Hi,
I’m in desperate need of advice please. Firstly, I’m an electrician by trade who has done a degree of building work in the past and limited woodwork, mostly working in maintenance and domestic and commercial electrical. I’m trying to fit casings out of necessity, not pleasure.
Background: my partner took out the biggest loan she could to try to renovate her house and raise the floors downstairs due to annual flooding. She chose the wrong “builders” and now has no money and a ruined house she is subsisting in with her 3 children. The entire upstairs has also been gutted and now is nothing but bare stud walls leaving her teenage children all sleeping in one “room”.
I am trying my best to make it better, concentrating on remaking the bedrooms so they can at least have their own space. We have discovered that friends and family aren’t as caring as you might think when you truly need help so there is only me trying to make things better and it’s killing me going there after work constantly trying to get a few hours of work in and a few hours sleep before my normal job begins again the next morning.
The current problem: I want to fit door casings and then plasterboard the bedrooms to give some basic but usable private space for everyone (downstairs is a bare concrete shell).
I’ve read websites and forums to learn how to fit casings. First problem I found was the 838mm (as per label on them) doors are actually 840mm wide (measured with 3 different tapes). Routed a bit extra from the header rebates to counter that. Then I fitted the jambs to the header on a large flat surface, squared, measured diagonals to confirm square. Then I ensured gaps between jambs correct at the bottom and strapped the bottom of the jambs. Braced the top corners. Then I thought I’d confirm the door fits nicely with the planned 2mm gap all around to allow for paint. Slotted the door into the casing rebate and found the gap at the top got larger as it went along and the middle of the jambs were tight against the door (discovered jambs are bowed by 2mm in the centre and door is also slightly wider around the middle).
So, I decided to put 2mm packers between the door top + sides and casing and brace it like that, to ensure door fits perfectly, whether door is square or not.
I cannot fit the casing into the stud door opening though, and it’s driving me to despair in my weary, tired state.
The studs are bowed and twisted, and haven’t been installed absolutely vertical. If I set the casing jambs vertical, one has the right gap at the top for plasterboard and skim, but at the bottom it would have the plasterboard in line with the casing with no space for skim. The other jamb is worse with the very bottom sticking out so far that the plasterboard would protrude beyond the casing edge. (And the exact opposite on the other side of the casing of course).
The stud horizontal timber the header screws into is twisted which means it needs different packers back and front and I can’t seem to get it right and it tries to pull the jambs out of the doorway. The jambs being bowed makes it hard to determine if they’re perfectly vertical. I was planning on under-packing the middle of the jambs so they’d be pushed towards the stud frame and straightened. If the jambs are vertical, the header isn’t perfectly horizontal because I’ve braced the casing to be correct around the door, and the door isn’t perfectly square.
I’m tired and stressed and don’t know what to do. With only a few hours each evening, I can’t do enough. And now I’m dealing with bowed and twisted C24 studs that aren’t vertical, casings with bowed jambs, out of square brand new doors. Is this the standard of wood to be expected? 838 doors measuring 840, bowed jambs, doors that aren’t square?
Rebuilding the stud walls isn’t viable as I’m struggling with the workload as it is. Stuck with the doors and casings too. And if either of us had the money, we’d be getting a joiner in without a thought. Or Nick Knowles and crew.
Sorry for the long post, I’m just sinking under an amount of work (including wiring the place) that is too much, but which needs to be done to give a family back some kind of dwelling.
I’m in desperate need of advice please. Firstly, I’m an electrician by trade who has done a degree of building work in the past and limited woodwork, mostly working in maintenance and domestic and commercial electrical. I’m trying to fit casings out of necessity, not pleasure.
Background: my partner took out the biggest loan she could to try to renovate her house and raise the floors downstairs due to annual flooding. She chose the wrong “builders” and now has no money and a ruined house she is subsisting in with her 3 children. The entire upstairs has also been gutted and now is nothing but bare stud walls leaving her teenage children all sleeping in one “room”.
I am trying my best to make it better, concentrating on remaking the bedrooms so they can at least have their own space. We have discovered that friends and family aren’t as caring as you might think when you truly need help so there is only me trying to make things better and it’s killing me going there after work constantly trying to get a few hours of work in and a few hours sleep before my normal job begins again the next morning.
The current problem: I want to fit door casings and then plasterboard the bedrooms to give some basic but usable private space for everyone (downstairs is a bare concrete shell).
I’ve read websites and forums to learn how to fit casings. First problem I found was the 838mm (as per label on them) doors are actually 840mm wide (measured with 3 different tapes). Routed a bit extra from the header rebates to counter that. Then I fitted the jambs to the header on a large flat surface, squared, measured diagonals to confirm square. Then I ensured gaps between jambs correct at the bottom and strapped the bottom of the jambs. Braced the top corners. Then I thought I’d confirm the door fits nicely with the planned 2mm gap all around to allow for paint. Slotted the door into the casing rebate and found the gap at the top got larger as it went along and the middle of the jambs were tight against the door (discovered jambs are bowed by 2mm in the centre and door is also slightly wider around the middle).
So, I decided to put 2mm packers between the door top + sides and casing and brace it like that, to ensure door fits perfectly, whether door is square or not.
I cannot fit the casing into the stud door opening though, and it’s driving me to despair in my weary, tired state.
The studs are bowed and twisted, and haven’t been installed absolutely vertical. If I set the casing jambs vertical, one has the right gap at the top for plasterboard and skim, but at the bottom it would have the plasterboard in line with the casing with no space for skim. The other jamb is worse with the very bottom sticking out so far that the plasterboard would protrude beyond the casing edge. (And the exact opposite on the other side of the casing of course).
The stud horizontal timber the header screws into is twisted which means it needs different packers back and front and I can’t seem to get it right and it tries to pull the jambs out of the doorway. The jambs being bowed makes it hard to determine if they’re perfectly vertical. I was planning on under-packing the middle of the jambs so they’d be pushed towards the stud frame and straightened. If the jambs are vertical, the header isn’t perfectly horizontal because I’ve braced the casing to be correct around the door, and the door isn’t perfectly square.
I’m tired and stressed and don’t know what to do. With only a few hours each evening, I can’t do enough. And now I’m dealing with bowed and twisted C24 studs that aren’t vertical, casings with bowed jambs, out of square brand new doors. Is this the standard of wood to be expected? 838 doors measuring 840, bowed jambs, doors that aren’t square?
Rebuilding the stud walls isn’t viable as I’m struggling with the workload as it is. Stuck with the doors and casings too. And if either of us had the money, we’d be getting a joiner in without a thought. Or Nick Knowles and crew.
Sorry for the long post, I’m just sinking under an amount of work (including wiring the place) that is too much, but which needs to be done to give a family back some kind of dwelling.