Replacing Internal Cottage Doors

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We moved into an old cottage this year and the internal doors upstairs are ledged knotty pine, stained (some time ago) with an orange/brown stain.

All of the doors have slipped as there is no bracing, and some of the doors have warped so that at the top they are hard against the door stop and at the bottom there is a large gap. This is especially the case of the bathroom door, presumably due to moisture.

We have decided to replace the doors and have ordered similar knotty pine doors, ledged and braced, unfinished, which I will cut down to size to fit the door frames (all different heights and widths!) using a circular saw. Since the current orange/brown colour is very dark, we have decided to treat the new doors with a number of coats of danish oil so they remain light in appearance, rather than painting or staining.

The new doors arrive this week and I have the following questions that I would be very grateful for your collective advice on:

  1. When the doors arrive, is it necessary for them to acclimatise to the house before they are hung? If so, for how long, and should the be left to acclimatise before or after they are cut to size, and before or after they have been oiled?
  2. If we were painting the doors, it is my understanding that we would need to use knotting solution on the knots first. Is this still necessary since we are oiling the doors with danish oil?
  3. When oiling the doors, should we also oil the end grain? Any other considerations when oiling pine doors?
  4. Are there any precautions we should take to prevent the doors from warping in the way the existing doors have?

Thank you in advance for any advice on this project!

P.
 
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Only my opinion and lets hear what the others say but I'd be inclined to hang the doors and oil them ASAP, giving an even coat on all sides.
I'll qualify that by saying that I did allow doors to acclimatise on one occasion (4 doors) and although I had them clamped flat they still warped.
John :)
 
1. Three days acclimatising is fine to ensure they don't change in size after you hang them. You would only keep them longer if you were worried about them warping and wanted to return them to the seller. Otherwise hang them, as this will discourage warpage.
2. No knotting solution needed when oiling. I would recommend waxing instead though, as Danish is messy and can take ages to dry.
3. Yes, treat the end grain the same as the rest. It will turn a darker colour, of course.
4. Nothing you can do other than hang them. Three hinges is better than two, but a little warpage is an inevitable part of owning traditional wooden doors.

*Similar to Burnerman I had a lot of traditional pine doors stacked on the floor for months before I got round to hanging them. Some of them did warp a bit, even under ther weight of the stack. It was minor though, and I may yet add some new stops using thin moulding, to follow the curve of the doors!
 
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Yes that would work. (Actually I was thinking of rub-on bees/carnuba wax products like Briwax or Bison wax, but that's just personal preference. A wax oil would certainly require less elbow grease, but it takes hours rather than minutes to dry)
 
Thanks for the advice above - the new doors are here and prepared following your advice and I am attempting to fit the first one.

I have used three tee hinges on the three ledges and have chiseled into the frame for the hinges.
When the door arrived it seemed perfectly flat but once I have hung it I can see it is slightly warped - not so much as to cause a problem, but when it is closed it doesn't touch the jamb at the top but does at the bottom - and the jamb is plumb.

When I hang the door, its seems ok until I open the door - it won't stay open, but closes until about half closed when left.
I think this is something to do with the top hinge as if I remove the top hinge, the door opens and closes without problem.
I have tried a different hinge incase it was a dodgy hinge but have the same problem. Very frustrating!

Looking for any suggestions of what I can try to fix the problem? I have another three doors to go after this!

Thanks
 
Top hinge must be misaligned. Have use Danish oil myself and never found it to take more than a few minutes to dry.
 

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