trip #5).  I had the order corrected and changed.  She informed me that the lead time would be 14 weeks.  When she told me what the down payment would be I handed her my credit card.  “Oh, I forgot to tell you, there is a fee for credit card payment”.  So, I went home (18-mile round trip) to retrieve my check book and then went back (trip #6) to make payment. 

 

I asked to have the doors delivered to my home, but I will have to make another trip (trip #7) to issue another check for the remaining balance.  With all the excitement (NOT), my wife and I had lunch at White Castle, home of the belly bomber. 

Danl

Now, that was a chore made a lot more complicated by an uninformed sales rep. At least, you got to eat at White Castle. Haven't eaten there since our last trip through St. Louis. 

59 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Now, that was a chore made a lot more complicated by an uninformed sales rep. At least, you got to eat at White Castle. Haven't eaten there since our last trip through St. Louis. 

 Amen to that, White Castle is a favorite of ours as well. Not so with buying doors, though. 2 houses ago I replaced every door in the house and I do not want to do that again. As for the sales rep, one of the reasons folks go to such places is for a higher level of knowledge; you sure got short changed on that.

Edited August 18, 20214 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr

That first door looks great Danl.  I like the design style.

Here I come with a standard question......why in the world did you guys want to change door styles in the first place...

Without looking I couldn't tell you what style we got in the new house to start with and we been in this one over 20 years but I do know they all are white! 

 My home is 54 yrs old with the original doors which were/are dark stained luan hollow core.  All of the is original trim and has been painted white.  Wife wants a change and she wants what was shown in the pic with white paint.  Danl

8 hours ago, Danl said:

Wife wants a change and she wants what was shown in the pic with white paint.  Danl

 

'nuff said!

In the first pic up there we can see the new one and a luan door close to it.  When these are all changed out it will make a huge difference, to the good side!

Might have been quicker to make the door yourself. What an ordeal. 
Paul

I used to install doors as a part time job, I typically ordered the doors or purchased from the rack, with standard sizes, and then planed or ripped the width needed to fit the existing frame, then planed the bevels myself, I also cut for the height I needed off the bottom of the doors.

Also, if you custom order your doors, they will always make them square, guess what, hardly a door frame is ever square, so you'll need to custom fit anyway.

By the way, beautiful style you picked out here, I love them!

5 hours ago, Masonsailor said:

Might have been quicker to make the door yourself. What an ordeal. 
Paul

I just made two doors for a daughter.  Methinks not.

 

I tried using BeadLock instead of mortise and tenon.   I think next time, I'll do the mortising and do loose tenons.  A lot easier to line up vertically with a little slop.

Edited August 21, 20214 yr by kmealy

Agree with few door frames being square.  I have one door that is 32" wide but only in the middle.  I used a router to take it down and the Shopsmith to sand on the bevel.  Custom fit door.  I trashed all the hollow core doors.  It doesn't take much to break through one of them.  Paper inside.  

While waiting for the remaining doors to be received, I used my new Fuji Q5 for the 1st time and primed/painted the one door that I did have.  The Sherwin-Williams Kem Aqua WB product laid down nice and gave me good results.  I used old doors to practice on and to dial in the new spray system.

 

 

I received a phone call last week Friday informing me that the order for the remaining doors (qty 26) have been received by the Builder Supply Company and we agreed to a Tuesday delivery (this week).  I do not know if I helped the driver unload the doors or he helped me, but either way the doors are in my house.  I did not have to make another trip to deliver the remaining balance check.  The driver excepted the check from me.

Originally, I was told that the doors had a 14-week lead time.  They arrived in 7 weeks, but they sat in the Builder Supply location for over a week waiting for the replacement door which still has not arrived.  I only received the phone call because I asked my sales rep for delivery status, and she informed me that the order had been received but it was not her job to call the customer to schedule delivery.

That evening I moved the doors to the basement shop so I could mortise for the hinges and latch sets for the hinged doors.  I am still waiting for the replacement door (1st door was not ordered nor fabricated correctly).  The replacement door was to be expedited; that did not happen.  I received another email informing me that they expected the replacement door this week.  I’m hoping it has been received by the Builders Supply and I can receive it early next week.

My game plan was to install the hinged doors before painting to verify the fit.  The mortising effort went well for five of the six hinge doors.  I located one mortise 1/64” – 1/32” off location and I had to do some head scratching to get the door to fit into the mating hinge-half.  Now I wish I had not temporary  installed them because of the good fit.  I do have three jam latch plates that will need some rework.  They need a little more wood to be removed to allow the latch to seat proper.

Now the saga continues.  I should have ordered one closet door set before ordering all five of the closet door sets.  Now, I have twenty doors that are too wide.  The door manufacture also supplies the closet door hardware.  Only one hardware series is available.  It is not the one I would have selected.  I would have selected a beefer one which would allow for user mis-handling load.  The closet door order did not have adequate allowance for door clearance.  The order indicated “PREFIT:3/16” per 1/2 closet set for all five closet sets.  Which will only give me 3/8” gap clearance per closet.  I needed 11/16” gap clearance per hardware instructions.  After some more head scratching, I separated the doors be removing the hinges and trimmed off 3/32” from twelve doors.  The hinges needed to be removed  anyway so that the doors could be spray painted. 

For the remaining eight doors (two closet sets) I removed 1/16” from each door.  Not only where the doors ordered incorrectly, they were made incorrect to the errored information.  Each door sets was  ordered the same, but were manufactured different.

I had to ask, what else is in error.  The holes for the pivot pins were drilled by the manufacture.  The hardware instruction indicated that they should be 7/16” dia x 1-3/8” deep and located 1-1/4” from the edge.  The hole dia was correct for each door, but the depth varied from 1” to 2” and the edge distance varied from 1-1/16” to 1-3/16”.

These doors were not cheap. 

Finish schedule:

Each door has two-sides, and each side must be sanded, dust vacuumed, and wiped with a tack cloth prior to priming.  After applying one coat of primer, the primer coat needs to be sanded, vacuumed, and wiper with a tack cloth prior to the 1st coat of paint.  After applying the 1st coat of paint, the paint coat needs to be sanded, vacuumed, and wiped.  Now, the 2nd coat of paint can be applied.

28 doors x 2 sides per door x 12 operations per side = 672 sides; a lot of door movement.

 

My wife has been a big help .  She was always on the other end; moving the doors up down and up the basement stairs, holding the door while I put in the hinge pins, stabilizing the closet doors while we ripped down the doors, etc. 

 

If effort goes to plan, Monday will be spent priming the closet doors and hopefully receiving the replacement door.  Thank you for your attention.   Danl

13 hours ago, Danl said:

My wife has been a big help .  She was always on the other end; moving the doors up down and up the basement stairs, holding the door while I put in the hinge pins, stabilizing the closet doors while we ripped down the doors, etc. 

 Sounds like your sprayer is going to get a full workout.  Hang on tight to the helper, nowadays good help is near impossible to find.