Increasing the height of a door

[cjard]

The doors the missus likes are 1981 high and the door frames were designed for a 2040 door. I do need a bit of a larger gap than normal under the doors (ventilation system requirements) but still, i'm looking at needing another 35 to 40mm on the door height. Joinery co says no way, can't even sell me any wood that the doors are made from and can't make em custom

Any recommendations how to go about it? Should I order unfinished doors, glue/screw a strip of wood to the bottom then sand and finish the door? Should I do it top and bottom (20mm on each)?

The door has decorative grooves on in various directions (XL joinery salerno); is it worth trying to find strip wood that has a rebate along the edge that will be glued? Should I buy a router and rout the groove in myself after gluing?
Thinking it might better hide the join (or it might draw attention to it)

Any recommendations/suggestions? Cheers!

 

[foxhole]

Easier to drop the height of the frame with a 35-40mm timber.

 

[cjard]

Easier to drop the height of the frame with a 35-40mm timber.

Then I wouldn't have a 2040mm door hole! Perhaps I should have mentioned - this is a new build and the door holes are sized for the height I need to pass through them without ducking

 

[big-all]

never ever a good idea you need the correct sized doors
they will look odd out off proportion adapting the wrong doors and if painted will crack where the timber is planted on

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The door has decorative grooves on in various directions (XL joinery salerno); is it worth trying to find strip wood that has a rebate along the edge that will be glued? Should I buy a router and rout the groove in myself after gluing?
Thinking it might better hide the join (or it might draw attention to it)

Any recommendations/suggestions? Cheers!

Yes. Unless you are willing to stump up the cost of having doors bespoke made/modified or change the size of the casings, as suggested, you should find another door available in the size you need. You won't ever match the colour/tone/grain of the veneer facings used on these doors (they appear to be veneered) and because the grain on the faces is vertical, not horizontal (which a tacked-on strip would be) the tacked-on bit would look like a dog's dinner IMHO.

I've taken a look through my Premdor and JeldWen catalogues (the two largest door manufacturers in the UK) and there's nothing like them in there

 

[Dave54]

As the others have said it will never look right. Unless you get the doors custom made at a great deal more cost than "off the shelf" items, then I think you'll need to find another door design.
Not quite the same I know but I saw it so thought I'd put a link:
http://www.builderdepot.co.uk/internal-oak-veneer-pesaro-door-2040-x-726-x-40mm.html

 

[cjard]

Hmm.. I guess I'm a bit stuck then because that's the only door design I've found that I like

In terms of matching the wood, how about I buy an extra door (a salerno, but unglazed) and chop it up to get the extra pieces? It's going to be a solid core (albeit plywood or something), right? No honeycomb cardboard here? At the very least if the outer frame is solid - the side pieces seem to be ~ 125mm - then a single door should give enough wood to treat 16 other doors.

Might look weird to me, but I don't reckon other people would notice

No plans to paint them - paint on wood is a tragedy!

 

[Dave54]

I'm not trying to be rude, what you do is of course up to you, but I think if you do what you say, you're going to end up with something that looks a bodge.
You can't just successfully "add a bit on" like that. It looks bad and obvious with painted doors. It's going to look worse with a clear finish on wood.
The only technique that might work to add some on to a door like that would involve first of all extending the base wood to the required size, and then end joining the stile veneers to match. That involves cutting a sort of matching saw tooth end to both veneer pieces. The veneer on the rail pieces could probably just be edge jointed to the existing. You would also need a press to do the veneering. Fiddly and exacting work, and even then you may well not get a good result. Matching colour and grain is notoriously difficult.
I really would just use doors that are the right size, or enquire about getting them custom made.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

In terms of matching the wood, how about I buy an extra door (a salerno, but unglazed) and chop it up to get the extra pieces? It's going to be a solid core (albeit plywood or something), right?

No, wrong. In that price bracket the core will almost certainly be chipboard, possibly with an MDF surface about 2 to 3mm thick - almost nobody does laminboard cores any more, they're just too expensive fior interior doors (and plywood cores were always special order). There will be a softwood lipping around that core on all 4 sides, probably with a 6 to 8mm hardwood lipping (not 125mm which would be very unstable) and the faces will be veneered. That's why three of us have told you it's a non-starter if you want the job to look right.

I've extended doors in commercial fits where ther was no alternative (time/budget), BUT there we had the luxury of covering most of the sides of the doors at the bottoms with stainless steel or brass kickplates (generally on both sides even if the spec calls for it one side only). However the ends are still visible when the door is opened and it always looks like the joiners have bodged it (even if the cock-up was the fault of the designer/site manager/cutomer/floorers)

 

[cjard]

How about not trying to match, then, and instead put a "feature border" right the way round the door in something that's different but not necessarily ugly. My door openings in the timber frame are actually 2100 high. I've to fit a door lining to that but it could even then be possible to buy the narrower 736 door (timber frame opening width is 901) and fit a more chunky border all the way round the door, like 50 on the sides and 30 on the top and bottom

(C'mon guys, I'm after solutions not shoot-downs! Surely there's something that's possible that won't look horrendous to the casual observer - I don't have any joiner friends who are going to look at it and tut and ordinary people never look up or down, or notice the grain of a door edge)

If it helps, the house is going to have a ventilation system meaning I'm already come to terms with the gap under the door being bigger.. Adding a kickpanel's not so bad of an idea - the rest of the building still has an air of industrial about it, being a waterworks conversion

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Is the colour of the grooves and veneer important to you? If not buy the right size flush door but make sure that you go for a door with a plywood AND veneer door facings. Get a router, a veining bit and a template guide bush. Make-up a couple of straight edges (a rip of 12mm plywood or two) and a curved template - and rout your own decorative grooves (only 1 to 2mm deep, mind, you don't want to hit the chipboard core). Clear lacquer your doors ans then fill the grooves with coloured wax, or paint them in, or brass/stainless steel/copper metal (e.g. inlay the metal strip - may require epoxy) and buff-up. There's a guy in Ireland does something similar with coloured epoxy in turnings often with metal flake incorporated for effect

That way you'll retain the full strength of the door. I personally dislike trying to cobble together doors from bits because there's no strength in them (the veneer/plywood on the outside forms a type of stressed skin). That means your "feature border" might well break off at some point in the future if the kids slam the doors too much

The best way to do a "feature border" is to strip back the veneer round the outside of a correctly sized door and partially reveneer it - a task which requires quite a bit of skill and knowledge. Not saying you can't learn, but how much time have you got? (26 doors, after all)

the rest of the building still has an air of industrial about it, being a waterworks conversion

And now you've told us that you're doing this for Channel 4, where do I send my consultancy bill, please?

 

[AronSearle]

Everyone is so negative

XL joinery salerno doors, google shows they come in both normal and fire door versions.

I assume you don't need fire doors (if you do this raises further complications on how you can modify them, and questions over gaps for ventilation and how that works to stop fire and smoke).

Fire doors will likely be more solid making it easier to cut and add bits on (easier, but still nowhere near easy).

 

[cjard]

Is the colour of the grooves and veneer important to you?

Did I mention it's the glazed ones that I like?

I'd certainly go to town on a panel door with a router and cut the decoration grooves, but I've a slight concern that cutting a hole for the glazing would be a massive pain in the arse. I take it I'd have to bead and glaze it after cutting a neat hole in it..
..how much do I want these doors to cost ?

Hmm..

That means your "feature border" might well break off at some point in the future if the kids slam the doors too much.

Good point..
..it's starting to look like it would be easier to devise a mechanism to lift the head of the door up when it's open than it would to modify the door!

The best way to do a "feature border" is to strip back the veneer round the outside of a correctly sized door and partially reveneer it - a task which requires quite a bit of skill and knowledge. Not saying you can't learn, but how much time have you got? (26 doors, after all)

Another good point. I haven't got that much time at all!

And now you've told us that you're doing this for Channel 4

I have?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Is the colour of the grooves and veneer important to you?

Did I mention it's the glazed ones that I like?

So it gets a bit more complex - to do the cut-outs you need a 1/2in router, a guide bush and a 50mm cutter or two. I've done the cut-outs for loads of porthole doors on site before (think view panels in kitchen doors of restaurants) - once you've made up your template it's a doddle. Getting the beading to fit is a slightly greater issue I admit - for that it would be easier to find a joinery shop who can do ring fence work (or who have a pin router) and who are willing to shape the mouldings for you. The most expensive bit will probably be to get the glass cut to shape. TBH portholes are much easier - at least I have a couple of suppliers for them (ex-stock) - although I know of a couple of steel fabricators who would have no problems doing a stainless steel l-section bead to almost any shape I required (probably cheaper than timber in any case which ideally should be steam bent then machined)