Adding width to a door

[cidr]

Hi there,

I have a 1930s style door that is around .5" short in width from the door frame. I just wanted to know if it was possible to add wood to the door to widen it.

I understand people would add to the door 'frame'. I'd like to know if it's viable to add to the door. Also, if it's possible to do this so that it's not noticable.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Paul

 

[^woody^]

You could glue and pin a plant-on strip no probelm.

If the door is varnished then you may see it, it depends on how closely you match the wood. Or you can run new strips around all edges to make it look like it was supposed to be.

If painted, you wont notice if you are careful

Adding to the hinge side may be better too

 

[Deleted member 174758]

You could glue and pin a plant-on strip no probelm.

If the door is varnished then you may see it, it depends on how closely you match the wood. Or you can run new strips around all edges to make it look like it was supposed to be.

If painted, you wont notice if you are careful

Adding to the hinge side may be better too

Absolutely ANY strip added to an older door will eventually show through as the strip adjusts to the ambient humidity of the house, no matter whether painted or not. It will be all but impossible to match the grain and species of an 80 year old door. It's an unavoidable fact of life.

I'd recommend that if a strip is added it goes on the lock edge and is not pinned, only glued with a good quality glue such as Cascamite (i.e a UF glue) and then cramped up until the glue sets fully. The strip will need to be a few millimetres "thicker" than the door to accommodate any warping, etc. in the length. If the strip is pinned it will be impossible to plane/rout/chisel any recesses for hinges or locks without risking damaging your tools (and a strip like this should ideally be made over width for the casing opening then planed in to fit). My own preference is to add strips to the lock side on the grounds that adding to the hinge side, whilst less noticeable, weakens the hold that the hinges have

 

[^woody^]

If the strip is pinned it will be impossible to plane/rout/chisel any recesses for hinges or locks without risking damaging your tools

Not if you punch them below the surface, and not if you don't use 50 pins all up the side, but just a few to hold the strip while the glue sets ie dont pin where the latch or hinge will be

Any plant on strip will not move after it has acclimatised. So the OP can buy a strip and leave it in the house for a week or so if he likes. But a bit of timber this small is not going to expand or contract by any noticeable amount.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Not if you punch them below the surface, and not if you don't use 50 pins all up the side, but just a few to hold the strip while the glue sets ie dont pin where the latch or hinge will be

You didn't qualify that to the OP, so thanks for the clarification. In any case that would be a pull on some jobs I do....

Any plant on strip will not move after it has acclimatised.

Really? I'd like to see that work in practice. In my experience it's quite common to find spliced timber which has moved simply because the spliced piece is either a different species or the grain is much more open. But then I live in a much more damp environment than some (NW England)