Botched door frames too wide for walls - Help please!

[Rask]

Hi to everyone,

This is my first post, so thanks in advance for reading!

We recently moved into a new house where pretty much all the jobs have been botched badly and I'm setting about fixing them all. Next on the list is the door frames in the extension. I'm learning as I go and am pretty new to all aspects of DIY.

The previous owner used door frames that are all too wide for the walls by as much as 15-20mm both sides. They then just fitted the doors to them and attached unfinished trims with no supports for the wall overhang.

How do I go about fixing this? I can remove the trims and then take the doors off one at a time. I then need to cut back the frames to match the walls and re-hang the doors. Is this the best approach; if so what's the best tool to use for this?

Sorry for all the questions...

 

[Deleted member 174758]

TBH I'd remove the architraves and doors. Then, if they have planted stops (as opposed to rebates) I'd have them off, too. Lastly I'd take the casings out, cut them down witkh a hand or circular saw, finish-off with a hand plane and re-install. Doing anything else is likely as not going to lead to madness as you try to saw down the frames in situ then clean-up the edges

 

[Rask]

TBH I'd remove the architraves and doors. Then, if they have planted stops (as opposed to rebates) I'd have them off, too. Lastly I'd take the casings out, cut them down witkh a hand or circular saw, finish-off with a hand plane and re-install. Doing anything else is likely as not going to lead to madness as you try to saw down the frames in situ then clean-up the edges

Thanks for the reply J.

I was wondering how difficult it would be to do them in place as I couldn't work out how I would smooth off the bases. As I'm new to most of this I take it that it shouldn't be too difficult to do?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I was wondering how difficult it would be to do them in place as I couldn't work out how I would smooth off the bases. As I'm new to most of this I take it that it shouldn't be too difficult to do?

Doing this in situ I probably wouldn't attempt myself (and I'm a chippie!). To install casings you'll need a 2ft level for the head, a 6ft level for the jambs, an SDS drill (assuming that you're fixing to masonry, if not a cordless drill/driver will do), a cordless drilll/driver (in any case), screws, packers, etc. and a string line if any of them is in an awkward position and you can't eyeball the legs to check that they are in line with each other (i.e. that the casing legs aren;t warped). All this assumes that when you get them out, they aren't warped - which is always a possibility

 

[foxhole]

Simple solution is to use timber to build up under the architrave.

 

[Rask]

Simple solution is to use timber to build up under the architrave.

Thanks Foxhole, I might take a look at that option, perhaps changing the architrave to something a bit smaller first.

 

[foxhole]

Simple solution is to use timber to build up under the architrave.

Thanks Foxhole, I might take a look at that option, perhaps changing the architrave to something a bit smaller first.

It can look better with a slight step rather than trying to get flush.